Phorms Campus Hamburg
The campus in Hamburg City is celebrating its 10th anniversary. The staff and students who were there from the beginning can hardly believe it: ‘At the start, everybody knew each other’s name. Of course, that’s no longer possible because the school has grown larger. Amazing! But I like the small classes and the teachers, who spend so much time on us. Learning is a lot of fun,’ says Shivani, a year 10 student. She has been attending the bilingual campus since year 1 and has experienced the school’s growth live.
The school started in 2008, in rented rooms in an empty school building in Schwenckestrasse, with 24 primary school children and bilingual lessons in German and English. In the first year, lessons took place in two classrooms and one art room, across a total area of around 1,000 m². About a year later, the school moved with around 60 students to rented containers in Eimsbüttel.
‘It was amazing to watch how everything grew.’
‘My biggest highlight in the 10 years at Phorms was the move to our current school building,’ explains Alexandra Falken, assistant to the head of school management at the Phorms Campus Hamburg. In 2012, the school community, which had meanwhile grown to 220 children, moved to the current school campus in Hamburg Mitte. ‘It was amazing to watch how everything grew,’ explains Alexandra, who has been at Phorms Hamburg since the beginning. She can still remember the time when the school team comprised only the school management and secretariat.
The school campus continued its expansion at the end of 2017 when the fourth floor was developed to include ultramodern science rooms for the enlarged secondary school. And the new sports pitch next to the school, which has a big space for track athletics, will also enhance sports lessons for Phorms students. Campus Hamburg is now responsible for the bilingual education of around 480 children (as at summer 2018).
‘The other special thing about Phorms, besides the bilingual concept, is the shared credo – “Positive, Harmony, Organised, Respectful, Motivated, Self-confident” (PHORMS) – of the students and teachers. We live it every day so that together we can learn with and from each other,’ says Dr Karl-Heinz Korsten. He was head of the bilingual school for five years, before retiring at the end of July 2018.
At the beginning of the new school year, the campus will be concentrating on welcoming and settling in the new head of school Peter Kubasch and the start of the upper school with year 11.
We wish the Phorms Campus Hamburg a happy and exciting 11th year!
Important events
2008 - Opening of primary school, state approval of the primary school as an ‘Ersatzschule’
2012 - Move to the current school building
2014 - State approval of Sekundarsstufe I (Staatliche Anerkennung)
