Helmholtz-Gymnasium is a city-run gymnasium in Bonn's Duisdorf district, opened in April 1961. Since the 1988-1989 school year it has had a German-English bilingual stream, one of the first in North Rhine-Westphalia, and from grade 7 students choose the bilingual or the science stream. In April 2014 it became an IB World School and has since prepared students for the IB Diploma, always together with the state central Abitur: IB students spend most of their time in regular Abitur courses and add extra IB courses; students can take the full Diploma or individual IB subjects. All IB subjects except German literature and languages other than English are taught and examined in English. Besides the IB, graduates can earn the state bilingual certificate and a certificate in science and technology. The school runs compulsory all-day schooling.
Key facts
Programmes
IB · DP · National programme
Languages of instruction
German, English
Languages taught
French, Latin, Spanish, Chinese
About the fees Tuition is free: this is a city-run state gymnasium in Bonn. The school's IB fees, teacher training and IB teaching materials are paid by the city of Bonn. According to the October 2023 flyer, IB Diploma participants pay 300 EUR per school year and IB course candidates 50 EUR per subject per year; some materials, such as set texts for the literature course, are bought by students. Canteen lunch is paid separately.
Admissions Admission to grade 5 follows the city of Bonn procedure for its gymnasiums: documents are submitted in person at the school office within the announced period (for 2027-2028 expected in February-March 2027); without a gymnasium recommendation from the primary school a counselling meeting is required, and a get-to-know meeting is possible but optional. Since 2026 applications to the upper school are made via the schulbewerbung.de portal. The IB programme is open to upper-school students, preferably from grade 11 (the pre-IB year): they need bilingual history and biology and a preparatory essay-writing course in grade 11, good German and English, interest in IB subjects, a motivation letter, a meeting with the IB coordinator and a recommendation from the final grading conference at the end of grade 11. Students whose Abitur success appears uncertain may be advised to leave the IB or reduce the number of courses.
Stages and year groups Grades 5-13. A North Rhine-Westphalia gymnasium on the nine-year track (G9): grades 5-10 and an upper school of an introductory year and two qualification years, ending with the central Abitur. From grade 7 there is a German-English bilingual stream (history, geography and biology in English) or a science stream. The IB Diploma Programme runs in the last two grades, only together with the Abitur: German A Literature HL with a World Literature course, English B HL, Spanish B or ab initio, French, Mandarin ab initio, History HL, Geography, Biology SL, Mathematics: Analysis and Approaches SL, Visual Arts or a substitute, plus Theory of Knowledge, a 4000-word Extended Essay, CAS and the Group 4 project. Individual IB courses can be taken without the full Diploma. Additional qualifications alongside the Abitur: the IB Diploma, the state bilingual certificate and the MINT-EC certificate.
Address Helmholtzstraße 18, 53123 Bonn
Accreditations and programmes verified against official registries
IB · DP · authorised programmeThe school is listed in the IB register and runs the Diploma Programme. The IB track runs inside a German Gymnasium: in the upper grades students take the IB Diploma alongside the Abitur.
school is in an official registryconfirmed by a school document, by membership or by taking part in a networkclaimed by the school, no confirmation, not counted in the scoreGuide to all organisations → What stands behind each entry
IBInternational Baccalaureate
A Swiss non-profit, working since 1968. Its programmes are among the most widely recognised school programmes in the world. Authorisation is granted stage by stage, so a school with the final stage does not necessarily run the younger ones; which stages this school holds is set out in the line below.
What the badge means for this school. The school is allowed to run this programme and to award its certificate. This is a confirmation of the programme, not a judgement on the school as a whole. The entry stands in the organisation's public register - anyone can check it. At this school: DP (ages 16-19). DP is the final stage, ages 16 to 19: six subjects plus a compulsory core of theory of knowledge, an extended essay and CAS. The diploma is accepted by universities all over the world, and in a number of countries it counts for admission on the same footing as the local leaving certificate.
Register to check for yourself, and the full guide →National programme
The state school programme of the country the school stands in: it is set by that country's ministry of education, which also licenses the school and awards the leaving certificate. That certificate is used for entry to local universities, and abroad it is matched to the local one.
