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There is a website for my school here, and it will give you a much better idea of the school than I can (but it's in German). There are also pictures from the school here with other pics of Brake.

My school is the Fachgymnasium in Brake. Fachgymnasium I found out is not actually the name of the school it’s a type of school! The school begins in year 11 and finishes in the final year, the 13th year. It is supposedly meant to be a bit easier than the normal gymnasiums. The subjects that I am taking are not quite what I would have expected. Volkswirtschaft and Betriebswirtschaft are two of them, they are economics subjects, which is something I know absolutely nothing about! I am also taking Spanish, although this is a compulsory subject for us here. Lucky I have my trusty German-Spanish dictionary with me though…hmm.

The school itself is fairly modern, the classrooms are all really good, and there’s enough room for all 31 in my class. 31 is a fair bit higher than the average for a class, the average class size is the same for me in Australia (between about 25 and 28)and because of this Renee the South African exchange student who is in the school with Apeksha and I has to be in a different class.

The school day for me begins at 6.15am when my alarm clock goes off. Breakfast is at 6.45 and at 7am we make a dash up the street (without fail) to the bus which leaves at around 7.07. School begins at 8am and the first pause is after the first block at 9.30 till 9.50. After this there is another block until 11.20 when there is another pause till 11.40. The school day finishes at 13.10, unless it is a long day which has instead of 6 subject slots there are 8. If this is so, school finishes at 3.10.

As is typical in Germany, lunch is eaten upon arrival from school which is around 2pm. After lunch, there is a few hours of free time where homework etc is done and then there is tea and cake. After tea it is around 4-5pm and if it is a day when you have training for your sport (almost every kid, and adult are in a team of some sort) and then after training dinner is eaten. The main meal of the day is lunch and is always a hot meal.

There are 3 schools in the same area in Brake, within a minutes walk from each other. there is the BBS where i am, with the Fachgymnasium and the Berufsbildenden Schulen which is the German equvalent of a TAFE. There is also the normal Gymnasium and the Realschule.