German education at school, how did you manage?

[Pyriimide]

Hello everyone,

my American partner and I are thinking about settling in Fairfax County and buying a house. As I am German, I strongly want our children to become as native in German as possible while living mainly in the US. We have some experience with the German International School in Potomac, but eventually felt like the commute is not worth it as all other activities and ties mainly resolve around Fairfax. We currently live in Vienna.

How do you, other bilingual families, get the German in Fairfax?

We looked into Orange Hunt ES and are wondering if it’s worth a shot. As I understand, if the kid is fluent before enrolling in K or 1st grade, the application does not go through the lottery process?

Surrounding MS and HS also look promising: Irving MS, Springfield HS, Robinson SS. But what is it like for a kid who is already fluent in German picking up those German classes offered there? Too easy or still room to develop the language?

Are there perhaps other more after-school activity type places that teach German at a level for growing native speakers?

Thank you a lot, I know there are some German families in the area and I’d love to learn from your experiences!

[Anonymous]

One thing to research and talk with parents at an immersion school is to identify how advanced academics work. I’d reach out to those families or contact Orange ES pta (as you listed this as an option for your family) to see if anyone is open to sharing advice with you. Goethe Institute and German School in Potomac offer kids’ courses for native and non-native speakers on weekends. German coursework at high school level would potentially be easy for level 1-2 for native speakers. Level 3+ starts doing analysis of text and more critical thinking of literature. Recommend reaching to German department for your designated high school to ask about that. FCPS does language proficiency tests for incoming high school students (who want to try and receive credits) and many bilingual families end up getting high school credit for a few years of language proficiency so that helps with some requirements.

[Anonymous]

Immersion in FCPS at the ES level would be far, far too easy for a native speaker. I don't think you'd get the full effect that you're truly seeking here so I wouldn't recommend making sacrifices for German immersion as a top choice. That time and effort can be spent towards other avenues that would fill the culture gap at a more appropriate level.

Even the AP world language sequence is too easy for a native speaker at the HS level, so the "Spanish for Heritage Speakers" was created to fill that gap for Spanish. German for Heritage speakers does not currently exist, and I am doubtful there will ever be enough demand for such a course.

[Anonymous]

Hi OP my son was in German immersion (not fluent) at Orange Hunt. This program draws a lot of German families who contribute to the after school activities. The school has Kinderchor and many of the parades or festivals are German themed. Overall the German families are content with the program. My family loved the experience.

Orange Hunt does work with you on the advanced placements so your child doesn't have to go to Sangster. Go to the immersion meeting and ask the principal as they get this question a lot from German families.

[Anonymous]

i think the appeal of an immersion school is your kid will be using german with peers, every day. even if those peers don't speak german perfectly. this is important as kids age and naturally prefer to speak the language of their peers.

As a native speaker, make sure you work with your kid on their written german skills/spelling etc because the elementary immersion programs don't explicitly teach grammar.

if their german is very advanced by high school, consider dual enrollment with GMU or another local university
https://mcl.gmu.edu/course_sections?utf8=✓&code=GERM

does germany accept IB exams/diplomas for university admission? that would be a reason to buy in the Robinson SS district over West Springfield, so your kid has the option for direct admission.

[Pyriimide]

I am a little curious about your suggestion of taking German classes at GMU. So are you saying, that high school students can take classes there and perhaps fulfill FCPS language credits that way? Or is it more as a personal gain? At what age can you start enrolling a kid? 14? 16?


Speaking about Robinson SS IB, yes my understanding is that in order to be admitted to a German university you’ve got to either have the IB program or take AP classes specifically to match the German Abitur requirements (e.g. one science, math, English, social studies). But at Robinson SS you still have the choice between IB or the normal AP system, right?

I was also wondering if with Robinson SS the German education provided would be structured better as the classes at the middle school level would be followed by HS classes from the same school. But it seems like at least level 3+ German is worth a go.

