Two children descend the steps of a residential building in a Basel neighbourhood and wave goodbye to their mother before making their way to school alone in the winter darkness. Sophie also says goodbye to her little brother, who is walking in the other direction. Then she gets on her scooter. She has a long way to school ahead of her and will be crossing many streets in Basel for half an hour. It's drizzling, so she pulls her hood low over her face.

Sometimes she meets up with her school friends on the way. Today, however, she is doing the walk all by herself. "That's not true," Sophie corrects. "I've got my imagination with me." Anyone watching her can guess what she means: Sophie talks almost the whole time. She reminds herself that you can't just start walking at the side of the road, you have to wait for the green light. Then she scolds someone who is obviously not abiding by this rule. However, nobody sees this rebel except Sophie herself. Finally, she happily tells us that she got a 5.5 in a music test and mumbles something to herself.

Sophie is only torn out of her fantasy when classmates whizz past on their bikes, cheerfully calling out their names and being greeted back. But when Sophie waves to other children, she gets puzzled looks. That's not usual in the city after all. And the girl the schoolchildren see at the side of the road is quite loud and laughs with her mouth wide open. Some of the teenagers don't know exactly how to react to this - and prefer to look away.

Sophie's mum attaches great importance to her children's independence - and the journey to school is part of this. Driving the children to school by car never even crossed her mind, she says. Neither for Sophie, who was born with Down's syndrome and therefore has limited cognitive abilities, nor for her little brother, who was born without any limitations. Sophie doesn't just manage the journey to school on her scooter. She also travels by tram without assistance. In the first week of school, her father and mother showed her exactly where to go and, above all, where to stop and wait.

When Sophie locks up her scooter and enters the Leonhard secondary school building, it quickly becomes clear that almost everyone here knows her - even though she has only been attending secondary school for a few months. "That's Sophie" is the phrase you hear most often from classmates, teachers and other carers. Sophie, who prefers to wait until the rush up the stairs is over. Sophie, who sometimes climbs the stairs to her classroom very quickly and sometimes deliberately at a snail's pace. And sometimes loses her shoe in the process. Sophie, who is "well integrated", as everyone assures her, but prefers to eat her bread alone during the break and enjoy the view of the school playground.

The 13-year-old heads unerringly for the yellow classroom of homeroom 4i. Pupils from the Progymnasium level, the E-train and the weaker pupils from the A-train learn together here. In addition, four children have so-called integration class status (IK), which means that they have a diagnosed learning difficulty or disability and are entitled to support from special needs teachers. Sophie is one of them. The regular pupils are about to take a German test. "The tests are voluntary for the IK pupils - if they want to try, we'll support them," says special needs teacher Martin Gürtler. Of course, those who take part also receive an assessment - but measured against their individual learning goals.

"If the child achieves a good grade, this does not mean that they will soon be able to go to grammar school," says the special needs teacher. The report card does not normally include final grades, but rather the learning objectives and the extent to which these have been achieved. For Sophie, the most important thing is to get her reading, writing and maths skills up to scratch so that she can go through life independently. "Counting small change, reading timetables and social skills," says Gürtler. At the moment, Sophie's German and maths are roughly at the level of the second primary level. In a class where different levels learn together, the individual learning goals are not even noticeable. In any case, today's test looks a little different for each train. Pupils in the A stream have a larger font and are allowed to answer most of the questions by simply ticking a box. The pupils in the E-train have the same printout as those in the Progymnasium, but have more time to answer the questions in writing. The pupils heading for the Gymnasium moan about the time pressure and the crowd. "You'll never make it," shouts one. Not a trace of underchallenge. Sophie and the other IK students have been given the A-train test - and have additional help sitting next to them.

Curative education trainee Maryam Ahmadi helps Sophie. She reminds the pupil to read the text line by line - slowly Sophie pushes the ruler further and further down the text. For the questions, Ahmadi gives tips on where to find the answers. Above all, however, she draws Sophie's attention back to the task again and again. "Sophie, here." "Come on, read another bit." "Sophie, where were we?" Because as soon as something cracks, Sophie immediately looks up, grins and rocks around in her chair.

Almost everything seems to be more exciting than the German test. Even though Sophie herself assures us: "I really, really enjoy reading!" Next to Sophie on the wall is her personal goal: "I want to keep at it and only look at my work!" Just below this, Sophie has listed with the remedial teachers how she wants to achieve this: "I don't play around with anything." "I concentrate." "I set myself small goals." And finally, the fantasy comes up again: "My fantasy family leaves me alone."

After the break, the 4i pupils continue to work on their individual weekly plans. Sophie calculates in the number range from 10 to 20 - she often uses the slide rule to help her. Unlike in most Swiss classrooms, pupils here do not learn subject by subject, but rather there are so-called epoch subjects that are studied in depth for a fortnight. This makes it easier to cater for the different learning speeds of the pupils. This week it's maths and German. In addition, one subject is repeated - this week it is French. The teachers who give "inputs" - the closest thing to traditional frontal teaching - go from room to room. When there is no input, it is the turn of the individual weekly plans, for which each pupil also keeps a learning journal. The teachers and remedial teachers are always there to help and monitor. The classes are also slightly smaller than in the rest of the school.

