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, 3Dprinters, 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 Spanish) 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 grades 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 an Erasmus+ KA2 project with 3 partner countries focusing on sustainability and a KA1 project based on CLIL. The school is also very active in the field of natural sciences and environmental protection and has launched several national and international projects on protecting the environment and sustainability.

Needs and Goals of the Project

The organisations' needs for training of staff and teacher competences are quite large. Although all teachers at the BG/BRG Judenburg are in command of extensive professional qualifications and trainings, they continously need to adapt their teaching and communication methods as well as teambuliding and leadership skills. Due to many major school based changes and changes in the educational demands of the Styrian school authority, teaching request have changed enormously during the last years. Now there is a strong demand for new methodological and didactic approaches in the daily professional life of teachers.

The schools’ needs in relation to staff training and staff competences are quite large. The school community currently needs improvements in three major fields:

1.) COMMUNICATION

2.) TEAMBUILDING

3.) LEADERSHIP

1.) COMMUNICATION

Students feel neglected due to a lack of communication between students and students / students and teachers. Socially disadvantaged students and students with a migration background face educational drawbacks due to lack of communication skills and professional expertise of teachers. There are some young teachers with little professional experience who need to improve their communicative skills with students and teachers. Some teachers find it hard to cope with the work pressure and try to cope with problems in small isolated groups instead of communicating with other teachers.

The distribution of responsibilities between teachers is not clearly defined and due to a lack of communicative skills misunderstandings and frustration rise. Some communication structures at school need to be improved as unclear communication procedures lead to misunderstanding and mistakes at the moment. As the level of frustration among teachers is extremely high at certain times, teachers need communicative strategies how to communicate in a positive way in challenging situations.

2.) TEAMBUILDING

Some classes miss team-spirit which leads to demotivation among students and teachers. Social variety among students rises which evoke racism, gender issues, clichées, bullying, prejudices, verbal fights, cyberbullying among students. Many experienced teachers have retired during the last 5 years which led to a lack of teachers with strong leadership qualifications. As a consequence, younger colleagues have taken over team coordination and administrative tasks, but still need training in communication, teambuilding and leadership strategies.

As the composition of the teachers’ team is quite new, the teamspirit has not sufficiently developed so far. Therefore there is an urgent need to create teamspirit and understanding of other teachers. In order to use school ressources best and in an innovative way a cooperation between teachers is essential. Teambuilding strategies and collaborative teaching methods are needed. In order to improve teamspirit among students, teachers need to be trained in methods how to strengthen bonds between students.

3.) LEADERSHIP

Students' leave school because they cannot cope with the pressure and amount of studying. Teachers need strategies how to lead and support students. Students are affected by early school leaving due to lack of perspectives for their future lives. Teachers need tools how to identify and react to students’ needs. Teachers feel under pressure and helpless how do deal with problems in class. Teachers are motivated and have taken responsibility but they sometimes lack leadership skills and do not know how to lead discussions, do team- and collaborative work, organize school projects and other events in an efficient way.

Specific goals of this project are:

- to give teachers pedagogical tools and didactic methods to reduce social and learning problems at school

- foster quality improvements in teachers' profession in cooperation with students and teachers

- improvement of teachers' professional profiles and teaching skills

- broader understanding of practices, policies and systems in education and training of teenagers

- increase of capacity to trigger changes in the educational system

- better understanding of non-formal, formal and informal learning situations

- better foreign language competences

- increased motivation and satisfaction in their daily work

- better understanding of the European idea and institutions

Austrian teachers participated in professional trainings in Austria, but it turned out that the offer was not sufficient and satisfying. There has always been a lack of innovative and motivating methods. Some teachers of the BG/BRG Judenburg participated in another Erasmus+ project and they found out that cooperating with foreign schools and institutions has a much more positive effect on the school and also includes a high added value for the European Union as European schools work together and professional networks can be established.

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.