A first for the City of Bonn: for the first time, a Bonn school has won the top prize in the German School Award. This most prestigious and most highly endowed award for good schools in Germany was presented for the 18th time in Berlin on Wednesday, October 2, 2024. Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz personally opened the jury's envelope to announce this year's main prize winner: Siebengebirgsschule from Bonn. There was huge jubilation in Berlin and Bonn. As a special school with around 260 pupils, the Siebengebirgsschule will receive prize money of 100,000 euros for its outstanding educational work as the best school in 2024.

Mayor Katja Dörner congratulated head teacher Achim Bäumer in a letter: "You are the first school in Bonn to be awarded the main prize in 18 years of the competition. I am very pleased about this well-deserved award. Even in sometimes challenging times, the Siebengebirgsschule lives school on site every day with great passion and a lot of heart and soul. With your outstanding creative work and innovative ideas, you can be a role model for many schools in our country," said the Mayor of Bonn.

The Siebengebirgsschule Bonn, a special school in the network, has largely abolished traditional teaching. There are no longer any classrooms here either. The children and young people learn independently in learning studios, creative workshops, in the study hall or on the market square. They receive individual support from the teachers. The children are not only more motivated, but also achieve better learning results as a result.

The invitation to the award ceremony in Berlin alone is a very special honor for 15 of the participating schools. As recognition, these schools are already guaranteed prize money of 5,000 euros, five of the 15 schools will be awarded 30,000 euros and one will receive the main prize of 100,000 euros.

The Robert Bosch Stiftung GmbH and the Heidehof Stiftung GmbH award the German School Prize annually to the best schools. Cooperation partners are ARD and the ZEIT publishing group.

The Siebengebirgsschule had already received prize money of 5,000 euros in the category "Promoting educational equality" in the special edition of the German School Award 20/21. At the time, the focus was on forward-looking concepts that schools had developed to deal with the coronavirus crisis and that could change learning and teaching in the long term.