News for Parents

Big events are known to cast long shadows, so the pre-school team traditionally invites the parents of the future Class ones to an information evening for parents in May.
With a glass of sparkling wine or orange juice, Ms. Christine Kiefer and Mr. Sven Foxius welcomed the parents of the Class Ones of the coming school year in the IGS forum on Monday evening.

With the sound of the gong, the parents met at the stand, from where Mr Foxius led them into the Class1 classroom. Together with the Deputy Headmistress and Headmistress of the Elementary School, Ms. Heide Schaffer, he informed the parents in detail about organisational processes and pedagogical content in the elementary school.

School enrollment is always a big highlight of the new school year, when the Class one students receive the long-awaited school cone, which is used to celebrate their entry into school. So that every child can enjoy this beautiful piece of German tradition, the school cones were lovingly prepared by our librarian, Ms. Long, and decorated artistically and imaginatively by the parents in the evening.

As is already known, the advisory visit of the ZfA (Central Office for German Schools Abroad) took place this week. The advisor responsible for us, Mr. Uwe Hinxlage, had the opportunity to speak to the school management, the teaching staff and administration, student representatives and parents. He also attended classes at all school levels. In this way he was able to assess the quality of teaching, in particular of the consistently very good use of German as the language of instruction at the school.
Of course, how the ZfA will position itself in the upcoming process of looking for a new campus with a new partner also played an important role in most of the discussions. In particular, the parents and the school management attached great importance to maintaining the status of the IGS as a German School Abroad (DAS). This is not only of great importance in view of the school leaving certificate, the GIB/IB diploma, and the associated general access to universities in Germany, Switzerland and Austria, but these perspectives are also expressly linked to the special approval of the Conference of Ministers of Education (KMK) for the GIB Diploma at German schools abroad. The IGS status as DAS is and remains important for all families who only live in Vietnam for a few years and who need to easily transfer into the education systems of German-speaking countries. The “DAS brand” is valued by an increasing number of Vietnamese and international families, and is therefore of particular importance for school development in Vietnam.
Mr. Hinxlage agreed to be a positive supporter of this process in the interests of the school community. But, of course, it is also clear that the final agreements between the Foundation for Education and Crafts and the Khai Sang Corporation as a new partner must be concluded before this process can be initiated.
After completion of the visit, we are very confident that we will meet all the requirements for continued status as an official German school abroad; we will continue to belong to the global network of 140 DAS as a full member. We will be able to develop the quality of our education even better on a new and excellently equipped campus.

Michael Schopp

With a delicious cup of coffee and freshly scented croissants, the parents of the primary school were able to exchange ideas with the teachers of the primary school in a relaxed atmosphere on Friday morning.
We thank you for your time and the nice conversations and look forward to further encounters.

There is no activity more important in preparing children for a successful reading experience than reading aloud together.
Children learn to love the sound of language before they even notice the printed words on a page. Reading books aloud stimulates children’s imaginations and expands their understanding of the world. It helps them develop their speaking and listening skills and prepares them to understand the written word. When the rhythm and melody of language becomes a part of a child’s life, learning to read becomes as natural as walking and speaking.

The aim is to motivate children to read so that they can read independently and become fluent readers. This happens when children enjoy reading. The educators of the U6 section, and you as parents can do for reading what fast food chains successfully do for hamburgers! ADVERTISING! We advertise by reading great stories and poems to the children.
In order to bring the reading experience into your own four walls, at the IGS you may reserve books from the IGS library for the children online via the IGS library system. Lots of fairy tales, early science or picture books are waiting to come home to the kids to spread joy and provide fun.
Each child has their own library account with a barcode and password that they can use to log in online through the library website. Our librarian, Ms. Long, prepares the reserved book for collection, and then the reading fun can begin at home.

