State European School Berlin (SESB)
Since 1998 the State European School Berlin (SESB) German Portuguese is located here are at the elementary school Neues Tor. As a "school of special educational character", it is characterized by the integrated education and training in linguistically and culturally heterogeneous learning groups with consistently bilingual instruction.
The inclusion in the SESB is regulated and read in the framework of the SESB. Bilingual kindergartens are a good preparation for the SESB. A later entry is possible after a case-by-case examination. As in all SESB locations, the first year at our school is a probationary year. This also serves to protect the child from being overwhelmed by bilingual learning. The other language is first learned orally as a foreign language, but as a partner language. At the end of the literacy process in the first language (usually in the second half of the first school year), students also start reading and writing in the partner language.
About half of our 12 SESB classes are made up of children from the German language group and the Portuguese language group, so that pupils are given intensive mutual understanding of the respective other culture and their European awareness is promoted. They also develop intercultural competences.
Classes are given by native speakers of the respective language. The personal situation of the Portuguese side of the SESB has developed well and secures native-language education and training by qualified teachers and teachers both in the subjects and in the leisure sector. Each class is made up of a team that consists of a German and a Portuguese-speaking teacher as well as an educator and meets once a week in team meetings.
Consistent bilingualism in the classroom and extracurricular areas promotes the bilingualism of bilingual children and offers monolingual children the opportunity to speak, write and understand a second language in addition to their mother tongue. The supplementary courses serve both to strengthen bilingualism and to strengthen social bonds. Since the children come from geographically distant districts, it is important for them to stay in class in the afternoons. This strengthens the structure of the class and fosters the social bonds between the multilingual learning groups.
Our students participate in various cross-site activities of the SESB, such as the European Football Championship, the writing and reading competitions or the Grand Prix de la petite chanson. It is intended that each child in his or her elementary school time in addition to the school trips carried out in Germany also once participated in an exchange trip to Portugal. After the 6th grade, the continuation of bilingual German-Portuguese teaching according to the concept of SESB at the Kurt Schwitters School is guaranteed.
With the choice of the bilingual SESB, the parents of our students have decided on a form of education that places high demands on their children. Therefore, an active cooperation of the parents is required.
Further information about SESB: