Why Förderkreis?

There are many reasons why you, as a parent, should become a member of the Förderkreis.  But the main reason is to support your child’s acquisition of priceless language skills in years 1-6. And here’s why:

Background

State-funded ‘Europa’ schools were established almost two decades ago. This development took place because parents took the initiative.  The idea was, and still is,  to provide children with a bilingual Primary School education (which can be continued in the subsequent Gymnasium),  in the context of the ‘new’ Europe. The initiative was  eventually implemented by the Berlin Senate as the ‘Schulversuch Europaschule’, which translates (rather uncomfortably) as ‘School Experiment Europa School’.

However, as in other aspects of education policy, the Berlin senate misjudged the schools’ actual needs.  It is not enough to have a small amount of subjects taught in English to bring the children to a full understanding of the English language.  The school in general is a fundamentally German environment. Even families with two English parents will be aware that in such an environment, the use of English requires additional support in order for the children to become fully conversant with and comfortable in both languages .

Funding

The Berlin School Senate does not, and to date never has, made any financial aid available to our school.  While similar private schools such as the Berlin British School conduct their daily school life completely in English,  the Charles Dickens Europa School uniquely maintains a delicate balancing act between the two languages. This precarious balance would collapse without the Förderkreis, due to the scarcity of suitably-qualified English educators and teachers.

To maintain this balance between German and English, parents from the Charles Dickens Europa School created the ‘Charles-Dickens-Förderkreis zur Zweisprachigen Erziehung e.V.’ – in English, the Charles Dickens Förderkreis for Bilingual Education.  The Förderkreis is devoted to ensuring that the children gain familiarity with the English language by constant reinforcement and practice. All parents (whether German, English, or any other nationality) are asked to pay an amount per child into the Förderkreis.

Activities of the Förderkreis

The voluntary Förderkreis board (comprised of parents with a child or children attending the school) undertake the following agenda:

• the Förderkreis pays the English Native Speakers, and creates their yearly operational schedule each year, in close cooperation with the teachers;

• the Förderkreis finances school projects from Native Speakers for our children;

• the Förderkreis employs Native Speakers to supervise play activities and also, increasingly, as ‘Teacher’s Help’ during lessons. Support from the Förderkreis helps to reduce lessons cancelled due to teacher illness or other unavailability;

• the Förderkreis is responsible for paying Native Speakers to accompany the children on class trips when there are insufficient teachers available;

• the Förderkreis is responsible for attracting suitable Native Speakers via national and international advertising.  The Förderkreis also identifies suitably qualified Assistant Teachers with the prospect of a job at our unique school;

• the Förderkreis finances our school library, proving first-class English-language teaching material, books, videos and DVDs for the children to borrow, and also pays the librarians;

• the Förderkreis finances and supports English language projects including sport (football, basketball), movement and composition, waveboarding, computing, help with homework, music and more.

Parental engagement and solidarity

The effectiveness of the bilingual German-English Europa Schools in Berlin is dependent upon the support of their Förderkreis; the ‘Quentin-Blake School’, Berlin’s second Europa School, is also supported by a similarly-structured parents’ Förderkreis.

The Förderkreis complements those services financed by the Berlin Senate. The benefits which the Förderkreis offers are provided not by the state but by those parents who demonstrate their  civil engagement. These parents want to provide the best possible bilingual primary education for their children, to support this democratic alternative to expensive private schools and to make up for the shortfall in available funding.

Costs

See our latest membership fees page.

We cordially invite you to become a member of the Förderkreis for the sake of your children’s education and future.