Improvements in the 3 areas of the STSW's 'European Development Plan' should be sought. 1. Integration of refugees and learners who have recently moved to Germany; 2. Developing the intercultural awareness of the school community; 3. living the European idea (with the three subject areas: democratization, environmental education, ways to start into a job). Job shadowing should broaden the participants' horizon of experience (lifelong learning), discussions with other European teachers should allow new aspects and insights to flow into their own work. Getting to know other teaching and learning methods as well as didactic and methodological approaches is intended to expand the skills of the participants and have a positive effect on teaching and integration at our school. Experiencing foreign cultural standards in different countries are intended to increase the intercultural level at STSW and promote an appreciation of being different. We wanted to find out how other European schools promote the democratization processes of their students in order to counteract nationalism and radicalization. We would like to learn from other schools' concepts of sustainability and preparation for working life.
The Stadtteilschule Wilhelmsburg (STSW) is a public comprehensive school with about 1400 students from pre-school until our exam "Abitur" in grade 13. It is located on the largest river-island in Germany. More than 80% of our students have a migration background, an above-average number of students come from families with a low socio-economic background and have low language and reading skills. The transition rate to the upper classes with the Abitur qualification is significantly lower than in other districts, at less than 25%. At STSW, 'International Preparatory Classes (IVK)' are regularly set up, in which refugees and migrant children/youth are specially educated for one year to learn German and various working methods. Currently, there are 5 of these IVKs. We, a pedagogical staff of about 170 teachers, have to face all these challenges and the further tasks and difficulties associated with them. In order to get some advanced training and new ideas, to exchange didactic and methodical approaches, to discuss the same and similar challenges, we did several job shadowings at schools on islands in the other European countries. In doing so, we also want to contribute to the implementation of our 'European Development Plan'.