Tolerance and open- mindedness towards foreign countries is one of our basic aims of education, especially considering the present hostility to foreigners that has become a big issue in our society. Stays abroad will enable our colleagues both through the course programmes but also through contacts with teachers from other European countries to exchange information and to set up and carry out common projects. They will also extend and deepen their educational and scholarly competences. In addition, our aim is to support the whole staff and therefore make progress with a well- qualified standard of teaching, especially with regard to our newly established "Oberstufe" (year 11-13 that will lead to "Abitur", the highest possible school qualification) which will start in summer 2015. We plan to train six teachers over a period of two years. Two of them will work in the field of ICT in order to pass on their gained knowledge and ideas about the technical and methodical possibilities of Smartboards and PCs to the whole staff. Three English colleagues will train their language and methodology. Thus they are hoping to improve their lessons by feeling more confident, motivated and therefore more convincing. This is highly necessary regarding the preparation of our students sufficiently for the "Oberstufe" (see above). Another colleague will take part in a CLIL course with the aim of being able to teach "Business English" and prepare students for their LCCI exams. We would like to increase our students' chances to get a future job by offering to do this certificate. After the courses the participants will inform their colleagues in their department, followed by a special staff meeting where some groups will plan workshops that deal with the newly- aquired competences. They will also plan in which way the results can be integrated into the teaching objectives. Since one of the participants will probably change school within the next few years, she will be able to inform a second staff of her aquired competences and experiences. The contact with course leaders and teachers from other countries that will be established during our colleagues' stay abroad may hopefully lead to long-term partnerships in European school projects.