Cranford Review 2018

European Administrators
Trip to Germany
In
April 2018, I had the
opportunity to meet
up again with the principals
of European schools to look at
the provision made for refugee
children in German schools. This
was the third visit for our group
which started in the USA in 2016,
and then met in Paris in 2017.
This trip focused on Bavaria, the
southernmost state in Germany. In
2016, Germany took in over 1 million
refugees from Syria, Afghanistan
and other countries in the Middle East and
Africa. A massive challenge for German schools
has been how they adapt their curriculum and
teach German to this large number of newcomer
students.
We visited both primary and secondary schools
and met with teachers and students, many of
whom had recently arrived in Germany. What
was particularly impressive was the dedication
and hard work of the teachers who wanted to
ensure that these new arrivals, many of whom
had experienced traumatic war situations, settled
into the country and school as soon as possible.
We also focused on the provision of vocational
education and visited a very impressive vocational
school where students were learning skills in
order to become bakers, hairdressers, beauty
technicians for example. This is particularly
relevant as Cranford has been designated as one
of the first schools to run the new Technical Level
qualifications in 2020.
Our network has been together now for 2 years
and we look forward to hosting the school leaders
at Cranford and Berkeley in 2019.
Peter Stumpf (Associate Headteacher)
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