König-Heinrich-Schule in Fritzlar (King-Henry-School) is a grammar school with a large catchment area (radius of 20km) in the northern part of the Schwalm-Eder-Kreis in the federal state of Hesse. The city of Kassel is situated 30 km northeast of Fritzlar. The school is attended by 700 students and has a staff of 60 teachers and educational workers.
It is a Europe School which means that the curricula for the work of Hessian schools are enriched by the curriculum of the Hessian Europe schools: the school offers of a variety of languages, intensive cross-cultural exchange, emphasis on self-depending work and development of social expertise.
The students are offered four foreign languages (English, Spanish, French and Latin) in the ordinary syllabus and for English, French and Latin students can go for international certificates, working with a special portfolio of languages; there are also bilingual courses or teaching units in Religious Education, Ethics, History and Music.
Intensive cross-cultural exchange:
Alongside the school trips of the tutor classes there is the possibility of excursions to Great Britain, Italy, Spain and France as well as a student exchange with France in forms eight and ten.
Rather unique are exchange projects which are thematically linked: in form nine there is a common work of German and French students on books for young people (lecture croisée), twice there is a ten-day exchange program with common workshops; in form eleven students can participate in the multilateral partnership of schools with partner schools from different European countries. Twice a year there are one-week-workshops in international groups taking place in the participating school.
Emphasis on self-depending work:
Obligatory curriculum of learning and presentation methods, a multimedia-based library and self-study centres; cooperation with neighbouring universities; orchestra classes, “youth debates”, large variety of elective courses.
Development of social expertise:
Age-adjusted school agreements between students, parents and staff, partnership between the younger and older students, education of school paramedics, educational parents-/students evenings and charitable projects.
Further teaching and school development projects:
- A programme for competencies-oriented development and evaluation.
- The KHS is not only a Europe school, but also “school with musical focus”, “environmental school in Europe”, “STEM-friendly school” with pedagogical mentoring in the afternoons.
- A particulate attention is about the subject of finding a profession by the use of a two-week internship in a firm, and a week to help the students to find their profession and international industrial placements.
- At present the school is working on a variety of Erasmus+ projects, such as “cross-cultural teaching” or “international placement”.