About Berlin Cosmopolitan School (BCS)
Berlin Cosmopolitan School (BCS) is a non-profit international school with a focus on the sciences, music and dance in the heart of Berlin. We offer Kindergarten and Preschool as well as Primary and Secondary School (German:聽Gymnasium). Our school,聽founded in 2004聽with its two campuses, is located in Berlin-Mitte in a very quiet area between Alexanderplatz, Monbijou Park, Hackescher Markt & Prenzlauer Berg.
Today about 700 students from over 45 countries are enrolled at BCS. As an 麻花视频 Baccalaureate World School we are authorized to offer the curriculum of the聽Primary Years Programme聽(PYP) and the聽IB Diploma Programme聽on the basis of the educational framework of Berlin. After 12 years, students may graduate with the IB Diploma and the聽German Abitur. At Berlin Cosmopolitan School we encourage students to become active and responsible world citizens.
This includes strong academics and multilingualism as well as the development of social and intercultural skills.
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Find Out More >Curriculum
German, IB
Primary Language
English
Ages
2 to 18
Max Class Size
Unknown
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11 Reviews of Berlin Cosmopolitan School (BCS)
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How would you rate Berlin Cosmopolitan School (BCS)?
Great support from teachers helped my son to adapt quickly, and an interesting program keeps him busy and motivated :)
My kid loves this school this school has excellent teachers and my kid tells me so many things except from Ms newkirk
When my first child started at BCS in grade 7 more than 3 years ago, I was so happy...we've found a great school, small and friendly community, very decent and nice parents, excellent educational level. It was a "not to ignore" amount of money on a monthly level but the more we were here - the more I would hear the many positive stories from other parents and their experiences. I was more and more convinced we've made a good choice. Since we are originally from a small country, I was afraid that my son could be bullied - but it NEVER happened. The environment is very respectful and international. Children are taught on a daily basis about tolerance, diversity, nice manners, and good behavior. There are children from wealthy families but also from average or even from low-income families. Thanks to school uniforms differences are not visible. In 3 years, I've never heard my son mentioning which car is someone's father driving or "I want THOSE sneakers, everyone has them". Kids all look just the same and behave really nice and modest. He has so many friends, and for the majority, I can even now say - they're gonna last for a lifetime. I wish I could say it is all thanks to my excellent parenting, but it is not. For much of the above, I can thank the school for. Later on, I found myself in a very difficult personal situation. Not only that I was very bad emotionally, but it was also a financial disaster. My whole life fell apart, and I thought I will have to change the school. I knew it would definitely break his heart. I informed the school. Before I had the chance to swallow my pride and the courage to pump out the question - they came with an offer that was a dream come true. My son continued attending BCS, although I couldn't offer anything even similar to what we used to pay. And that was only the beginning...people from school I barely knew, helped in ways I couldn't even imagine. They are today my family - the school staff and the whole community. Later on, I've realized I am not the only one in such a challenging situation. Of course, there are also families that are well-off, but there are also many of us who had never dreamed we'll be able to put our kids in such a school. For BCS, diversity is very important. They are really taking care to have different kinds of families in many ways, also from a socio-economic point of view. They want to educate our kids that there are many more important things in life like knowledge, compassion, respect and friendship. I am afraid to continue because maybe you won't believe how generous, kind, and good these people are. That is why I now have another child in Primary and two more in Kindergarten, who will join the school next year. My oldest will, hopefully, finish his Abitur here and continue studying somewhere in Berlin. I am absolutely sure my children are at the best place ever. Safe, taken excellent care of and educated with love and compassion. Like when you leave them with the family.
I will start with some positives of this school - they have a few absolutely amazing teachers, such as their science department, English department and sports department. The teachers are very engaging and they try to support their students as best they can. It is a joy to be in their lessons! The school also has good courses that are more specific to the path students want to take; for example, they offer a politics course, a philosophy course, economics, and drama (to name a few). These courses are well thought out and have good material. There are, however, issues with the Berlin Cosmopolitan School that greatly overshadow the good education given by teachers. Firstly, I came to the school after I was told it is an "international school", however, when I joined I found this was not the case. BCS presents themselves as being openminded and being welcoming to international students. Having gone to a proper international school somewhere else in Germany, BCS is not international. When you get into secondary school, you will be attending a bilingual Gymnasium. It also states this on your report card. The head of school also barely speaks English, and at assemblies will only speak in German. This is absolutely unfair to their international students, albeit them not making up for a majority of the grades (approximately 10% a grade is truly internation). Berlin Cosmopolitan School focuses solely on their German students, most notably when choosing between IB or Abitur they try to push anyone who speaks German well enough into the Abitur, despite these kids wanting to take the IB. If you do manage to get into the IB as a german speaking student? They will try to push you into courses of their choice, not yours. Their IB coordinator is also extremely unhelpful and condenscending, and when asked questions about the programmes, she is unable to answer. Besides this, as another review said, their German education for students learning German is not sufficient. Students barely progress and the main teacher for GLD - their German learning programme - is a teacher who bullies her students instead of trying to engage with them kindly, holding her German degree above their heads and as a statement of why she is better (things she has told her students in class). The staff continue to treat the students, secondary and uper secondary alike, as little children, and make promises they later go back on. If a student tries to present an issue they are having it is swept under the rug and the staff oftentimes blames the student and is unwilling to provide them with proper support - unless the student has parents that are paying more. It has happened often that the "richer students" get more support and attention than the other students. It is honestly discouraging, disappointing and disgusting behaviour. Not wanting a "class divide" or bullying based on wealth are some of the main reasons BCS has implemented uniform, but they don't practice what they preach. Yet they advertise themselves as being there for their "all" students, when this is how they treat them? There are more issues I have with the school, but I find it most important people know how they truly treat their older students. The primary school is honestly the best part about them, but I would advise to pull the kids out once they go into middle or high school. It is absolutely ridiculous how we are treated at times. If you've read this far, I know I sound like a disgruntled student. I have been in this school for years, and I have seen how their behaviour has progressed towards us - I am not the only student who feels this. It is honestly most of us, but we are here for the education. Their treatment of us, however, has been most disappointing. Comparing this to other schools I have gone to, this has been the worst. If you are looking for a primary school, I would recommend BCS, but not for anything higher. Their quality of education is good but if your child runs into an issue, be prepared to fight to solve it. Please look at other options first.
