Discover Germany | Special Theme | Top International Schools 2018
Cologne International School:
Dedicated to developing world citizens ‘The future belongs to those who have learned to move within the globalised world confidently and effortlessly, who know their own culture and are open to others.’ This can be seen as one of the main missions of the Cologne International School, which provides an excellent bilingual education whilst also staying connected to the local community. TEXT: MARILENA STRACKE | PHOTOS: CATJA VEDDER
The Cologne International School was founded in 2007 with the aim of being a completely inclusive bilingual school, open to all cultures, religions and ethnicities. The school makes sure that everyone’s personal background is catered for in every aspect and that the students can simply focus on their education. In German the school is called Internationale Friedensschule Köln, which translates as peace school. Following that, it aims at 34 | Issue 58 | January 2018
teaching students from a diverse background to get along peacefully and work as a team. The school also believes in a healthy body, healthy mind approach and offers daily Tai Chi exercises by a qualified instructor from China. What makes the school stand out further is the bilingual concept and the fact that there are two secondary schools. “We uniquely operate three schools on our
CIS-IFK campus,“ explains Mr Alex Inman, former primary and secondary principal and now head of stability and growth. “A bilingual English/German primary school and a choice of two secondary schools - our international secondary school and our German grammar school, the Gymnasium. At the end of primary, a student has the choice of which secondary school they would like to enter, following either the German state qualification (The Abitur) or the international qualification (The International Baccalaureate Diploma). Our two secondary schools share many activities, for example music, languages, trips and exchanges. This enables our students to communicate freely in two or three languages, making multi-lingual communication second nature to them all.”