"SESB: We live Europe" - bilingual language acquisition for a European education, a case from Berlin
Channel: Knowledge Innovation Centre
Date: 15/01/2020

The SESB ist a state-run bilingual school that was established in Berlin in the early 1990s and has been growing since, becoming a very successful school model. In the SESB students from foreign language speaking, German speaking and bilingual families are taught together - both in German
and the partner language - with the aim of becoming equally proficient in both languages and to experience the culture of the partner in many aspects of everyday school life.
At present 33 schools in various districts of Berlin have SESB-branches in 9 different partner languages: English, French, Spanish, Italian, Greek, Polish, Portuguese, Russian and Turkish.
Both students and teachers are recruited in order to have a balanced mix of German native speakers and native speakers of the partner language. Also, roughly 50% of the subjects are taught in the partner language and 50% in German.
The SESB does not regard itself as an elite school. As a public school it rather aims for a social mix and consistent bilingualism for all its pupils throughout primary and secondary school.
In our video we want to highlight the advantages and also the challenges presented by this school model. What are the factors that insure its success? Is the SESB a model for the future?