It鈥檚 the best school ever. The teachers are nice, the parks we go to are also very fun. The way they teach us kids is an amazing way and I believe all children should be taught at, Berlin Cosmopolitan School.
The Bcs is awesome!!!
Reviews from Google
Recent reviews posted on Google.
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, 7 months ago
This school is awesome. I feel at home, and wake up happy because of my classes every morning. The food is delicious, the teachers are really friendly and open to questions, and my life is the best. Go to our school, and don't listen to Mr.smith over there
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, a year ago
We joined the BCS Community in September 2017, from the UK. Our children are thriving in an environment that is about the children being at the heart of everything. The quality of teaching staff is superb; the focus on academic ability as well as the softer skills is incredibly well balanced. An incredible learning environment and we will struggle to ever leave to go back to the UK
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, 2 years ago
My son is presently in second grade and my daughter is starting next year. I am extremely pleased with the school. It's a caring environment with good family interaction. The teachers are passionate about what they do and the program is challenging and captivating. There is also a wonderful after school program. What makes BCS really stand out for me is that they focus of the growth of each individual student as a person, not just academically.
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, 2 years ago
Great school and Kita with very professional staff and management. Nice atmosphere and friendly environment for children. I definitely recommend!
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, 11 months ago
As father of 3 children who have all attended this school for 3 or more years I think I have a rounded view of its strengths and weaknesses. First, the strengths. Well, the location is good. Frankly it's so close to where we live that enrolling our children was a no-brainer, this despite the school having no playing field or sports facilities of its own to speak of. The first year our two sons spent at the school were ok. Our younger daughter studied at the BCS kindergarten and naturally moved to the main school when she finished there. The school professes to specialise in music and science. I have to say, in 4 years we saw no evidence at all of this. Music lessons, beyond the basic school provision, are offered only for extra cost after school hours. For science, we saw absolutely no evidence of any coverage at all in either the primary or secondary schools. Despite our strong interest in our children learning German, they made absolutely no progress at BCS. When our eldest son joined the secondary school he was told that by 8th grade he would need to speak fluent German. Bearing in mind the complete lack of German tuition in the primary school I don't know how they expected that to happen. When we asked the primary school principal about this recently he justified the lack of German language tuition by saying that it "is an English language school". The teachers in BCS have an email culture. Any issues the teachers have with a student requiring extra help are sent to the principal who then writes to the parents. In 4 tortuous years we received probably two dozen letters detailing issues which, our experience shows, would be handled easily in class in other schools. We eventually put this down to the inexperience of the teachers but upon reflection seems to reflect the culture of the school, where any problems are simply pushed back onto the parents without any support or effort on the schools part. Disappointing. This is a school where approximately half the staff are so called "afternoon teachers". These are basically unqualified child minders with a simple social work certificate. One of these, still in post, is actually also a current nightclub bouncer whom we had the misfortune to witness brawling on the embankment near the East Side Gallery while attempting to keep people off a party boat. Children are left in the care of these afternoon teachers for up to 3 hours a day. Despite one or two outstanding teachers the overall level of tuition is poor. The primary school have recently lost one of these notable staff members, which in a school with recruitment problems already is a damaging blow. Whatever our experiences of the primary school, nothing prepared us for the BCS secondary school. Here the weaknesses of the primary school are multiplied due to poor management. Despite us having numerous meetings with the principal of the secondary school where we raised our concerns with the tuition, nothing ever changed and, as the principal took no notes at any meeting he often forgot, or worse even denied things he'd promised. Our worst experience at this school was when one of the teachers had a meltdown in front of a horrified class of 11 year olds and assaulted my son, pulling his hair and pinching the back of his neck. Despite this being witnessed by a class full of kids and the school issuing a generalized apology about the behaviour of the teacher they tried to cover up the assault and repeatedly tried to stifle mention of it. In the 4 years our 3 children were at the school, despite numerous letters and many meetings with teachers, the owner of the school spoke to us precisely twice, both times in passing as we entered or left the school. She was totally disengaged. Within 6 months of our children joining the school we felt it was a poor choice. After 4 years I can say it was a terrible one. Avoid if you have a choice.
