Parents' guide · school

Luxembourgish or German: which one should you bet on before school?

Q: When does German actually start in Luxembourg schools?

In cycle 2, around the age of 6, and it arrives in writing: children learn to read in German, which then becomes the language of teaching for every subject except French. It is reading instruction led by a teacher with a method, not vocabulary to revise at home.

Q: When does French come in?

Earlier than most parents expect, but gently: from cycle 1, several playful activities are held in French during the week. Spoken French is taught from cycle 2, and written French is introduced in cycle 3.1.

Q: Three school languages plus ours at home. Isn't that too many?

They do not arrive at the same time. The curriculum brings them in one after another, in a fixed order, over several years. Your home language is not a fourth one too many: Luxembourg's plurilingual education programme is designed for it to sit alongside Luxembourgish.

The question comes up in every family that does not speak Luxembourgish at home. If school ends up teaching in German anyway, why not start there? Luxembourg's basic education curriculum has already answered, and its answer is a timetable rather than a preference. For the "how", the other guide covers it: the four ways to bring Luxembourgish into your home.

You think you have to choose. The curriculum already chose.

The question "Luxembourgish or German" rests on an assumption that looks obvious and is wrong: that school leaves the choice to you. It does not. The order in which the languages arrive is fixed, it is public, and it depends neither on your commune nor on your child's teacher.

That is good news. It takes a decision off your hands that you were never equipped to make anyway: nobody can work out on their own how three school languages fit together across nine years.

If you grew up in a system where school happened in one language, this is the part that takes getting used to. What this page does is read the official order as a calendar, and tell you at what age each language becomes, or stops being, your business.

The official order of the languages, cycle by cycle

Three languages arrive, one after another, and each one through a different channel. That last point is what changes everything, and nobody spells it out to parents:

Cycle	Age	The language of the classroom	Through which channel
Cycle 1 précoce, then Spillschoul	3 to 5	Luxembourgish is the language of communication. Several playful activities are held in French during the week.	The ear. The child cannot read yet.
Cycle 2	6 to 8	German: children learn to read in German, which becomes the language of teaching for every subject except French. Spoken French is taught from here.	Writing, for German.
Cycle 3.1	around 8	Written French is introduced.	Writing.

Source: Languages in Luxembourg schools, MENJE (in French). The ministry describes cycle 1 as taking in children aged 3 to 5.

Why Luxembourgish first: not a preference, a timetable

A child of 3 to 6 does not read. The only way a language can reach them is through the ear. And the language their class speaks out loud, right now, in the instructions, the routines, the songs and the arguments in the playground, is Luxembourgish.

German, on the other hand, comes in through writing, and later. Betting on German at 3 means preparing a channel your child does not have yet, for a deadline that is not the next one.

Put another way: there is no trade-off to make before the age of 6. There is one language that is useful today. What the précoce already does for language and the two Spillschoul years, where the ear is built show you what those hours look like.

German arrives in writing, and writing is the school's job

Learning to read is not vocabulary to stockpile. It is reading instruction, delivered by a teacher with a method, over two years. It is not something a parent moves forward from the sofa, and it is not something an app moves forward either.

The state's provision for newly arrived pupils makes the point well: the cours d'accueil, intensive language classes, cover German and French, "or initiation courses in the Luxembourgish language". Written German is carried by the school, with the school's resources.

It is also why a general-purpose language app does not answer the question: what general-purpose apps are worth at this age comes down to two facts, no Luxembourgish and a requirement to read already.

Source: Schooling of foreign pupils, basic education, MENJE (in French).

A change is on the way, and it concerns this very language. Under the ALPHA – zesumme wuessen reform, parents of cycle 1.2 pupils will choose for the first time, in the second term of the 2026/2027 school year, between French and German as the language in which their child learns to read. What the ALPHA reform changes for your child sets out the timetable and the decision to make. None of it changes cycle 1, which stays in Luxembourgish either way.

