The Graz International Bilingual School (GIBS) is an Austrian bilingual (English/German) university preparatory semi-independent charter school Gymnasium in Graz, Austria. The school mainly focuses on languages, offering German, English, Russian, Latin, French and Spanish. Students graduate with the Austrian Matura, the IB Diploma or with both, assuming that they meet the criteria necessary. In grade 5, or the students' first year, students are required to take both German and English. In grade 8, the students must choose between French and Spanish. They must choose between Spanish, French, Latin or Russian in grade 10. The same language cannot be chosen twice (eg. Spanish in both grade 8 and 10). Most students graduate from GIBS with a total of 4 languages. School profile GIBS is a bilingual (German-English) university preparatory charter school. At present the school comprises more than 500 students and 60 teaching staff. The rest of the team is made up of language assistants, trainee teachers and other administrative staff. The language of instruction is English in the form of "flexible monolingualism". The first three months of Year 1 take the form of an intensive phase of language acquisition after which the students have reached a level of language competence which enables them to participate in lessons conducted in the target language. Following the intensive phase, linguistic back-up for other subjects is provided when required in the English class. In Year 7 History can optionally be taught in French. During the first five school years in particular, different subjects collaborate on broad projects that supplement language instruction. Between Year 6 and Year 8, the upper level course system ensures the interconnection and deepening of learning material, and also allows the students to dive deeper into their interests that they wish to pursue in their later professional life. Students from non-German speaking countries are taught German as a foreign language. The school encourages foreign students to learn German through programs such as Deutsch als Fremdsprache (DAF, German as a second language). Their evaluation is in accordance to §18/12 of the School Instruction Guidelines which allows students to select either German or English as their first language of instruction and be thereby assessed accordingly. The school has a reputation for academic excellence and a strong participation in national awards and organizations. Upon graduation, the majority of students enroll in a 4-year degree program. GIBS graduates have attended Harvard College, Imperial College London,