BGA Schools Awards

Rewarding pupils’ German projects in UK schools

The BGA Schools Award for excellence in German

Every year, the British-German Association offers the Schools Awards for excellence in German to all UK schools teaching German.

Details of each year’s Awards are emailed in September to the designated teacher or teachers in all BGA Schools. Reminders are sent during the course of the year, and all schools joining BGA Schools before the end of May are automatically sent details of the Awards.

If your school is not currently on the BGA Schools mailing list, please sign up here.

The purpose of the Awards

The aim of the Awards is to help raise the profile of German in your school, and to encourage pupils to continue with German at option stages. Ideally, therefore, they will be approaching their next option stage (GCSE, A Level or similar) when you run the Awards. However, we are happy to discuss other proposals. They’re not intended as an end-of-term “filler”!

The Awards may be run just for one year group, or across several. The Head of German of each school chooses three winners, taking into account:

– The pupil’s enthusiasm for, and ability, in the German language
– The ability to motivate others to take up German and to develop an interest in Germany
– The quality of the individual project

question sprechen sie deutsch? do you speak german?

The project

Each project must be the pupil’s own work, in German and on a topic concerning Germany. It might examine the language or culture (in the broadest sense of the word) of Germany, or explain a pupil’s interest in or relationship to Germany. But it could equally be about one aspect: for instance, an artist, German music, history, sport, or travel. The project could be in the form of an essay, or something quite different: talk-to-camera, filmed interview, VoiceOver, a Powerpoint presentation, poetry….

Projects should be copied to us along with the award nominations, including the pupils’ full names for the certificates. The prize-money will be transferred to a nominated school bank account, for distribution by the school, and the certificates sent as pdf files.

The Awards

1st Prize

Prize: £40, plus the Eyewitness Guide to Germany*, and the Youthbridge Award certificate

2nd Prize

Prize: £25, plus the Eyewitness Guide to Germany*, and the Youthbridge Award certificate

3rd Prize

Prize: £15, plus the Eyewitness Guide to Germany*, and the Youthbridge Award certificate

*A maximum of three copies of the Dorling Kindersley “Eyewitness Guide to Germany” will be awarded per school.

We are also happy to provide “special mention” certificates, without prizes.

Closing date

Nominations for Awards may be sent to the BGA by e-mail to the address below at any time during the school year. The normal deadline is 30 June. Please contact us by the end of May if you wish to change this.

Best wishes, and good luck!

Paul Stocker, Annika Falconer & Arne Muus
For: The British-German Association’s BGA Schools 34 Belgrave Square
London SW1X 8QB
020 7235 1922
[email protected]

Previous Projects

Do have a look at our BGA Schools students’ projects. All have been completed in German on a topic concerning Germany to explain their interest in or relation to Germany, its culture and language.

View Past Projects

Resources for Teachers

Take a look at some of our resources for teachers.

View Teacher Resources