www.brg-judenburg.ac.at

The School

The BG/BRG Judenburg is a lower and upper grammar school with approx. 850 students and 75 teachers in different fields. Students from the BG/BRG Judenburg come from all social classes and also from social minorities. The students start at the BG/BRG Judenburg at the age of 10 and finish school with the leaving certificate at the age of 18. The school offers a wide range of subjects in different fields: science, sports, arts, languages, humanities. Furthermore the school offers boarding facilities in the afternoon and has participated in different national and international projects. The school is also equipped with a high-tech IT-infrastructure: computers and projectors in all classes, whiteboards, iPads, 3d-printers, biology and chemistry laboratories and it is a nationally certified eLearning and STEM school. In the lower grades (class 1-4) students can select either an extra second foreign language (French or Latin) or they can focus their studies on science. Since several years, the BG/BRG Judenburg has also been providing its students with Content and Language Integrated Learning Classes (CLIL), which means that some non-language classes e.g. arts, biology, geography etc. are taught bilingually. After the introductory time of 4 years in the lower grade CLIL was also integrated in the higher grades. Students can now take the final exams in the subjects they were taught bilingually in either their mother tongue German or in English. Furthermore, in the higher grades (class 5-8) students can focus on certain fields like: music and arts, language, science in which they also do a lot of project work also in English. Especially languages play an important role in the higher grades. English is offered as an obligatory 1st foreign language, then French, Italian and Spanish. Some of our students also sit language exams (English FCE/CAE and French DELF exams) and at the age of 18 they will finally pass the school leaving certificate, also in English. The school has been participating in several international projects (Comenius, eTwinning, Erasmus+, Caretakers of the Environment International, etc. ) and the administration of the school has always tried to offer its students as well as its teachers to create an international network in order to enlarge their personal and professional perspective. Currently the BG/BRG Judenburg is also coordinating anErasmus+ KA2 project with 3 partner countries focusing on the integration of drama and film in the daily routine of our schools.

Needs and Goals of the School

Staff competences:

The organisations’ needs in relation to the training of staff and teacher competences are quite large. Although all language and CLIL teachers are in command of extensive professional qualifications and trainings they continuously need to adapt their teaching methods to today’s educational and social demands in Austria. Due to many major national changes in the Austrian educational system teaching requests have changed tremendously during the last couple of years. Now there is a strong demand for new methodological and didactic approaches in language and CLIL classes especially in the field of elearning and the use of ICT. Language and CLIL teachers need to get input for new authentic teaching methods and modern didactic approaches in language and CLIL classes. Only if they continuously acquire better and suitable teaching qualifications they can meet the demands of professional language and CLIL lessons and also the demands of the Austrian Ministry of Education.

As CLIL is one of the main educational pillars of the BG/BRG Judenburg and as the school offers CLIL classes on all school levels the demand for highly qualified CLIL teachers is extremely high. Although some non-language teachers are highly motivated to teach a non-language subject in English, they still restrain for joining the CLIL team because they think of having neither enough linguistic skills nor didactic and methodological expertise to teach their subject in English. This project should not only give these teachers the opportunity to get professional training in CLIL but also language teachers to see how they can support their non-language teachers in teaching CLIL.

Curriculum relevant aspects:

This project also aims to meet curriculum relevant aspects. The Austrian government introduced some years ago centralized and standardized final exams for students at the age of 18/19. In the next couple of months also a new educational system for Austrian academic high schools will be introduced in which students will be graded each semester and according to required skills and competences. These changes confront all language and CLIL teachers with new challenges in how to implement standardized topics in their class, how to teach these topics and how to test and assess students’ skills according to these topics. With this project teachers should get new and authentic input with which they can adapt their CLIL learning environment to the new demands of the national curriculum.

Organization of teaching:

The school administration also wants to support teachers, especially CLIL teachers, to improve and professionalise their teaching. Only if teachers fill their lessons with authentic topics and work on these topics with the use of digital devices, a sustainable and modern education at school can be guaranteed. One of the most important demand teachers need to meet are competence and skill oriented lessons. Therefore, teachers need to restructure their teaching methods and get to now such methods from experts.

Teachers‘ and staffs´ language skills:

Languages play a major role at the BG/BRG Judenburg. Therefore teachers and staff also need to brush-up and enlarge their language skills continuously in order to support students and teacher more efficiently when they participate in Erasmus+ projects, international conferences, international language exams or at the national final language exams. Furthermore, since bilingual classes are offered at the BG/BRG Judenburg and the offer will be enlarged during the next years, CLIL teachers often consult regular English teachers to support them in the preparation of CLIL classes.

Current and past activities on a European and International level

During the last decade the organisation has been very active in the field on international mobility and cooperation. It participated in two Comenius projects and subsequently coordinated two Eramsus+ KA2 students' exchange project. The current E+ KA2 students' exchange project is in cooperation with with SP/DK/PL. Addtionally the BG/BRG Judenburg has successfully organised an E+ KA1 teachers' mobility project with an amount of 11 mobilities.

The BG/BRG Judenburg is a certified UNESCO school and regularly carries out international projects according to the UNESCO charters. Since 2000 the BG/BRG Judenburg has also been a regular conference participant at the ecological Caretakers of the Environment International Conference which has been taken place in different countries all over the world. In July 2018 the BG/BRG Judenburg had the honour to host this conference in Judenburg with approx. 250 delegates from all over the world (e.g. Turkey, USA, Russia, Indonesia, Mexico, Europe).

In higher grades the BG/BRG Judenburg also offers students language courses in Galway/Ireland, Nice/France, Rome/Italy, Barcelona/Spain and ecological courses in Rovinj/Croatia. Furthermore the BG/BRG Judenburg also cooperates with the Styrian authorities for education. Within this cooperation two students could take part in an student's exchange programme with French students.

Finally the BG/BRG Judenburg also supports teachers to join further education courses within the framework of eTwinning. Thus, approx. 10 teachers participated in further education courses in Brussels and Madrid. As a result of one of these course, a Spanish teacher was invited by another course participant to join an eTwinning project involving students, which will be launched in 2019. In cooperation with the Styrian school authority (Landesschulrat Steiermark) the BG/BRG Judenburg has also cooperated in an students' exchange programme with students from France. Three Austrian students were sent to the south of France. In this context the BG/BRG Judenburg has also applied for a further training programme for French teachers and admininistration staff for the year 2019.