Gymnasium

At the Gymnasium promotion to the next higher grade depends on the performance of the students. Anyone with one grade of 5 and at least a grade of 4 in all other subjects will be promoted.

If a student has either two grades of 5 or one grade of 6, they must provide evidence of a compensation for the promotion. A promotion is excluded with three grades of 5, two grades of 6 or the combination of two grades of 5 and one of 6.

Two grades of 5 must be compensated with two grades in other subjects that are at least 3. To compensate for a grade 6, you need a grade 2 in another subject.
If one of the failures is in a core subject, the compensation must also be provided in a core subject. The core subjects are German, mathematics and the 1st and 2nd foreign languages, and the 3rd foreign language in the classical language programme. If there are two grades of 5 or a grade of 6 in the core subjects, compensation is not possible.

When promotion is at risk

Every student should, if possible, successfully complete their chosen educational pathway and achieve the desired school leaving qualification.

If during the school year it turns out that promotion is at risk, e.g., based on the first term report, the school will determine individual support in order to achieve a promotion. The school is obliged to do so under Section 59 (2) of the School Act. This is not just about exhorting the student to try harder but also about creating a coordinated support plan for them.

Support plan


Every instructing teacher must first describe the student’s performance deficits in concrete terms and diagnose the causes. Then individual support measures will be derived from these reports. The support measures will be coordinated with the class teaching staff and summarized in a support and educational plan.

This plan will be discussed by the class teacher with the student and their parents. An agreement on objectives that is signed by the class teacher, the parents and the student should document the efforts the student must make in order to achieve the class objectives and how the student is to be supported by his parents and his teachers.

To ensure that this process can be carried out successfully in all cases, the schools are provided with guidelines as well as forms for the diagnosis, support plan and agreement on objectives.