The Kurt-Huber-Gymnasium (KHG) in Gräfelfing is to be expanded to include a social science branch. So far, the school has only offered language training with three foreign languages. With a further, second branch, the students are to be made “fit for the challenges of a modern society”, said school director Anita Groß, who now presented the concept to the social committee of the municipal council. Above all, the grammar school wants to attract new students with the new training direction. Because they run away from school year after year.
Learning three foreign languages is the challenge in a language high school. Some students are afraid of it, said Groß. An additional branch would give students more flexibility. They would then have until the 7th grade to decide which way they wanted to go. Because it is only from the 8th grade that priorities are set. Groß already wanted to introduce an additional branch in 2019. At that time it should be a musical one. But it was rejected by the Ministry of Education. It would have been too much competition for the Carl-Spitzweg-Gymnasium in Germering, which also offers the branch, said Groß. The odds are better this time.
“We would like to have more students,” said Groß at the meeting. Graefelfing is an expensive place to live for young families, they are now moving to Freiham, the local high school is being “run down”. With the social science branch, the KHG would also become more attractive for boys again. Experience has shown that it is mainly girls who dare to learn the three intensive foreign languages. With the introduction of the new branch, the KHG would be the only state high school far and wide that offers this type of training for boys and girls, said Groß. Other grammar schools with a social science orientation are mostly purely girls’ schools. In the social science branch, the focus is on societal, political, economic and social issues and their connections. A 15-day internship is also planned, for example in a daycare center.
Gross would like to promote the new branch immediately to attract new students. But the application and approval process takes time. According to Groß, the school could only offer the branch in the 2024/25 school year. The current 6th graders could then choose the subject for the first time. The municipality must agree to the project as a material expense bearer. The committee members were impressed by the new subject, just like the students’ co-responsibility and the parents’ association of the school, which according to Groß have already approved. A decision by the municipal council is due at the end of the month. “It won’t cost you any money,” Gross said. Because special rooms are not required.