Middle School Program
At OBS we see Middle School as the time your child will start to discover where their passions lie. They will make important choices and discover how they learn best. Our broad curriculum allows your child to explore their skills and pursue a range of future oriented learning units developed around a “Big Idea”.
Our Bilingual German-English Middle School follows an immersive programme based on the Swiss National Curriculum, LP21 and the learning process outlined by the International Middle Years Curriculum. Both curricula require your child to develop learning strategies that will enable them to build on previous learned competencies and skills and develop a deep understanding at both subject and concept level.
We place a great focus on independent learning under the guidance of our highly skilled teachers who take on the role of mentors.
Immersion classes place high demands on students’ knowledge of vocabulary, as well as listening and reading comprehension so to ensure that your child truly benefits from this intensive form of teaching, his or her language skills are assessed before enrolment.
In grades 7 and 8 we enhance the Lehrplan 21 with subjects and topics required at the Gymansium level such as Latin, challenging literature and best practice in scientific work to lay the foundation for the Swiss Matura route. If your child is at Sek B level in these years they will receive instruction is MMDT (Multi Media Design and Technology) instead of Latin.
Your child will follow an individual learning path. Our teachers provide meaningful and lasting learning experiences that go far beyond the memorizing of factual knowledge. Your child will be guided to develop richer thinking skills and be given opportunities to transfer their knowledge across subjects and to real-life problems.
Thanks to our individually tailored programme, secondary and Gymansium-level students can study together. The decision as to whether your child can move from Sek A to the Gymnasium-level or from Sek B to Sek A is reviewed annually. Transferring between levels is possible until the end of grade 9.
All teachers teach their specialist subject in their native language, either in German or in English. For example: maths might be taught in German in Grade 7, while hhistory is taught in English. The next year, it could be the other way around.
Your child will be allocated a teacher as a coach who they will meet with once every two weeks. The coach offers social and emotional support and gives guidance on how to plan work efficiently, with the aim of your child assuming increasingly more responsibility for his or her own learning. If your child consistently achieves their learning goals, study time can be structured more individually. In this way, one of the key skills essential for university and later professional success is acquired: the ability to prioritise and perform tasks within an agreed time frame.
By the end of Grade 9, your child will have received an equal amount of instruction in both languages and will be able to use the associated technical terminology of a subject in both languages.
Once your child has successfully completed our Middle School Programme they have several options at our Upper School:
- Swiss Matura
- IB (International Baccalaureate) Diploma
- Grade 10 Focus Year
- Transfer to a vocational training programme, commercial or upper-secondary specialist school
