The overall mission statement of the international school is as follows...
We regard ourselves as a community of people with different cultural and social backgrounds and opinions, a broad variety of abilities and various fields of interests.
Mutual respect, tolerance, fairness and solidarity as the foundation of a humane and democratic society are the guidelines of communal life at our school.
We want to create an atmosphere that encourages and supports academic progress and promotes social and personal skills to make our students self-confident, independent and responsible members of our society.
We offer a broad and complex choice of educational opportunities and qualifications according to the individual achievement of our students.
We expect our students to participate in decisions on our daily life with a special emphasis on environmental education, intercultural relations and the cooperation with external partners.
This corresponds to the self-concept of the Comprehensive School as a Community School
Alongside English the pupils of the international school will also have lessons in German of course.
The Schuldorf-Bergstraße and the State International School
In 1949 Kenneth A. Batemann submitted a plan for the Schuldorf to Georg Wink who was the District councillor at that time. Batemann was the cultural and educational advisor of the highest US occupation forces. The set-up of a school village like the Schuldorf Bergstraße was meant to put an end to the notorious lack of room at schools in rural areas such as Seeheim, Jugenheim, Alsbach, Bickenbach and Balkhausen. Another reason was to bring all the different school branches together on one campus in order to create links within all the different members of the community.
In 1952 the foundations of the Schuldorf Bergstraße were laid and 2 years later official lessons started at kindergarden, boarding school, primary school, special school, middle school, secondary modern school and grammar school. It should be mentioned at this point that the Schuldorf Bergstraße is the oldest Comprehensive School in Germany.
In 2000 the Schuldorf was given Europaschule status by the new Federal State Government of Hessen. At present almost 2000 pupils attend the Schuldorf. Pupils do not only come from Seeheim-Jugenheim, but also from all the other surrounding villages. Due to its unique architecture some parts of the Schuldorf are protected under the listed buildings act.
In 2003 the International preschool opened its doors at the Schuldorf Campus - the first step towards creating an international section within the school.
In 2005 the construction of a new school building for the primary school was started as a project and already in summer about 50 children from 12 nations started their education there. In 2006 the school celebrated the inauguration of the newly built international preschool next to the primary school building.
The Local Authority of Darmstadt-Dieburg is in charge of the school, the HKM (local ministry of education) in Wiesbaden is responsible for the employment of teachers. In order to assist newcomers with the understanding of the German work contract, they will receive an English version of the most important aspects of the contract.