About (in English)

... a school in Western Palatinate,

on the outskirts of Ramstein-Miesenbach, in the green belt of the Reichswald, not a lot of traffic but still easily accessible by car or public transport. A convenient location is combined with a generous atmosphere of pleasant and advanced learning.

… a school in progress

designed and built to meet the requirements of a secondary school enrollment. The Reichswald-Gymnasium is a young school that welcomed its first students back in the school year 1997/98 who graduated as the school’s first final year in 2006. Visible signs of ongoing progress are whiteboard and beamer equipped classrooms, wifi partially available in the classrooms as well as the initiated media concept including the use of tablets in the classroom which is currently tested in the senior years to live up to our reputation of a modern and qualified school. The construction of an annex building sponsored by the district of Kaiserslautern was a necessary measure due to unexpectedly high numbers of students. It was opened in the school year 2005/06.

… a school with designated aims

with the final three years being an equivalent to the first two years at college in the United States. The final degree (“Abitur”) opens not only the way to professional schools but also permits access to university. Students graduating from our school are well prepared for a university education as well as for the challenges of a qualified job. Besides the conveyance of a fundamental knowledge and significant social and subject-specific skills it is our profound intention to communicate values and ideals such as acceptance, trust, politeness and respect that qualify our students for a humane, reasonable and responsible interaction in society. Hence, education is not only about acquiring knowledge but also triggers a sustainable personal development. Students learn how to successfully work together with others and thus how to be able to utter as well as take constructive criticism and find mutual solutions. All these policies contribute to breathing life into our school’s motto “We grow together, together we grow”.

… a school with an educational agenda

that involves individual support and encouragement of personal skills in order to enable students to identify and reach individual aims in life. On this path to a more independent handling of assignments and requirements and to a responsible social interaction the students profit from several means such as our pedagogic projects (“PEPpädagogisches Entwicklungsprojekt”) which contribute to the individual training of working, learning and communication skills as well as team and research skills. An example is the methods training in years 5, 7 and 8 or the interdisciplinary project in year 10. Furthermore there’s the cooperating project of year 12 with the University of Kaiserslautern.
All in all we’re constantly aiming for an education which enables students to acquire cross-curricular and interdisciplinary knowledge.

The first foreign language is English. In addition determined and ambitious students have the opportunity to enroll for Bilingual Studies which means one extra lesson of Social Sciences taught in English (year 5/6) as a means of preparation for additional lessons of Geography (year 7/8) and History (year 9/10) taught in English. After year 10 students can choose whether to continue with Bilingual Studies in years 11 to 13 (alternating Geography, History and SocialSstudies lessons) and being able to take an extra oral exam in the finals which earns them a qualified certificate. Furthermore our school has recently been authorized to award students with the CertiLingua certificate.

The second foreign language starts in year 6. Students can choose between Latin and French. In year 9 a third foreign language (either French or Latin) can be acquired on a voluntary basis.

Constantly aiming at enhancing and increasing language acquisition our school established successful and profitable exchanges with schools on Ramstein Air Base and with schools from France.

Another emphasis lies on Computer Sciences with the aim of teaching students how to handle and work with the new media and which can be alternatively taken in year 9 on a voluntary basis.

For means of gaining first hand work experience and therefore get a self-determined orientation of personal goals in life students get the opportunity to do vocational internships in year 9 and 12.

A number of extracurricular activities such as choir, orchestra, big band, theatre/drama clubs, dancing club, computer club, soccer club, school annual, etc. contribute to and complete our educational concept. One of the clubs that serves extraordinarily our pedagogic concept is the mediation club. Students are trained to be mediators enabling them to autonomously reconcile a quarrel between fellow students without the interference of a teacher.

… a school with a 5th and 6th grade as means of orientation (“Orientierungsstufe”)

helping to make the step from elementary school to secondary school as easy and smooth as possible in accordance with our school’s motto “We grow together, together we grow”. This concept includes several arrangements such as our Ice-Breaker Day at the end of the school year – a good opportunity for the prospective 5th graders to meet their homeroom teacher as well as fellow classmates and explore the school building even before the new school year starts. Another possibility to get an even earlier sneak peek of the school grounds and get info on the variety of subjects and clubs at school is the Information Day every year in November which is supposed to help prospective students in the decision of which secondary school is the most attractive. Then, the first couple of days in year 5 are mainly devoted to settling in and acclimation. The homeroom teacher chaperones the new students and gets them familiar with everything new. On top of that all year 5 students spend three days and two nights together with their classmates at a youth hostel nearby to the purpose of reinforcing the class community spirit.

Moreover the concept of orientation offers the possibility to evaluate and decide, not earlier as at the end of year 6, whether this type of school (“Gymnasium”) is the appropriate choice for your child and thus maybe reorganize your child’s school career.

… a school for teacher training

with a staff that successfully trains prospective teachers how to interact with students and perform progressive, productive and learner-oriented teaching methods in class.

… a school with committed parents

who are involved in the dynamic growth of our school. Parents seeking counselling, advice, feedback or a simple chat with the teachers are always welcome. Besides we need your active parental support when it comes to organizing and realizing school events.