The federal states are responsible for education policy in Germany. They have the so-called cultural sovereignty, so that the state governments can largely independently decide how they organize their education systems. Therefore, the terms for the types of schools in general education are very different. Further information is also available on the website of the Conference of Ministers of Education: https://www.kmk.org/themen/allgemeinbildende-schulen/bildungsweun-und-abschluesse.html
State of Schleswig-Holstein
Inclusion
Schleswig-Holstein has been on the way to an inclusive school since 1990, in which pupils with diverse prerequisites and independent of the existence of special educational needs can learn together. More than two-thirds of all pupils with special educational needs attend a general education school in Schleswig-Holstein (https://www.schleswig-holstein.de/DE/Themen/S/schulsystem.html).
Primary school
The primary school covers grades 1 to 4, provides a basic education. Children attend primary school usually at the age of 6 - 10 years (https://www.schleswig-holstein.de/DE/Fachinhalte/S/schulsystem/grundschulen.html).
After primary school, there are two secondary school types:
Community school
In the community school children from grade 5 to 10 are taught together. Classes can take place both in differentiated way within a learning group (children and young people are taught together in a group as far as possible) as well as according to the performance and inclination of the pupils in differentiated groups.
At the community school, all graduations may be obtained: the first general education graduation after grade 9, the middle degree after class 10 and the high school graduation after 13 years. Community schools have either their own upper secondary school level at the location or have a cooperation with other community schools or Gymnasium with upper secondary level (https://www.schleswig-holstein.de/DE/Fachinhalte/S/schulsystem/gemeinschaftsschule.html).
Gymnasium
Gymnasium provides pupils with a broad and in-depth general education, which usually leads to general university entrance qualification (Abitur). At Gymnasium in Schleswig-Holstein, pupils can take the high school graduation after 8 or 9 years. Some Gymnasium even offer both options in parallel. From the 2019/20 school year onwards, the high school graduation will be offered after 9 years at all Gymnasium in Schleswig-Holstein.
At Gymnasium the following qualifications can be obtained: the first general education graduation, the middle degree and the high school graduation (https://www.schleswig-holstein.de/DE/Fachinhalte/S/schulsystem/allgemeine_informationen_gym.html)
Special Schools
Pupils with identified special educational needs can be taught at special support centers. There are support centers for the following special educational needs: seeing, hearing, physical and motor development, mental development, language, learning, emotional and social development and teaching for sick pupils (https://www.schleswig-holstein.de/DE/Fachinhalte/S/sonderpaedagogischeFoerderung/foerderzentren.html
Full-time care in schools
There are all-day schools in all school types. (https://www.schleswig-holstein.de/DE/Fachinhalte/G/ganztagsschule/ganztagsschulen_schwerpunkt_text.html).
In addition to state schools in Schleswig-Holstein, there are also private schools: https://www.schleswig-holstein.de/DE/Themen/P/privatschulen.html