bilingual school for a 10 years old

@onairsam

Have you looked at previous posts?

Contrary to German-teaching public schools, which must take any child, the bilingual ones can choose. So your child would have to show certain abilities to get in. Contact the individual schools to get information on admission criteria!

Furthermore, bilingual schools here are geared towards teaching German kids more foreign language. Instruction is mostly in German in the beginning, with one or two less important subjects in the foreign language (often English) - and the rate increases over the years until at graduation roughly half of subjects is taught in foreign language.

If your child is not fluent at German yet, this is probably not what you need.

Instead, many German-teaching public schools offer special integration classes ("Förderklassen") that aim to bring foreign kids up to speed to join regular German-taught classes. Please note that, depending on age and abilities, your kid could academically lose a year or more to achieve this. Ask at your local school authority ("Schulamt") about these!

And the third alternative, especially useful if you intend to move back or on after a short time (up to three years) and want your child to seamlessly fit into the schools there, are international schools. However, they are not cheap, at 1000€/month and up.

Thank you for reply!

My son currently in USA and we will be returning to USA after 1-1.5 years. Looks like the best option is to put him in an international school.

    Thank you for reply!
My son currently in USA and we will be returning to USA after 1-1.5 years. Looks like the best option is to put him in an international school.
   

    -@onairsam

One should be aware that not all private schools instruct primarily in English. They’re actually rather rare but I would assume there are options in Berlin. But the costs will likely be at least 12 to 15 thousand euros/year for tuition. Most parents with kids in such schools are quite wealthy or have specifically negotiated the covering of such a school in their job contract. The question is if you belong to either group?

Public schools tend to be good in Germany but as Beppi mentioned, the focus is on teaching  German to a kid lacking the language skills could put them back a year academically. Some parents are horrified at this idea; others see it as a cost of having a unique cultural opportunity to live abroad. If one can possibly afford it, maybe such a private school is the optimal choice for such a short stay. If one plans to stay for multiple years, it might be better to either start at a public school or transfer after a year from a private one at which point a child’s German skills will usually then be acceptable.