At the German Embassy’s annual ‘Sommerfest der deutschen Spracheʼ, his Excellency Ambassador Miguel Berger presented a ʻGerman-British Friendship Award – Network Champion for Germanʼ to Professor Katrin Kohl ʻin recognition of exceptional dedication to making the case for German by leading the building of networks and setting standards of excellence in the teaching of German as a foreign language in the United Kingdom, thereby nurturing German-British relations and strengthening the bonds of friendship between our nationsʼ.
The event was attended by Catherine McKinnell, MP and Minister for School Standards, marking the importance of language teaching in a schools curriculum where the subject is increasingly under pressure.
The ‘Network Champion for German’ award is a new category of the ‘German-British Friendship Award’, forming part of the Ambassador’s commitment to strengthening the teaching of German in the UK. Among the five other recipients were Bernardette Holmes MBE, Director of the National Consortium for Languages Education (NCLE), and Dr Charlotte Schulze, Chair of the Association for German Saturday Schools.
Katrin established the Oxford German Network in 2012 with a Higher Education Innovation Funding grant as a collaborative venture between Oxford University’s Faculty of Medieval and Modern Languages, Jesus College, Oxford, the Bodleian Libraries, Magdalen College School and the BMW Group Plant Oxford.
Initiatives past and present include collaboration with the German Embassy, Goethe Institut and German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) on strengthening German language teaching in the UK across the educational pipeline from primary schools to universities, contributions to policy work on language teaching with the Department for Education and Ofqual, collaboration with the British-German Association and involvement in local town twinning activities, and regular meetings with local teachers including facilitation of collaborative ventures between schools. The annual Oxford German Olympiad now attracts some 850 participants from primary and secondary schools across the UK, with prizes also established at undergraduate and graduate level. The competition is generously supported by Lidl UK, and individual prizes are funded by private donors.
In her speech thanking the Ambassador for the award, Katrin highlighted the productive spirit of collaboration that sustains the work of the wonderful Oxford German Network team. She concluded with a brief film of last year’s Olympiad Prizegiving demonstrating the enthusiastic response of competition participants.
