St. Kilian’s – a school of encounter

St. Kilian’s is a school of encounter. This means, that German and Irish students as well as students of various other nationalities are taught together. Apart from the subjects German and International History the classroom language is English.

Enrolment in Kindergarten, Primary School and Secondary School (class 7) is also possible for students who do not speak German, as on all these levels there are beginners’ courses. All students of St. Kilian’s receive an above average number of German classes per week and if their performance is sufficient they will be registered for the Sprachdiplom exams.

There are International History classes and German classes for all levels depending on how good the students’ language skills are: German as a Native Language courses (DM), German Foreign Language courses (DF), and from class 9 on German Foreign Language courses become German Sprachdiplom courses (DS), as students  then proceed to take the language diplomas.

DS means Deutsches Sprachdiplom (=German Language Diploma), which is taken by the DM and DS students in class 9 and 12 (cf. the information below).

DN means Deutsch Neu (=German New), which indicates that the students begin to learn German without prior knowledge. These students are prepared for the Leaving Certificate only in years 11 and 12 (i.e. 5^th and 6^th year). Therefore this course is now called DL Deutsch Leaving.

A change of courses throughout students’ school career is possible and changing into a Sprachdiplom course is very much welcomed if the students’ skills are sufficient.

At Junior Level, that is from class 7 to 9, St. Kilian’s students are taught together with the students of the Lycée Francais d’Irlande in most subjects. However, there are no common German lessons due to different examination formats.

Download a full version of the German Policy Document here [download id=”407″]

Differences in comparison to other Irish post-primary schools