The SV has 4 main projects this academic year. We’ve invited each team leader to give a short update on their progress:
‘The Mensa Team has been looking to improve student satisfaction with our school catering. We’ve set up a feedback system for each class and are working on satisfying every belly by the end of the year.’ – Minh, Class 10
‘Over the past weeks the Uniform Team have been planning a new dress code with class 10 & 11 for the upcoming IB cohort. We’ve also met with the school management team to give feedback on the current uniform.’ – Anna Class, 10
The Sports Team collected a few issues and suggestions. This has led to new equipment organised by Mr. Tietz. We’re hoping to expand the campus facilities to include a basketball hoop and gymnastics bars – once we find a suitable spot.- Kevin, Class 8
The Events Team is hoping to host an awareness week where we could raise money for local charities such as the Blue Dragon Children’s Charity and the Con Dao Turtle Reserve, perhaps with a waffle sale! – Hannah, Class 9

Spring is a very popular season for children, especially our little ones, as Easter is just around the corner. What does that mean in kindergarten? In addition to all the great Easter traditions, the Easter bunny also makes an appearance!
In the U6 section, eggs have been diligently decorated and various handicrafts for room decoration have been made all week. On Thursday, an alluring scent emanated from the Explorer group’s house. Sweet rabbit biscuits were baked there, which quickly found their way into the children’s bellies.
On Friday, the Easter bunny surprised the U6 section. While the children in the morning circle were still laughing at Stups the little Easter Bunny from the popular song, he hid pastries, chocolate eggs and carrots in homemade Easter baskets on the playground. Every child found their hand-crafted and decorated Easter basket right away and it was great to see how proudly they presented their baskets to the other children.

Grades 8, 9 and 10 continued their ‘Presentation Series’ this week. This time, Grade 10 took the opportunity to share their major projects in Music with their younger cohorts.  Themes included an original piano composition, orchestration, a life-story through rap song, as well as research presentations on the life and work of Michael Jackon, Alexander Borodin and Joe Hishaisi. 

This week, the students received their certificates for participating in the International Junior Science Olympiad 2022 (IJSO). Those among them who made it into the second round of the competition received a special prize, which they can use to cope with future demanding school days.
The Science Department, led by Mrs. Mai, would like to thank all the students and especially the parents for their dedicated participation and support in carrying out the experiments.
The IGS is now looking forward to participating again in the IJSO 2023 in the coming school year, where young scientists will be able to demonstrate their skills again.

21 March saw IGS celebrating World Poetry Day. In the two weeks preceding, IGS students were busily engaged in writing verse in French, German, English, Vietnamese, Spanish, Bahasa Indonesia and even one in Russian. On Monday morning, the big day, the poems miraculously appeared stuck to poles, trees, notice boards and even tables.
Grade Three student, Hai Thanh was delighted that his poem had been put up on display, and Helen, also from Grade Three, was beaming from ear to ear. Some poems even trickled in during the week because students who had missed the deadline also wanted to see their names up next to their works.
All in all, Poetry Day, which somehow became Poetry Week, showcased the imaginative power of our students, from the most prolific down to those whose first poem ever written appeared on some tree or pole on the campus of IGS.

On Monday, March 28th, 2022, a “Coffee With Us” was finally able to take place in the U6 section. This time it was about getting to know each other and the interaction between the families, as many new families joined during the time when teaching was done online.
After a short welcome from our Head of School, Mr. Schopp, insights into the current group structure were provided over a cup of coffee and pastries. Parents then asked questions about language support, starting school and care week, which were answered by the U6 Koordinator, Ms. Schoechert.
Parents were also able to name their desired topics for the next “Coffee With Us” event, specifically requesting help with language support at home. We will be devoting ourselves to this particularly important topic in detail at the next “Coffee With us” on May 23rd, 2022.

In Science class we learned about the rainforest. First we learned why the rainforest is actually called that and where it can be found. After that, we learned that the rainforest is built like a house with different floors.
Then we built a rainforest in a shoebox. In the shoebox you can see the different floors, the different animals and plants as well as the roots. In the end, we presented our shoe- boxes to Class 1 and the Preschool.
I liked doing the project because I could tinker with color and cardboard, and I learned a lot about the rainforest.

Jade, Class 3

On March 25  2022, the IGS invited the parents of Grades 5 to 10 to Coffee with the Secondary Coordinator.
In a relaxed atmosphere with coffee, tea and snacks, we talked about the German School system, talent development, and career coaching at the IGS. A much-discussed topic was of course the return back to on-campus lessons.
Thank you for the many pleasant conversations and the motivating feedback and support.

