Wartburg Primary School in Münster wins German School Award 2008

German Federal President Horst Köhler honors Germany’s best school of the year

Berlin/Stuttgart, 10 December 2008 – Wartburg Primary School in Münster has won the German School Award 2008 endowed with prize money of €100,000. The president of the Federal Republic of Germany, Horst Köhler, awarded the distinction in the Berlin studio of the German public television broadcaster ZDF today. Four runner-up prizes endowed with €25,000 each went to Altingen Primary and General Secondary School  in Ammerbuch, the grammar school Schloß Neuhaus in Paderborn, the Integrated Comprehen-sive School Bonn-Beuel, and Voßbarg School in Rastede. The „Jury Prize“ awarded for the first time this year went to Werkstattschule Bremerhaven in Bremen and the „Academy Prize“ to the primary school Grundschule im Grünen in Berlin.

In his laudation of Wartburg Primary School in Münster, Dr. Christof Bosch, member of the Board of Trustees of the Robert Bosch Stiftung and partner of the Heidehof Stiftung, said: „Here, a school was made fit for children by peda-gogic architecture in both the literal and the metaphoric sense of the term. It always was and is ahead of its time and, indeed, far ahead of hackneyed zeit-geist debates.“

The runner-up awards were presented by the actor Herbert Knaup, WWF Managing Director Eberhard Brandes, the Olympic medal winner Mathias Steiner, the singer and band leader Clueso, ZDF Program Director Dr. Thomas Bellut and stern Editor-in-Chief Thomas Osterkorn.

Under the motto „Dem Lernen Flügel verleihen“ (Give wings to learning), Robert Bosch Stiftung and Heidehof Stiftung advertised the German School Award for the third time in cooperation with the weekly magazine stern and TV broadcaster ZDF. Germany’s largest school competition which, with €230,000, carries the highest prize money of any award of its kind, attracted 250 schools this year. In a procedure spanning several phases, the jury first selected the „Top 50“ in the preliminary round of the competition, from which 20 were se-lected for on-site assessment by an expert team and 14 were then nominated for the final round.

The aim of the German School Award is to honor educational performance and set new standards for the development of schools and teaching in Germany. The award is based on a comprehensive concept of education. The jury assesses six educational quality factors: educational performance, the approach to diversity, teaching quality, responsibility, life in school and the school as a learning institution. The „Jury Prize“ is awarded to a school that delivers excellent performance in unusual and often unfavorable circumstances. The „Academy Prize“ honors a school that achieves outstanding results in a special field, based on its own „pedagogic invention“. To harness the innovative potential of the award winners for school development in Germany, they join the Academy of the German School Award as members for a period of three years.

The next competition will commence in May 2009.