All public and private general and vocational schools in Germany as well as German schools abroad can apply for the German School Award each year. The jury is made up of 50 experts from the field of educational science, school practitioners, and educational administration. They assess the schools' applications on the basis of various criteria: Teaching quality, performance, dealing with diversity, responsibility, school climate, school life and extracurricular partners, as well as schools as learning institutions. "Schools can change – the large number that apply for the German School Award each year is the best evidence of this. Being on the jury allows us to get to know many impressive examples throughout Germany," says Sabine Doff.

This year, the jury has already shortlisted twenty schools. The jury members are currently visiting these schools and will decide by mid-June which of them will be nominated. The German School Award ceremony will take place in Berlin on October 2 and this year's prize will be presented by Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz. A top prize of 100,000 euros will be awarded and five other schools will receive prizes of 30,000 euros each. Schools from Bremen State have already received the German School Award several times; these include Borchshöhe Elementary School (Bremen-Vegesack), Werkstattschule Bremerhaven, All-Day Elementary School on Buntentorsteinweg, and Bremen-Ost Comprehensive School.

About Sabine Doff

Sabine Doff has been a professor of English language teaching since 2009 and vice dean of Faculty 10: Linguistics and Literary Studies at the University of Bremen since 2022. From 2015 to 2022, she was also academic director of the Centre for Teacher Education and Educational Research and head of the Quality Initiative: Teacher Education project in Bremen. She previously held professorships at Goethe University Frankfurt am Main and Karlsruhe University of Education. Sabine Doff currently heads the structured "Dual PhD" doctoral program at the University of Bremen and is conducting a study in which she investigates the question of how schools in the state of Bremen achieve educational equity.

Futher information:

https://www.deutscher-schulpreis.de/ (in German only)