© dpa
The amended Berlin School Act 2025 brings an important change for pupils and their parents: The transition from primary school to secondary school will no longer require a trial year at a grammar school.
Instead, trial lessons take place for the first time. According to the education administration, the new procedure affects more than 32,000 pupils who are currently still in year 6.
In future, prospective seventh-graders with an average grade of up to 2.2 will receive a recommendation for a grammar school and from an average grade of 2.3 a recommendation for an integrated secondary school or community school. In principle, this also applied previously; however, schools still had discretionary powers to recommend a grammar school with an average grade of 2.3 to 2.7, which, according to the education administration, was not applied uniformly. Pupils whose parents insisted on attending a grammar school despite insufficient grades could complete a trial year there.
In the new year, trial lessons are now planned for this group for the first time in order to determine the suitability for grammar school of pupils without a grammar school recommendation after all. It will take place on 21 February at one grammar school in each district according to standardised city-wide criteria. The trial day includes written tests in German and maths as well as a test of interdisciplinary skills such as independent work, problem-solving, and teamwork. Pupils who pass subsequently go through the regular grammar school admissions procedure.
According to the education administration, parents will receive the registration form for the trial lessons on 31 January together with the pupil's so-called support prognosis, i.e. the recommendation for grammar school or another type of school. Parents must then register their child for the trial lessons by 11 February. After the trial day, the letter of aptitude will be handed out in time for the registration period for the new school (6 to 14 March). The last primary or community school attended is responsible.
"The aim of our school law amendment, which also includes the new admission regulations for grammar schools and the abolition of the trial year, is to support children and young people as precisely as possible," Education Senator Katharina Günther-Wünsch (CDU) told the German Press Agency. Clear guidance for parents and their children is essential. This includes a clear definition of the enrolment regulations.
"In the transition to grammar school, we want to avoid pupils dropping out after one year, as the saying goes. Because that is frustrating." According to the senator, around 37 per cent of young people who actually had a recommendation for the integrated secondary school did not pass the trial year at the grammar school. The new procedure for the transition to secondary school will initially only apply in 2025. It will continue in the following year, but the criteria will change: grades in the three core subjects German, maths and the first foreign language will then be decisive in determining suitability for secondary school.
If a pupil achieves a maximum grade of 14 out of a total of 6 grades from the last two half-year reports, they will be recommended for grammar school. This roughly corresponds to a grade point average of up to 2.3 in these subjects. If parents are also considering enrolling their child at a grammar school, they can register them for trial lessons. "Our aim is to improve the quality of education," said Günther-Wünsch on the planned changes to the aptitude test. "If you can't read, write and do maths well enough, you won't be successful in other subjects either. That's why we are focussing on basic skills."
The choice of the right school is often challenging due to Berlin's diverse school landscape and requires careful decisions, added the senator. "I would like to encourage parents and students to realise that there are many different ways to achieve the Abitur in Berlin - and that it doesn't always have to be via the grammar school from year 7 onwards." There are also other types of school, such as integrated secondary schools or vocational schools, which make it possible to complete the Abitur. "The path to the Abitur is therefore much more varied than many might think."