Middle School

​TCGIS is the only German immersion school in the Midwest to continue into middle school. Middle School starts in 5th grade, honoring the German educational system in which secondary school begins one year earlier. In this year our students begin to change classrooms and teachers every hour. Our 5th graders remain with their math and English classes for the first two hours of the day in what we call The Bridge to help transition our students to middle school more effectively. 

We offer English and Math in English, and social studies, German, science and most electives in the German language. Our 7th and 8th graders can elect to learn yet another language and take Spanish. Other electives are Art, Drama, Sport, Yearbook, Journalism and support German.  

Our academic program is strong at TCGIS and culminates with our students taking the DSD I Test to certify their German language skills, checking the first box on the way to studying in Germany. Most of our students choose to continue learning German at Saint Paul Central High School where the immersion program continues through the 12th grade. The DSD II concludes the immersion experience at Central High School. 

​We offer a full comprehensive athletic program with three sports a season that are open to all middle school students. Students can choose from soccer, cross country, Nordic skiing, basketball, volleyball, and indoor and outdoor track and field. 

Our 8th grade students take part in an German American Partnership Program exchange with three schools in Germany. Our partner schools visit and stay with us in the fall and we travel to stay with them and visit their schools in Spring.  We refer to this as our Capstone Project as it brings together all the learning our students have done through their time at TCGIS.  
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There are many other wonderful girls trip opportunities our students are exposed to as well. We have a continued relationship with Concordia Language Villages and each year take our 6th graders to Waldsee, the German language learning camp.