20 instead of 25 or more children learn together. The concept for this unusual way of teaching was continuously developed by a number of teachers in 2010. "We wanted to make school for the pupils," recalls Christian Elsässer, the current co-leader of the group. The school management responded to the group of teachers' wish to be able to teach differently so that weaker pupils were not left behind - and combined this with the request to create integration classes that could also be attended by ICS pupils. This has been the case for five years now in years 8 and 9, whereas in year 7, which Sophie attends, the new teaching method was only introduced in 2015.

Initially, there was a lot of resistance from parents, Elsässer recalls: "Everything that is new is initially viewed very critically. But nobody questioned whether what had been done for 100 years was actually good. For me, that's part of my self-image as a teacher." Sek Leonhard is now also a project school and receives funding from the canton. Nevertheless, the teachers remain self-critical. Overtime and unpaid lessons are currently just as much a part of their teaching system as the weekly team meetings in which they discuss what is working and where things are getting too restless. Teaching with mixed levels and epochal subjects also brings a lot of movement and therefore, of course, unrest into the classroom. Not every input makes sense for every pupil. And so it's not just the teachers and special needs teachers who move from room to room, but also the pupils. Those in the higher levels are currently moving to other rooms and all the A-level and IC students are in the yellow room, where Sophie is also sitting. It's time for maths input. Teacher Christian Elsässer explains how to calculate the perimeter and area of rectangles and triangles.

The pupils are given the rectangle to hold in their hands, cut it into triangles and reassemble it - the tactile aspect helps with understanding. The pupils can also watch the crafting and drawing processes on educational videos at their own pace afterwards. Two special needs teachers sit with the IK pupils. Sophie and the others are at the table, but don't speak up - they are far too busy drawing the information neatly into the exercise book. Everything slows down a little and the special needs teachers try to keep their attention on what's happening: "Are you listening, Sophie? Are you still with me?" asks special needs teacher Elena Jennrich, and suddenly she looks surprised as Sophie explains to her how to calculate the perimeter of a rectangle. "That plus that, plus that, plus that," she says proudly. At least some of the learning material has stuck. This is another aim of integrative teaching.

The pupils are given the rectangle, cut it into triangles and reassemble it - the tactile aspect helps with understanding. The pupils can also watch the crafting and drawing processes on educational videos at their own pace afterwards. Two special needs teachers sit with the IK pupils. Sophie and the others are at the table, but don't speak up - they are far too busy drawing the information neatly into the exercise book. Everything slows down a little and the special needs teachers try to keep their attention on what's happening: "Are you listening, Sophie? Are you still with me?" asks special needs teacher Elena Jennrich, and suddenly she looks surprised as Sophie explains to her how to calculate the perimeter of a rectangle. "That plus that, plus that, plus that," she says proudly. At least some of the learning material has stuck. This is another aim of integrative teaching.

"I know Sophie as someone who learns a lot from others," says her mum. This is precisely why she wanted her daughter to attend an inclusive class with stronger pupils rather than a special school. This had already worked well in kindergarten and primary school. "But it's important to me that it's the right type of school for Sophie - if it doesn't work out that way, we're also open to a change," says the mum. Two classmates from Sophie's primary school days, Polina and Livia, are now back in her class and will share a room with her at the ski camp. "Sophie really belongs here and we think it's great that everyone helps each other," say the two girls. Nevertheless, Sophie doesn't spend her lunch break with her friends again, but goes to the canteen with the group of special needs teachers. They are there to support Sophie if necessary and are also familiar with Sophie's canteen habits: Sophie only eats her soup at the very end - preferably really cold. And here, during the break, her imaginary family is allowed to join in again. "My child and my uncle - but they're only there in my imagination," Sophie explains quite naturally. "We discussed this with her parents - Sophie is good at keeping reality and fantasy apart. The fantasy family has no place in the classroom, but it's okay during the break and free time," says special needs teacher Martin Gürtler.

Sophie's favourite subject is still on the agenda for the afternoon: Textiles. Sophie kneels in front of the sewing machine and almost crawls in with her head to thread it. Eventually it works, Sophie cheers and jumps. Trainee Maryam Ahmadi slowly pushes the fabric under the presser foot while Sophie operates the foot pedal. The two then switch roles. Thanks to this teamwork, Sophie's gym bag is already much further along than that of her friend Polina, who complains in the next room that this compartment is really unnecessary. You can buy gym bags, after all. "Relax, Polina," Sophie calls over. "You need to concentrate too. " And no one seems to find it unusual that Sophie is now suddenly the one admonishing the others to stay on task.