Dimension of the European school

The GAZ is a “European school” of the country Hessen since 1992. Back then five European schools were chosen out of 38 candidates by the Hessian minister of culture. We work for a school profile in five so called “dimensions of the European school”

• International Education
• Extracurricular Activities
• Ecological Work
• Opening of the school
• Reformational Educational Work

These shape our school life up to this day. We are proud to say that we are still an European school after the latest verification procedures in 2014. The following are the main areas of emphasis of our work

European dimension and intellectually learning

• Foreign languages: English, French, Russian, Spanish and Polish
• Bilingual offers: expanded English offers in class 6, bilingual lessons in social studies from class 7 to 10
• Language certificates in English, French, Polish, German as foreign languages
• European learning: European projekt days, web of European partner schools, projects with each other and student exchanges with schools in England, Estonia, France, Poland, Russia and Spain. We also have culture events, author readings and art exhibits

Quality saving and methodlearning

• Individual learning and method learning - also as additional lessons in the Lernbüro" (individual learning time)
  
• Project lessons and learning at learning sites out of school
• Practical learning in little projects inside the school
• Ecological learning and health promotion
• Self-reliant and independend learning
• Preparatoin of the transition into class 11 and jobs
• Professional work through a permanent net of single stages of the school community (classes- and vintage teams, parents council, student representation, "Steuergruppe" (central organisational group))
• Scientific monitoring and evaluation of our work

As a European school we work for a European school culture where foreignness is experienced new every day. But the members of the school do not regard this foreignness as a disturbance, but as a challenge to cultivate and peacefully deal with each other. The students can learn and test that in courteous co-operation, which is characterized by mutual respect, facilitates the approach to adult life and moving in the adult world. This does not happen without individual conflicts and not without uncertainty when the world of origin and the Central European German-speaking world collide. These conflicts are dealt with pedagogically and seen as reason for learning.
 
As a European school, we emphasize international encounters. To cope with this is a high social demand, which we deliberately expose our students to. The same happens on regular European project days.

(Paul Meier)