In Berlin, school attendance is compulsory for ten school years, and attendance at a vocational school is compulsory for the duration of the apprenticeship. The school system is composed of several levels of education. It offers a free choice of the type of school. School attendance begins with a joint primary school for all pupils for the first six years. Apart from the schools in the public sector, there are also 26 private primary schools, which are mainly confessional schools. In addition to the Protestant and Catholic primary schools, there is a Jewish primary school and an Islamic primary school. There are also six Waldorf schools. After the six-year primary school, the children and parents can choose between the “Hauptschule” (basic secondary school), the “Realschule” (medium ability school with a commercial and/or technical emphasis), the “Gymnasium” (grammar school) and the “Gesamtschule” (comprehensive school), which is a combination of the other three forms of secondary school. As an exception to this system, pupils with a special language emphasis can leave the primary school after year four and move to a grammar school. A number of schools offer a special emphasis on abilities and talents in areas such as music, sports, Mathematics or science. Berlin has set up an information centre for the school system.

The “Gymnasium” (grammar school), which leads to the “Abitur” qualification after the thirteenth year of school education, entitles its pupils to study at a further education college or a university. There are also schools with a career-related senior grammar school stage and boarding schools with educators available throughout the day. Three schools with an emphasis on sports have boarding places: the Coubertin grammar school, the Flatow senior school and the Werner Seelenbinder school. The school farm island of Scharfenberg in the borough of Reinickendorf is also operated as a boarding school, but it accepts pupils who do not wish to live in the school. Of the ten private grammar schools, the Catholic “Canisius-Kolleg”, the Protestant “Gymnasium Zum Grauen Kloster”, the “Königin-Luise-Stiftung” (with boarding school) and the Catholic “Theresienschule” take pupils from year 5. A special institution is the state ballet school. Here, boy and girl pupils can begin to prepare for an apprenticeship as stage dancers, and in the variety artists’ department they can obtain the skills needed for a career in variety performance in the school’s own boarding facilities. Acceptance into this school, which is unique in Germany, is after an aptitude test.