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The European Initiative at King's School, Rochester, launched
in September 1988, aims to teach foreign languages from
the age of four, raising pupils' awareness of themselves
as future Europeans and leading bilingual pupils to early
GCSE and A levels and the teaching of other subjects in
the target language.
German, rather than French, was selected. German is Europe's
major spoken language and, since the fall of the Berlin
Wall, business ventures in eastern Europe are conducted
in German or English. Three qualified native German speakers
were recruited. French continues to be taught from preparatory
school level upwards.
At pre-prep level, children receive a daily spoken lesson,
and in the preparatory and senior schools, pupils study
for three periods each week.
The initiative has been very successful. Pupils take German
GCSE and A level early and successfully, and subjects such
as maths, art, PE, divinity and ICT are being taught in
German in the pre-preparatory school.
The current Junior Director of the initiative, Frau Katja
Neubauer, was named National German Teacher of the Year,
2005.
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