Mai Thuong
Secondary coordinator

Project week in the U6 section

“The future needs recycling!” The U6 section dealt with a very special topic this week: our environment and how we can protect it.

In the course of this exploration, the children got to know different packaging materials, the various rubbish bins and the concept of frugality. They collected their packaging waste all week and got particularly creative on Wednesday. The most amazing figures and sculptures, which the U6 section presented in the Tiger Room, were created from the supposed trash.
The exhibition was a project of the children of the Researcher and Discoverer houses. The art exhibition showed the children’s work constructed over the entire project week.
Creatively, they displayed cars made out of milk cartons and plastic lids, robots made out of small boxes and corks, crowns made out of toilet paper rolls and everything in between! One of the highlights was a giant poster on which the children artistically represented what they had learned during the week. The message of the exhibition was clear: take care of our planet, reduce, reuse and recycle! This topic has captured everyone’s imagination as the environmental impact of plastic is omnipresent. It has helped the children to learn more about the world they live in and how everyone can help make a difference.

Since the focus was on theoretical learning in Science and Culture during the online lessons, the students in Class 4 were particularly looking forward to doing real experiments at school. In an interdisciplinary project involving Science and Music, they explored the subject of “sound” in a variety of ways during the last few weeks.

The students have experienced that sound waves are vibrations that you can feel. They have also been busy learning that sound waves not only travel through the air, but also through different materials. Here you can see them discovering how to make a communication device using plastic pots and string! They have also been measuring and observing the mathematical pattern of our musical ‘Boomwhacker’ tubes.
Finally, they learned with a biological model the structure of the ear and why it is so important to protect the ear.

This week, students across primary and secondary have been experimenting with translucent collages! Our Class Ones created a group of Pop-Art dragon fruit inspired by Andy Warhol. These were followed by Class Four’s Saigon stained glass windows and finishing with Class Nine’s Matisse-inspired cut-outs.
We love how the collages change depending on background and light – good job everyone!

The street front of our “Tiger House” recently got a new sign, from kindergarten to the GIB Diploma – it says ‘Springboard for an International Career’. We would like to point out that we not only offer a degree that is recognized in Germany and around the world, but that the IGS HCMC offers a continuous course of education for the smallest in kindergarten up to young adults in the GIB Diploma level. With a GIB Diploma, our students have direct access to all universities in Germany, Swiss and Austria without going through the certificate-recognition procedures required by those without our certificates.

The idea of ​​the Project Day, Thinking, grew out of the teachers’ desire to convey aspects of thinking to the students that go beyond the curriculum and are particularly important to the teachers. On this day, learners from grades 5 to 11 had the opportunity to choose from a variety of activities in which they were most interested. There were a variety of activities to choose from: a scavenger hunt on the school campus, an escape room in the science lab, the construction of spaghetti buildings, a workshop on the Fibonacci Sequence in the music room, or thought experiments on possible alternative historical developments, and many more from the teachers, selected, developed and prepared with love and dedication.

What the various offers have in common, however, is that they train the human ability to recognize problems, evaluate them and come up with solutions. What the activities also had in common is the great joy with which the learners and teachers perceived the creative and solution-oriented perspectives on thinking that they offered.
We would like to thank everyone who was involved in the Project Day and we look forward to doing it again during the next school year!

Congratulations to Felice Iacobellis

On February 17th, after a long break due to Corona, the school advisory board of the IGS was able to meet again. M. Kieren, F. Iacobellis (representatives of the parents’ council), H. Schaffer and M. Schopp (school management) and M. Walde (AHK) met in Villa H on campus. Horst Geicke, the long-time chairman of the SBR, was connected via ZOOM from Europe. Ms. Thao (parents) and Dr. Wallat (Consul General) were unfortunately unable to attend.
The school advisory board was informed about current developments at, and problems  faced by the IGS,  especially in relation to the pandemic. Felice Iacobellis was unanimously elected as the new chairman.
Many thanks for his many years of commitment to the development of the IGS went to Mr. Geicke, the outgoing Chairman.

In a practical experiment in Biology, Class 9 proved that green plant leaves can produce starch with the help of sunlight.
After a long time online, our Science teachers have reinforced theoretical knowledge through experiments, so that a theoretical discussion is followed by practical implementation of those ideas.