Mission Statement of Hamburg High Schools

The Tasks and Goals

The Gymnasium enables female and male students to receive an in-depth general education and leads in an eight-year educational pathway to the general higher education entrance qualification. The Gymnasium empowers students according to their achievements and aptitudes to focus on areas of emphasis, so that they can continue their educational path at a university and in other vocationally qualifying education programs in accordance with the qualifications obtained in the upper level of the gymnasium. It specifically promotes highly capable students. The Gymnasium enables students to work independently, responsibly, cooperatively, and goal-oriented. In particular, it offers its students the opportunity to,

• acquire meaningful knowledge that can be used by them in different contexts;
• learn learning methods and their validity conditions, as well as understand the dependence of knowledge on the methods used;
• learn to obtain information, handle it, evaluate it, and present it;
• acquire or deepen learning strategies that support self-organized and self-responsible learning and prepare for lifelong learning;
• develop efficient problem-solving strategies and also consider or discuss alternatives;
• develop and deepen their political-historical and ethical reflection and discourse能力;
• think and work across subjects and interdisciplinary;
• develop their communication and teamwork abilities and strengthen their ability to shift perspectives;
• perceive living spaces in a differentiated way and learn to handle resources responsibly;
• get to know and value cultural diversity;
• unfold and develop imagination and creativity;
• take on social responsibility.

 

The Learning Culture

The Gymnasium offers students an stimulating learning environment in appropriately designed spaces, where they can optimally develop their individual learning potential within the framework of communal learning and unfold their special interests and talents.

The Gymnasium enables students to engage in inquiry-based and science-propedeutic learning, both individually and in teams. Their abilities to transfer and connect knowledge from different subjects are actively fostered.

The Gymnasium supports the development of its students into socially responsible personalities. Students from different social and ethnic backgrounds can develop their talents and learning potential through interaction with others.

Students of a gymnasium show a pronounced

• willingness to strive,
• ability to concentrate,
• problem-solving ability,
• communication skills, as well as
• the ability for self-organized learning.

Teachers of a gymnasium design instruction against the backdrop of the professional requirements of the curriculum in a competence-oriented way.

• They provide students with complex learning arrangements that challenge their problem-solving abilities and enable them to deepen their knowledge.
• They regularly inform students about their performance level and continuously discuss possibilities to develop their competencies and to support and challenge them individually.
• They continuously incorporate feedback from students into their lesson planning. Teachers are thus dialogue partners in planning their further educational path.
• Teachers create an engaging school life.

 

The Educational Offering

At the Gymnasium, students develop their disciplinary and cross-disciplinary competencies. They receive subject-based, thematically and project-oriented educational offerings. The disciplinary orientation of teaching is complemented by an interdisciplinary approach. The Gymnasium cooperates in shaping its educational offering with external partners (e.g., universities and companies) and networks its educational offering in the region.

Students of a Gymnasium are supported early and continuously in their career and study guidance.

The schools offer students opportunities for excellence promotion, enabling them to pursue different focus areas in the following domains:

• Natural sciences, technology, and mathematics,
• Social sciences,
• Languages,
• Arts,
• Sports

The Gymnasium enables students to change their individual focus areas. Despite the diversity of emphasis in the educational offering, each Gymnasium ensures the comparability of disciplinary and cross-disciplinary requirements.

This mission statement was unanimously adopted by the headmasters of Hamburg high schools at a principals' conference on 11.04.2011.