What this means for this school. This entry does not count towards the score, and that is deliberate. Every lawful school in a country works to the national programme, so on its own it tells one school apart from no other - unlike the French, German or Russian programmes, which are carried abroad and confirmed by the register of their organisation. We show it because a parent needs to know what programme their child is taught and what certificate the child will get. Counting it would lift the whole ranking at once and still tell nobody apart.
Exams and destinations from the school's official website
The school publishes nothing about where its leavers go: no share going on to university, no exam results, no list of universities.
Facilities from the school's official website
·Swimming poolnot stated on the website
·Sports hallnot stated on the website
·Laboratoriesnot stated on the website
·Theatre or assembly hallnot stated on the website
·Librarynot stated on the website
·Cateringnot stated on the website
·School transportnot stated on the website
·Boardingnot stated on the website
Campus: A city gymnasium in the Duisdorf district on a single site with large school grounds. Since 2016 a new canteen has operated in the new building (the school has had its own canteen since 2011); lunch is compulsory in grades 5-6 and taken as a class with a teacher. The library, open since 1995, has a reading room with 12 workstations, textbooks and journals, children's and young adult books in German, English and French, and a librarian. There is a stage in the pedagogical centre for musicals and plays, a quiet room and a play room for the lunch break, and solar panels on the roof. Since the 2010-2011 school year the school has run compulsory all-day schooling: three long days a week until 15:00 or later, with study time and clubs.
Clubs and activities: WoodenHelmets · Big Band · Choir · Theater AG (theatre club) · Tanz AG (dance club) · Taxonomie-Werkstatt (identifying plants, animals and fungi) · Lego Roboter AG (Lego robots club) · Näh-AG (sewing and knitting club) · Fußball AG (football club) · Nachhaltigkeits-AG (sustainability club) · Wald-Klima-AG (forest and climate club) · Weltverbesserer (volunteer projects) · Rechtskunde-AG (law club) · Net-Piloten (media pilots)
Teaching staff from the school's official website
·Teachers listed by namenot published
·Teacher qualificationsnot stated
·Number of teachersthe school does not say
·Students per teacher or class sizenot stated
The staff list for 2026-2027 names about 106 teachers with their subjects and email addresses. The IB page names the IB, CAS and Extended Essay coordinators and the teachers of each IB subject. Careers guidance is run by three coordinators for career and university choice, and the bilingual stream has its own coordinators.
Safety and wellbeing from the school's official website
·CCTVnot stated on the website
·Security staffnot stated on the website
·Access controlnot stated on the website
·Nurse or medical roomnot stated on the website
·Counsellornot stated on the website
·Child protection policynot stated on the website
·Staff trainingnot stated on the website
✓Anti-bullying policy
The school has city social workers (clubs, class councils in grade 5, individual counselling, help with forms), a school chaplain, student mediation, conflict guides on school buses, a school first-aid service and a school dog. In grade 8 the police run a violence prevention programme, including cyberbullying, and a course on addiction and drugs. There is a help-in-need page with support contacts and a school counselling concept.
Reviews
No reviews yet. The community rating counts towards the score once a school has five verified reviews - until then we do not show a zero, so as not to mislead.
Criteria breakdown criterion weight in brackets
Academics and programmes (16%)82 Community rating (16%)no dataparent reviews are needed: the criterion switches on at the fifth verified one Exams and destinations (12%) scored on disclosed data55 Safety and wellbeing (12%) scored on disclosed data60 Accreditation and verifiability (10%)85 Teaching staff (10%) scored on disclosed data55 Facilities (10%) scored on disclosed data60 Clubs and activities (8%) scored on disclosed data78 "Scored on disclosed data" stands where we count only what the school has written about itself on its own site: exams and destinations, safety and wellbeing, teaching staff, facilities, clubs and activities. A low score here means the school does not write about this, not that the school does not have it: a school with good security and a sparse site will score low. A school can fill in its profile, and the score will be counted again.
The score is counted from 8 of the 9 criteria.Only those with checkable data count: programmes and accreditations from official registers, the fee from a published price list. Where it says "scored on the median", the school has no data and the middle of the list is put in its place, so that a gap gives no advantage. Admissions, teaching staff and reviews come in as their data arrives.
The full methodology → Similar schools in the country
Bonn, Germany · est. 1961 · State