The European Schools provide teaching in the official languages of the European Union.
However, not all the schools are able to provide the full study cycle (from Nursery to Baccalaureate) in all these languages. The European School Karlsruhe has three language sections (German, English, French) therefore pupils enrolled in these sections get tuition in German, English and French Language as mother tongue (L1) respectively. Pupils having a mother tongue/dominant language other than DE, EN or FR will also be enrolled in one of the existing language sections and have, under certain conditions, tuition in their mother tongue/dominant language e.g. Spanish or Italian and much more (Students Without Language Sections-SWALS ).
From the first year Primary, pupils of the European Schools start to study a first foreign language (L2), which should be one of the vehicular languages of the EU that is German, English or French. From the first year secondary a second foreign language (L3) is introduced for all pupils. A third foreign language (L4) is optional from S4 on and a fourth (L5) from S6.