Our school would like to improve the quality of our teaching of English. Thus we plan to update the teachers of our English language department in their knowledge of contemporary English, cultural trends and changes in the UK and how to teach our students in improved and up-to-date ways. Because of the contacts made possible through the participants of this course in Manchester we can initiate further cooperation with the course participants and their students. The head of our English language department will therefore be sent to a course "Britain Today: Cultural Studies in ELT" with NILE Manchester. The knowledge and competences gained through this course will be passed on to the colleagues in eight in-house staff meetings to make sure that all students of our school can profit from the newly acquired knowledge and competences and can also be taught in improved, more up-to-date ways. This course should help to meet the following aims and competence demands: - improvement of the knowledge of contemporary English new and teaching methods - improved understanding of how to guarantee quality in the classroom - increased awareness for European cultures - possibilities with cooperation with teachers and their students from other European countries The course provider (NILE - Norwich Institute for Language Education) will facilitate these demands through 50 teaching sessions and two presentations by educational experts. In the first in-house staff meeting in September of the following school year we will evaluate in how much this course fulfilled all our requirements, and we will develop a strategic plan on how to transfer the newly acquired knowledge and competences into our teaching and for our students. A further evaluation will take place at the end of the following school year to see how much we succeeded in reaching these aims. This course in Manchester also enables us to come into contact with fellow teachers from other European countries. Blogs/ Blog-Feedback, Facebook-groups and Skype A/V-chats will be introduced between our and their students and exchange programmes will be initiated.