← Back to the rankingSteinmühle - Schule & Internat
Marburg, Germany · est. 1949 · Private
Illustration · Marburg
Steinmühle - Schule & Internat is a private Gymnasium with a boarding house in Cappel, Marburg, founded in 1949 in an old mill; since 1955 it has been a state-recognised school (Ersatzschule), run by the non-profit association Steinmühle Marburg e.V. About 900 students attend, 100 of whom board. There are three parts: a bilingual primary school (grades 1-4, since 2019, taught in German and English), a Hessen Gymnasium from grade 5 to 13 with the Abitur, and a newer international branch of the Gymnasium: from grade 5 in English and German, with the Cambridge Global Perspectives subject and Cambridge Checkpoint tests; the first Cambridge IGCSE exams in grade 10 will take place in the 2027-2028 school year. In the regular Gymnasium English is the first foreign language from grade 5, with optional bilingual Geography, History, Politics and Mathematics; the second language from grade 7 is French, Latin or Spanish, and a third in the upper school is Spanish or Italian. The school is known for competitive rowing, riding, a theatre workshop with the city theatre and awards for science and digital learning.
Key facts
Tuition
≈ $3 728–5 423 a year
330–480 EUR a month
The year is counted as ten payments: the school does not say how many payments it takes.
Programmes
Cambridge · Lower Secondary · National programme
Languages of instruction
German, English
Languages taught
French, Latin, Spanish, Italian
Class size
16-20 pupils per class in the primary school, 20-22 in the international branch
About the fees Fees from 1 August 2026 for day students, per month: Gymnasium grades 5-6 420 EUR including compulsory lunch of 55 EUR, grades 7-10 365 EUR, upper school 330 EUR; international branch 480 EUR plus 55 EUR lunch in grades 5-6; bilingual primary school 420 EUR plus compulsory morning care at 60 EUR and meals at 95 EUR. Boarding: 3290 EUR per month including school, meals and accommodation; for international students 51480 EUR per year including school, accommodation, meals and supervision on weekends and short holidays, but not the summer and Christmas holidays; the plus-MINT programme costs 4320 EUR per month. Textbooks are free under the state scheme, and transport is paid by the city or district under the school law.
Admissions The Gymnasium admits students into grade 5 and the upper school (grade 11), and into other grades if places are free or via a waiting list. For grade 5: an information evening in late October, an open day on the following Saturday, an interview with a member of the leadership in November-December with original primary school reports, and a decision before the Christmas holidays. For the upper school: an information evening in November and an interview with the head of the upper school. The international branch admits mainly into grade 5, with applications from the second week after the summer holidays, interviews and a language test from November; selection is based on language skills, gender balance and social and cultural diversity. The branch is aimed mainly at children coming from abroad, children of families moving abroad for work for a longer period, graduates of international primary schools and children interested in languages; at least A1 level in German and English is required, otherwise extra tuition is needed at additional cost. The bilingual primary school admits into grade 1: an information evening in January-February, a written application in February, an interview in March-April, and a reply around Easter. Boarding admission involves a consultation, a campus visit and a trial stay; there is a separate rate for international students.
Stages and year groups Bilingual primary school (grades 1-4), one class per year of 16-20 pupils: some subjects are taught bilingually, some by immersion with two teachers. Hessen Gymnasium: grades 5-6, 7-10 and a profile-based upper school (grades 11-13) with six or seven profiles and the Abitur (Allgemeine Hochschulreife); with bilingual Mathematics students can earn the Hessisches Internationales Abitur. The international branch of the Gymnasium (one class per year of 20-22 students) starts in grade 5 and will reach grade 10 in 2027-2028: English is the language of instruction in international subjects, Mathematics is bilingual, other subjects are in German or bilingual; Cambridge International courses include Global Perspectives, science following the Cambridge approach, Cambridge Checkpoint tests in English, Mathematics and Science in grade 8 (at extra cost), then Cambridge IGCSE in grade 10 in five subjects: English as a First Language, German, History, Combined Science and Mathematics; sitting the IGCSE exams is optional, the school says the certificate is recognised by Hessen as equivalent to the Mittlere Reife, and students can then move into the Gymnasium upper school. The Cambridge English (FCE) course in grade 11 is a language exam, not a programme.
Accreditations and programmes verified against official registries
Cambridge · Lower Secondary · authorised programmeRound Square · part of the associationCambridge courses run in the school's international section (Global Perspectives, Checkpoint, first IGCSE exams in 2027-2028); its core is a Hesse Gymnasium leading to the Abitur. The school is a member of Round Square.
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
CambridgeCambridge International Education
Part of the University of Cambridge. It allows a school to teach the Cambridge programmes and to enter pupils for the exams. There are four stages and they are authorised separately: primary, lower secondary, IGCSE and A Level. If the stages are known they are named in the line below; if that line is missing, the school does not publish them, and the Cambridge registry does not show stages either - it gives only the name of the centre, the country and whether private candidates are accepted. Cambridge calls what it does registration rather than accreditation, and the network holds about ten thousand schools.
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: Lower Secondary (ages 11-14). Lower Secondary is the middle stage, ages 11 to 14, with the same optional Checkpoint test at the end.
Register to check for yourself, and the full guide →Round SquareRound Square
A network of about three hundred schools in some fifty countries, built on the ideas of the educationalist Kurt Hahn: internationalism, democracy, environment, adventure, leadership, service. On joining, representatives of the network visit the school and write a report, and the school then spends up to two years as a candidate.
What the badge means for this school. The school belongs to the network. The check on joining is a real one, but what is examined is fidelity to the six principles rather than the quality of teaching, safeguarding or governance. Reports are not published, and the five-year review is one the school carries out on itself. The entry is confirmed in the organisation's open directory.
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 hall
·Laboratoriesnot stated on the website
✓Theatre or assembly hall
✓Library
✓Catering
·School transportnot stated on the website
✓Boarding
Also on site: Sports ground or field
Clubs and activities: Rudern (rowing) · Voltigieren/Reiten (vaulting and horse riding) · Bläserklasse (wind band class) · StoneMill Houseband · Choir · Theaterwerkstatt (theatre workshop) · Jugger · Lacrosse · Fechten (fencing) · Judo · Trampolin (trampoline) · Töpfern (pottery) · Duke Award
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 sizein the key facts above
The teams page lists the Gymnasium and primary school teachers by name with their subjects, the boarding staff and rowing coaches. Teachers in the international branch speak both languages, and language lessons in grades 5-6 are almost always taught by two teachers. In the primary school English is taught by a native speaker where possible, with assistants supporting English and German as second languages.
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
✓Counsellor
✓Child protection policy
·Staff trainingnot stated on the website
·Anti-bullying policynot stated on the website
The school and boarding house have child protection and prevention concepts based on children's rights, supervised by the Hessen ministries of education and social affairs; protection from violence, including sexualised violence, is the top priority. Students are supported by a team of teachers, social pedagogues, a school social worker and psychologists; there are designated leads for prevention and youth media protection, the school works with external agencies, and measures are regularly reviewed through internal and external audits. Boarders have independent trusted adults in both the school and the boarding house.
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%)72 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 data65 Accreditation and verifiability (10%)85 Teaching staff (10%) scored on disclosed data55 Facilities (10%) scored on disclosed data80 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