Basically, language, intercultural skills and teaching methodology were in the focus of this project. Our primary teachers should be well-equipped for the new curricula where English gets more focus. The number of English lessons is continually being raised and English introduced as a mandatory subject. As adequate knowledge of English is expected in the modern world of work, teaching it on a high level and with the newest materials and methods is one of the main targets in the development of curricula in primary and lower secondary education. Our goal was to involve the representatives of the Netzwerk Fremdsprachen in the project so that they would get active in organising a similar course for English teachers of lower secondary education. Furthermore, intercultural training forms the teacher personality and is of highest importance in our society. Through this project our teachers and managerial staff were supposed to gain new experience and improve their competences in this field. Furthermore, getting insight into primary schools in Germany to exchange teaching practice focusing on integration, inclusion and multilingualism was another target.
The reason for the application for this project was the growing demand for internationalisation in primary and lower secondary education as well as the raising awareness of the opportunities offered by Erasmus+. As English is being implemented in the curricula of primary schools it is important to have adequately trained staff. Improving language, intercultural competences and methodology of primary teachers were the main targets. Therefore a CLIL course in Dublin for a group of primary school teachers had already been organised in the hope of European funding. Furthermore, the representatives of the English teachers of lower secondary education (Mittelschulen) also expressed an interest in organising a similar course for their teachers so they wanted to get to know the partner in Exeter and lay a foundation for a subsequent course which in the meantime has taken place in July 2022. Apart from that we had plans for job shadowing activities of management staff of primary schools to partner regions especially to primary schools in the Berlin area. Inclusion and integration and managerial competences would have been in the focus of these activities. However, funding and covid were the reason for the cancellation of these activities.