“It takes a village to raise a child” - this African proverb is taken literally in the Schloss Tempelhof community. Schloss Tempelhof, a self-governed commune located between Stuttgart and Nürnberg, has been working since 2011 to develop a school. In 2013, the first students began learning in the newly founded Schule für freie Entfaltung Schloss Tempelhof (the Schloss Tempelhof School for Free Development).

How can learning be designed to take place in real life, and not in an artificially created learning environment? How can a farm provide a basis for such a learning environment - providing the oft-cited “village” that it takes to raise a child? Dr. Tobias Hartkemeyer has been mulling over these questions for quite some time.

Education researcher Heike Lubnitz has developed an entirely new approach to dealing with the challenges of dementia in disabled persons. Her research, the subject of a doctoral dissertation completed at Leibnitz University in Hannover, received a research excellence award from the Stiftung Leben Pur. The Software AG Foundation provided financial support for the project.

When children become severely or terminally ill or experience the loss of a near relative, the most important thing - next to the best possible medical care - is gentle caregiving. During this time it is of the utmost importance that the child, siblings and family members all receive the support they need to manage trauma and avoid long-term psychological effects. In Darmstadt and Südhessen, the Malteser children's hospice and family support services have assumed this important caregiving role.

Poor ability to concentrate, difficulty spelling and trouble with maths: these phenomena can result from an innate learning behaviour in which information is more heavily processed on the right side of the brain. These individuals are called “picture thinkers”. Dirk Randoll and Jürgen Peters studied the thinking patterns of these picture thinkers and determined how they can learn best.