French, the language the question always forgets

Parents who ask the question are thinking about two languages. The sequence has three, and French is already there in cycle 1, in the form of playful activities during the week.

The consequence often catches people out: a French-speaking family has no head start at all on cycle 1, it has a head start on cycle 3. If English, Portuguese or Spanish is the language of your home, you have no head start on any of the three, and that is fine, because the rule that follows is the same for everyone.

What if your child arrives at 5 or 6?

This is the one case where the answer really does change, and it deserves to be said plainly: your child arrives at the moment reading begins, without the two or three years of Luxembourgish in the ear that their classmates have.

Beware of a common misunderstanding. The cours d'accueil do exist, but they are for children arriving between the ages of 6 and 11 and are only organised from the second year of cycle 2 onwards. A child arriving at 5 is in cycle 1: they do not get them. A child arriving at 6 starts cycle 2.1: they do not get them yet. The safety net is not there at the moment you expect it.

What does exist: the Service de l'intégration et de l'accueil scolaires guides families, intercultural mediators are provided by the ministry, and there is a Portuguese-speaking support worker in cycle 1 as well as complementary Portuguese classes in cycles 2 to 4.

The advice fits in one sentence: talk to the school before the school year starts, say which language is spoken at home, and ask what is planned. Then see what to do in the three months before.

What this changes for you, in practice

Who carries what, and when:

At this point	Your part	The school's part
Before cycle 1 starts	Let your child hear Luxembourgish, without making them recite it.	Nothing yet.
During cycle 1	The same language, still through the ear. Nothing new to learn.	Luxembourgish, all day long.
From cycle 2 on	Read a story at bedtime, in whichever language you like.	Written German, with a method.

For that first row, the most useful thing is not a vocabulary list but the words the teacher uses every day.

One last thing, and it is the mirror image of the mistake this page opens with: do not drop your own language to make room. Luxembourg's plurilingual education programme is built on the opposite idea. The sturdiest thing your child has is the language in which you are truly yourself.

Luxembourgish through the ear, before writing gets involved.

Kawi lets your child hear the words their class uses, with the official pronunciation from LOD.lu, through play, from age 3.

Discover Kawi

Your questions

Should I teach my child Luxembourgish or German before school starts?+

Luxembourgish, because it is the language of the classroom now. In cycle 1 the language of communication is Luxembourgish. German only arrives in cycle 2, as the language children learn to read in. Before the age of 6, it has no use in your child's day.

When does German actually start in Luxembourg schools?+

In cycle 2, around the age of 6, and in writing: children learn to read in German, which then becomes the language of teaching for every subject except French. It is reading instruction led by a teacher, not vocabulary to revise at home.

We speak English at home. Does that help our child in cycle 1?+

Not for cycle 1: the classroom runs on Luxembourgish, and English is not one of the three school languages of basic education, which are Luxembourgish, German and French. Keep English at home, it takes nothing away from your child, but it will not be the language they need on the first morning.

My child can already read a few words in English. Is that wasted here?+

Nothing about reading is ever wasted, but do not expect it to shortcut cycle 2: in Luxembourg, learning to read happens in German, with the teacher's method, over two years. And cycle 1 comes before reading altogether, so what counts at that stage is the ear.

When does French come in?+

Earlier than most parents expect, but gently: from cycle 1 as playful activities during the week, then spoken French in cycle 2, and written French in cycle 3.1.

We are moving here when our child is 5 or 6. Does the answer change?+

Yes, but not in the way people imagine. The cours d'accueil are for children aged 6 to 11 and only begin in the second year of cycle 2: a child arriving at 5, or at 6 at the start of cycle 2, does not get them. Your contacts are the school itself and the Service de l'intégration et de l'accueil scolaires.

Three school languages plus ours at home. Isn't that too many?+

They do not arrive at the same time: the curriculum brings them in one after another, over several years. Your home language is not a fourth one too many, the plurilingual programme is designed for it to sit alongside Luxembourgish.