Our European cultural heritage

Students choosing Latin as a core subjct receive an education in the classics and the humanities with emphasis on language, literature and cultural history.

This study profile focuses on in-depth knowledge of the Latin language, helps students to understand language structures, facilitates the aquisition of modern languages and the understanding of foreign words and scientific terminology; furthermore it improves students' ability to express themselves in German and to develop their mastery of their mother tongue.

Studying Latin as a core subject involves the in-depth translation and interpretation of important original Latin literary texts. These texts, which are always concerned with basic questions of human existence, offer historical distance to enable students to gain new perspectives for present-day problems thus leading to deeper understanding of the cultural diversity of the European continent.

Latin as core subject ensures a linguistic and cultural general education of timeless interdisciplinary importance such as is currently only available at a Gymnasium.

Economics, jurisprudence and civic education

The subject, Economics, is concerned with both current events and history. Students examine the workings of the market economy, its advantages and disadvantages, as well as economic crises based on examples from world affairs. Questions such as: Where does money come from and what significance does it have? Why do we have economic crises? Why is there unemployment and what can be done to combat it? Why are there such marked differences in wealth and prosperity? Why are some countries rich and others poor? Economic history and philosophical interconnections are also explained. Students choosing this study profile should be interested in economic, political and historical interconnections.

The subject, Business Studies, is based on examples from the world of business. Students learn about such topics as how a company is founded and run; how the stock market functions and its significance; the role and functioning of the banks. Visits to a variety of enterprises help to clarify and deepen students’ knowledge of the material.

In the subject, Law, students learn about the Swiss legal system by examining legal cases that appear daily in the press. Both the history of law and modern legislation are studied. Students visit court hearings to help them to understand the material.

Natural Sciences, Mathematics and Technical Sciences

The choice of the Mathematics - Natural Sciences study profile results in additional lessons in the core subject, Mathematics. This is irrespective of whether the student has opted for Biology and Chemistry or Applied Mathematics and Physics as a sub-profile.

From the 4th class, either Biology and Chemistry or Applied Mathematics and Physics are taught. These additional lessons are used, on the one hand, to study chapters in Mathematics that cannot be covered in the basic subject lessons of the other core subject direction, e.g., complex numbers or differential equations. On the other hand, there is also time to examine themes in even more depth, as well as to discuss the interconnectedness of individual sub-areas. One area of focus is analysis and probability calculation.

Modern Languages

Studying Italian enables students to find their way in the Italian-speaking world and culture. It promotes the skills needed to understand others and to express oneself in a foreign language. Students learn the four basic communication skills: listening and reading comprehension, oral and written expression.

The lessons aim to help students to break down the boundaries to the Italian-speaking cultural area, comprising Italy and the Italian-speaking part of Switzerland, and to study in depth the values and mentality of this culture.

Learning Italian contributes to international understanding and also improves the student’s ability to understand the descendents of Italian immigrants and their integration in Switzerland.