Learning Problems-The-

school year

definition

A school year is the time it takes one year to move from one class to the next. The school year begins towards the end of summer and ends with the big summer holidays. The date of the start and end of a school year in Germany depends on the federal state.

Within the school year there are holidays (autumn holidays, Christmas holidays, etc.), which vary in length from state to state and take place at different times. Usually the school year is divided into two parts, the first semester and the second semester. At a regular school, students receive a half-year report after the first half of the year and a report for the entire year at the end of the school year.

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Who determines the start of the school year?

The new school year in Germany always starts after the summer vacation. Accordingly, the question arises of who sets the dates for the summer holidays. The Kultusministerkonferenz regulates the dates for the summer holidays in the federal states across Germany and also when a school year begins and when it ends.

Who sets the end of the school year?

The school year ends in Germany on the last day of school before the summer vacation. The summer vacation date is therefore decisive for the end of the school year. The summer holidays are determined by the Conference of Ministers of Education.

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Who sets the school holidays?

The school holidays in the individual federal states are always based on the summer holidays in Germany. These are decided by the Conference of Ministers of Education. Experts from the federal states plan the summer vacation regulations and present a concept to the Standing Conference, which then sets the summer vacation several years in advance. If the dates for the summer vacation have been set by the federal states, they can plan their own small vacation, such as Easter, on their own.

The summer holidays start and end differently in the different federal states, which means that even the "small" holidays always take place on different dates. These are laid out in such a way that there is always a meaningful rhythm of lessons and relaxation. The complete vacation planning depends on the dates of the summer vacation, these are allocated by the Conference of Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs according to the following principle:

All federal states should have at least six weeks vacation, whereby all 16 states are divided into five groups that are geographically close to one another. They get vacation at the same time because they are economically linked.
The dates of the holidays do not fall on the same day every year, it is a rotating system. If a group of countries starts one year, another group takes turns in the next.

Only Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg are an exception, with the fact that the summer holidays start and end at the same time every year.

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What is the school year like in the US?

In the USA, the school year is divided into trimesters, i.e. three sections, at many colleges. At high schools, on the other hand, a school year consists of two semesters.

The dates of the holidays depend on the school district. There are around a thousand districts. For this reason, it is only possible to roughly determine when American students are on vacation. A school year begins after the summer holidays, which can last between 8 and 12 weeks and lie in the months of June, July and August.

By the beginning of September at the latest, the students in all districts will be back in schools. Further holidays within a school year for schoolchildren are the Christmas holidays, which last between 10 and 16 days and fall over Christmas and New Year, and the spring break, which take place with 9 to 10 days in March.

During the school year, the pupils receive a certificate after each month for orientation, which they have to have their parents sign. In addition, they receive a quarterly report four times in a school year.

If my child wants to repeat the school year voluntarily, what application do I have to make?

If there is a desire to repeat a school year voluntarily, this is only possible in the fifth to tenth grade. The legal guardians of the school child or the pupils themselves (from the age of 18) must submit an application. This application can be informal and is addressed to the promotion conference in the school. This decides whether the application is approved or not. As a rule, it is only granted if the child could barely make it through the school year due to a long break from illness and would have major problems in the next year due to his knowledge gaps. The application is often rejected if the students expect a bad report card due to lack of drive.

What requirements do you need to skip a school year?

The student who wants to skip a grade should be in elementary school or in junior high or middle school in a high school. Advance promotion is only possible at the end of a school semester or school year.

The level of the higher classes does not have to be available yet, but the performance and learning behavior shown so far should indicate that the new material can be made up more quickly. The intellectual requirements of the skipper should be in the upper range of the receiving class. Very good grades are not a basic requirement for skipping, but only a guide. It is a prerequisite that the student is bored in school and achieves good grades with ease and without a great deal of study effort. He also needs a high level of motivation and a good working posture. If all these requirements are met, the parents can submit an application, which will be voted on in a class conference.

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