Schools today face the challenge of creating good conditions for learning, mental health and collaboration under increasingly complex conditions. Social changes, digitalization, the influence of artificial intelligence and growing psychosocial stress are fundamentally changing the demands on schools. At the same time, it is becoming increasingly clear that young people today need more than just knowledge transfer. They need learning and development spaces in which they can build orientation, self-efficacy, relationship experiences and future skills. Many teachers, school administrators and pupils are experiencing growing pressure, high demands and dwindling resources. These pressures not only affect learning, but also the pedagogical presence and scope for action in everyday school life. At the same time, there is a growing awareness that successful education depends largely on the conditions under which learning and work take place.

Rethinking Learning, Collaboration, and School Development Together

Against this backdrop, the "Schule gestalten - Potenziale entfalten" (Shaping schools - developing potential) project helps schools to think ahead together in terms of learning, collaboration and school development. The multi-year school development project of the Friedel & Gisela Bohnenkamp Foundation accompanies five schools of different school types in a joint development process. Church and public schools are involved in testing new ways of learning, cooperation and school development. The focus is on the question: "How can schools create learning and development spaces in which people can learn and work in an effective, motivated and sustainable way?"

The project sees school as a living space for personal development, not just as a place to impart knowledge. Together with the participating schools, key issues of the future are addressed - from psychological and pedagogical skills to organizational development, new learning formats and self-directed learning processes. An important component is the training to become a SchülerCoach according to the Osnabrück model. It supports teachers in transferring skills in the areas of motivation, self-direction, learning support and individual support to schools in the long term.

Sustainable School Development: Strengthening Schools as Spaces for Growth

Sustainable school development occurs when personal and organizational development are considered together. This is why organizational consulting supports schools in designing structures and change processes in such a way that new impulses are permanently anchored in everyday school life. The support does not take place selectively, but over several years - from the joint assessment of the current situation to the testing of concrete development approaches and the sustainable anchoring in everyday life. Special emphasis is placed on combining different perspectives and professions. In the project, the foundation works closely with schools, an innovation boutique, the Regional State Office for Schools and Education and the School Foundation in the Diocese of Osnabrück. The Lower Saxony Ministry of Culture supports the project and is available as a contact for technical and structural questions. This creates a common framework in which pedagogical, organizational and educational policy perspectives are combined. The aim of the project is to strengthen schools as development spaces in the long term - so that young people can develop the skills, orientation and self-efficacy they need for their path into a changing world. At the same time, sustainable learning and working conditions are to be created that enable sustainable development.