general education schools Admission to comprehensive school

At the Integrated Comprehensive School (IGS), pupils from the 5th to 13th grades are taught. The IGS can also be run without an upper secondary school (grades 11 to 13). The IGS in Lower Saxony is usually operated as an all-day school

At the end of lower secondary education, the IGS leads to the following qualifications:

• Secondary school leaving certificate after Sjg. 9
• Secondary school leaving certificate I – lower secondary school leaving certificate
• Secondary school leaving certificate I – secondary school leaving certificate
• Extended lower secondary education

The acquisition of the Extended Secondary Certificate I entitles the holder to transition to the introductory phase of the upper secondary school (11th grade). At the end of the qualification phase after 13 years of schooling, the general university entrance qualification is acquired through the Abitur examination.

The upper secondary school is divided into a one-year introductory phase (11th grade) and a two-year qualification phase (12th and 13th grade), ending with the Abitur examination after 13 school years.

Upon successful participation in the Abitur examination, the general university entrance qualification is acquired. This entitles the holder to take up any course of study at a university, college or university of applied sciences, without prejudice to any university's own admission procedures and admission requirements.

The principle of integration, which is characteristic of IGS, is reflected in the fact that all pupils are taught according to a common curriculum and participate together in lessons in the various subjects as well as in school life as a whole. However, the IGS is also a differentiating form of school. External differentiation of subject performance through specialist performance courses is carried out at various levels of demand in mathematics and English from the 7th grade, in German from the 8th grade in the subject and in the natural sciences from the 9th grade at the latest.

In the Cooperative Comprehensive School (KGS), the school types Hauptschule, Realschule and Gymnasium are brought together "under one roof" as interrelated and interconnected school branches. The school can also be divided into school years. Pupils from the 5th to 13th grades are taught in the KGS; however, the school can also be run without grades 11 to 13 (upper secondary school).

The same degrees can be obtained at the KGS as at the IGS (see above). The course of education and the graduation requirements are subject to the respective regulations of the corresponding types of school.

Lessons at the KGS are school-specific and cross-school. According to the decision of the school board, lessons in grades 5 to 8 can be given mainly in cross-school learning groups. The core curricula of the respective type of school apply to subject teaching in the school branch-specific teaching of the KGS, and the core curricula of the IGS apply to subject teaching in cross-school learning groups.