Initiative „Schulen: Partner der Zukunft“
The “Schools: Partners for the Future” (PASCH) initiative creates a global network of more than 2,000 PASCH schools with particular ties to Germany. The Goethe-Institut supports around 600 PASCH schools in the national education systems of over 100 countries.
The “Schools: Partners for the Future” (PASCH) initiative was launched in February 2008 by Germany’s Federal Foreign Office. PASCH is coordinated by the Federal Foreign Office and implemented in cooperation with the Central Agency for Schools Abroad (ZfA), the Goethe-Institut, the German Academic Exchange Service and the Educational Exchange Service of the Standing Conference of the Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs of the Länder in the Federal Republic of Germany.
Guiding principles and goals
PASCH is organized according to four guiding principles:- prospects through education,
- broadened horizons through multilingualism,
- access to language and education and
- joint tackling of future problems as an international community of learners
"Schools: Partners for the Future" initiative
The initiative is coordinated by the Federal Foreign Office and implemented in cooperation with the Central Agency for Schools Abroad (ZfA), the Goethe-Institut, the German Academic Exchange Service and the Educational Exchange Service of the Standing Conference of the Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs of the Länder in the Federal Republic of Germany.
The network of German schools abroad and schools offering the German Language Certificate is being strengthened. Furthermore, cooperation with schools is being stepped up with a view to anchoring German as a foreign language more firmly within national education systems. In addition, scholarships for pursuing a course of study in Germany and opportunities for school exchanges and twinning programmes are made available.
Goals of PASCH
The initiative is designed to arouse and sustain young people’s interest in and enthusiasm for modern-day Germany, German society and the German language. A global network of partner schools of the Federal Republic of Germany is being created; the schools become part of an international community of learners through shared activities and exchange.
PASCH offers attractive training courses that help give pupils and teachers qualifications that will serve them well in the longer term, thereby building upon the skills that the young people will need to study in Germany and in their later professional lives. It additionally aims to establish lively and long-lasting ties to Germany and to encourage schools, teachers and pupils to share their thoughts and ideas openly with one another and to work together. Furthermore, PASCH is linked to other foreign cultural relations and educational policy initiatives such as the “Kulturweit” voluntary service.
Role and activities of the Goethe-Institut
The Goethe-Institut helps the more than 600 schools it supports to include or expand German teaching on their curricula. It offers teachers further training in pedagogical methods and language courses, and equips schools with modern multimedia-friendly teaching, learning and cultural studies materials. Within the framework of the initiative, the Goethe-Institut has additionally sent teaching experts out to assist the partner schools around the world. Youth programmes are run in Germany for pupils from participating schools, allowing them to improve their language proficiency, develop their intercultural skills and experience Germany and its culture at first hand.
- General area
- Teachers’ area
- Students’ area
The general area features information about the participating institutions and their activities. These include projects within the framework of the PASCH initiative, blogs from staff working in different regions of the world, PASCH youth courses in Germany and a forum where schools can find international twinning partners. An interactive world map provides an overview of the network of partner schools, and the participating schools present brief portraits of themselves.
The teachers’ area
In this area, teachers can find ideas about how to use PASCH-net in their German lessons, download teaching materials and obtain information about pedagogical methods. The PASCH learning platform allows teachers to set up their own virtual classrooms or to use existing courses.
In the community, teachers can share material or find partners for their project ideas. Thanks to the community, the learning platform and blogs, teachers can realize international projects such as regional online school newspapers or podcasts.
On its PASCH learning platform, PASCH-net offers tutored online further training courses for teachers. In the PASCH-net-Führerschein online course, teachers learn about the website’s advantages for German lessons, such as the communities, learning platform and PASCH-Global school newspaper. In the Moodle-Führerschein online course they learn how the PASCH learning platform, which is based on Moodle software, can be used in school lessons or during a teaching training course.
Contact: lernplattform@pasch-net.de
The students’ area
Pupils learning German at PASCH schools can share ideas and opinions with other pupils in the community. They can also upload texts, photos and videos there, set up groups and join forum discussions.
Competitions and projects encourage pupils to get involved. Texts with different levels of difficulty provide information about Germany, including options for studying there.
Discussion topics, activities and language games for learners of German.
Anyone who wants to play an active role in the communities or the learning platform on PASCH-net has to register and then log in using their e-mail address and password.
Contact: service@pasch-net.de
School portraits
Partner Schools
As a designated Language College, Tomlinscote School considers modern languages a basis for pupils’ carreer chances and aims to offer as wide a choice of languages as possible.
We were delighted to learn that German is offered as a first foreign language and that all students are expected to take at least one foreign language to GCSE examination.
The German Department at Tomlinscote School is currently working on increasing the take-up of German. To ensure that pupils receive an authentic impression of German-speaking countries, the school has joined various partnerships such as with the Robert Bosch Gymnasium in Wedlingen.
An intensive and constantly developing exchange programme benefits in particular pupils in Key Stages 3 and 5. Those in KS 5 are offered the option to do a one-week work experience in Germany.
Tomlinscote School already has some experience in Content and Language Integrated Learning Projects (CLIP). As a member of the “Schools, Partners for the Future” project the school hopes to play a part in further developing cross-curricular teaching in the UK.
Tomlinscote School
The school had already been involved in a number of CLIL projects (Content Language Integrated Learning) and it has been able to intensify and extend these projects. Since the start of the partner school initiative a number of primary and secondary schools in the Crewe area have been motivated to choose German as their foreign language and these schools are also currently engaged in a number of CLIL projects.
Leighton Academy
Over the last years a great number of projects as well as educational and cultural events have made Bishopbriggs Academy a nationally acclaimed example of excellence (i.e.: Modern Languages Excellence Report 2011). This partnership project has had a significant impact with teaching colleagues, education authorities and elected political members at both a local and national level with responsibility for education. It has aided and positively influenced promoting the teaching and learning of German in Scottish education and increased the interest in German society.
Bishopsbriggs Academy
Colyton Grammar School is regarded as one of the best schools in the country with Ofsted rating the school as ‘Outstanding’.
As a progressive school it has the most advanced technology, including a languages lab and a video conferencing system. The school offers its students a wide range of extra-curricular activities and operates through the "Leading Edge Partnership" scheme with seven other selective secondary schools in its local area as well as with the University of Exeter.
German is offered as a second foreign language after French from Year 8. The German department has a total of five teaching staff and has carried out successful collaborative projects with sixth-form students in primary schools.
In addition to this, the German department maintains an exchange program with the Gymnasium Eckental in Bavaria, as part of which sixth form students complete a work placement in Germany. Moreover, trips to Berlin are also regularly arranged in collaboration with the history department.
Colyton Grammar School
The school takes an active part as a ‘Leading-Edge’ school in the development of innovations in the educational sector and trains new teachers as a ‘Teaching school’. Moreover, in co-operation with the Bergische Universität Wuppertal the school offers internships abroad for German teaching students.
The school has already been admitted into the digital network a while ago. It is also very active in the ‘Think German’ network of the University of East Anglia and offers free teacher trainings for local German teachers as part of the EEG (East England German network) since 2015. A local German teacher has received the ‘German Teacher Award’ in 2016, a local annual award, organised by the German Embassy in London. Farlingaye High School perfectly blends into the network of partner schools in the United Kindgom.
Farlingaye High School