[Anonymous]

Robinson has very few AP classes and it seems they plan on getting rid of what they have fairly soon. My kids have been through IB German at Robinson. One is continuing German in college. We’re not native German speakers, but the kids attended German schools for a few elementary years.

[Anonymous]

Also, there are only a few German teachers at Robinson. They also teach the middle school kids and I think they follow their students up through the program (at least they did in IB).

[Anonymous]

Here is some more info on dual enrollment

https://www.fcps.edu/academics/graduation-requirements-and-course-planning/college-credit-high-school/concurrent

[Anonymous]

As the child of immigrants, one thing I noticed is that children such as myself who were both spoken to and were asked to speak with their parents in the native language ended up a lot more fluent than children whose parents spoke to them in the native language but answered back in English - so keep that in mind as your children get older.

[Anonymous]

Hi, I know this post is from 2023, but I am also asking for similar advice but my situation is a bit different. My husband is German but I am American. So we did not expose the kids to German until ages 9/10. They currently have a German tutor but we are looking to move to NOVA and found that really only Fairfax County has German AP or IB courses.

We are narrowing our search down to these very same schools that were mentioned in the original post. I was wondering now that some time has passed if anyone has more experience with the programs.

I was told to meet with the teachers and tour the schools which I plan on doing, but if there is any additional tips or schools out there that we overlooked, please let me know.

We are considering Orange Hunt, Irving Middle, West Springfield and Robinson Secondary School.

Thanks in advance.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hi, I know this post is from 2023, but I am also asking for similar advice but my situation is a bit different. My husband is German but I am American. So we did not expose the kids to German until ages 9/10. They currently have a German tutor but we are looking to move to NOVA and found that really only Fairfax County has German AP or IB courses.

We are narrowing our search down to these very same schools that were mentioned in the original post. I was wondering now that some time has passed if anyone has more experience with the programs.

I was told to meet with the teachers and tour the schools which I plan on doing, but if there is any additional tips or schools out there that we overlooked, please let me know.

We are considering Orange Hunt, Irving Middle, West Springfield and Robinson Secondary School.

Thanks in advance.

I don’t know that you’d be able to meet with the teachers before enrolling.

[Anonymous]

Pyriimide wrote:I am a little curious about your suggestion of taking German classes at GMU. So are you saying, that high school students can take classes there and perhaps fulfill FCPS language credits that way? Or is it more as a personal gain? At what age can you start enrolling a kid? 14? 16?


Speaking about Robinson SS IB, yes my understanding is that in order to be admitted to a German university you’ve got to either have the IB program or take AP classes specifically to match the German Abitur requirements (e.g. one science, math, English, social studies). But at Robinson SS you still have the choice between IB or the normal AP system, right?

I was also wondering if with Robinson SS the German education provided would be structured better as the classes at the middle school level would be followed by HS classes from the same school. But it seems like at least level 3+ German is worth a go.

German classes in a US university are going to be pretty low-level. To illustrate, I tested into second-year German at UChicago during law school after a decade of never using the language. And I can barely speak it.

[Anonymous]

I talked to the Realator about this and you are likely right, I won’t be able to meet the teachers before we enroll. But I hope I can at least tour the school before we make our decision. Thanks for your input.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I talked to the Realator about this and you are likely right, I won’t be able to meet the teachers before we enroll. But I hope I can at least tour the school before we make our decision. Thanks for your input.

It's highly unlikely you can tour the school either. These schools are massive - OHES has around 900 kids. It would be disruptive to give that many tours, so schools don't give any. If you want that kind of experience, you need to look at private schools, not public. Or maybe at a much smaller public district elsewhere in the country.

You can probably talk to someone in the Immersion office about that program. I'd start there.

Fwiw, OHES is a very run-of-the-mill FCPS school, except that the principal really leans into the German and military kids identity. Some people we know like the immersion program, some didn't. It's definitely a school within the school situation, with most people I've talked to seeing it as a way to access a better peer group (or at least more dedicated parental peers). The program tends to narrow considerably by the upper grades, in part because OHES is one of the few schools that still doesn't offer local full time advanced placement.