We’re happy to announce that our Student Support Network project is finally up and running. After a long delay due to online teaching – Classes 4 to 10 voted on a group of teachers whom they decided would provide helpful support in a more pastoral role.
We’d like to take a moment to thank Ms Mai, Mr Vale, Mrs Pienaar and Mr Werneburg for agreeing to help out in this way and look forward to making the IGS support network stronger.
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.
In co-operation with the German-Swiss International School in Hong Kong and the Christian-German School in Chiang Mai, our Grades 9 and 10 students will participate in an online simulation game on the subject of “Our Changing Climate” in the coming weeks. The approximately 50 students will take on the role of different interest groups and, similar to the United Nations model, conduct negotiations with one another, the results of which should take into account their own interests on the one hand and climate protection goals on the other.
During this week, the students had the opportunity to get to know each other at the kick-off event and to deal with the topic together in four workshops. Committed, interested and very focused, the students worked together to develop, present and discuss content. We look forward to the upcoming meetings.
As an official IB World School, IGS is holding their very first IB exams this year. Our grade 12 students have been well prepared by our teachers in the past months to take the centralised final exams which commence this week.
We wish all of our seniors the best of luck and the opportunity to show the skills and knowledge they have gathered in the Diploma Programme. You can do it!
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
Students of Grade 3 have been designing various kinds of robots over the past six weeks with the help of Lego Wedo Kits and the accompanying iPad programming app during their Tuesday ASA class. Building Legos is a great way to improve motor skills in early years, while coding facilitates problem-solving, computational and analytical skills of the students in various areas of maths, science and other disciplines.
Students were involved in designing and programming a robotic frog, moon base vehicle, cooling fans and many more fun robots.
GIF
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.
The school band showed their commitment to the growth and development of their band this weekend by spending last Sunday making music and rehearsing at school. The band has been very busy recently putting together a ‘set-list’ of songs which they very much hope to perform for the school community before too long!
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.
Fulbright University is a private, not-for-profit university in Ho Chi Minh City funded primarily by the U.S. Department of State’s Office of Education and Culture. The Fulbright School is a diplomatic partnership between the US and Vietnamese governments. Our school had the opportunity to take part in a tour of the current campus in District 7 as part of our university advisory. The reason for this was to introduce our older IGS students to additional options that they can follow after Class 12.
The school tour began on Sunday, March 27, 2022 at 4 p.m. with the participation of members of Grades 9 to 12 and the teachers, Mr. Steier, Ms. Mai and Mr. Kehm. All participants met in the entrance hall of Fulbright University, where we were welcomed by Fulbright University staff and students. The students introduced us to the facility and the program, and then went to a nearby café to wait for a private concert. Fulbright University had prepared a welcome concert for us and the new students. At around 5:45 p.m. the concert started and during the performance our school also had three performances by Class 10 students, An, Luong and Minh. The concert ended at around 8:30 pm.
This was a new experience for our school, especially for the students who took part in the excursion as it is a very good option for those students who want to study in Vietnam. We were amazed by the hospitality of the university staff and students. They all made sure that we received a good insight into Fulbright University life.
Harry, Class 9
The 2022 IB Global Conference in Singapore was the first in-person conference since the pandemic began and combined face-to-face and virtual highlights. As this year’s overarching theme, the inspirational slogan Embracing Innovation, Inspiring Action was chosen which provided a framework for masterclasses, keynote and inspirational speakers, and topic experts in such fields as i.a. Future of Education, Post-COVID–19, Diversity and Inclusion, Culturally Responsive Teaching, and Wellness and Well-being for Students and Teachers.
The vice principal, Ms. Schaffer, and I were especially captivated by topic expert Sha-En Yeo who presented findings on Cultivating Youth Resilience in an Uncertain World and we both look forward to discussing what we encountered there with IGS teachers.
Franziska Barnickel
IB Koordinator
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 the occasion of the 2022 Winter Olympics, students in Grades 2-8 also celebrated this event on the IGS campus. As it is customary in this competition, there were country affiliations that the students in the groups could choose independently. For example, the countries Italy, Thailand and Germany faced each other in the one-hour treasure hunt. During this rally, questions, some of which were created by the students themselves, had to be answered at various stations, but lesson content from various subjects was also integrated into this scavenger hunt.
In addition to the endurance run, there were also sporting tasks that had to be completed. Many students reported that the running dictation was a big challenge, where the groups had to memorize words over a distance and write them down on paper.
The rally ended with the traditional award ceremony, during which the national anthems of the respective countries were played, which some participants had probably heard for the first time. In a nutshell, the students proved that sport is not only about individual physical challenges, but that goals can also be achieved with logic, teamwork, perseverance and patience.
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.
Last Wednesday, 10 IGS students sat the written exam for the German Language Diploma Level 1 (DSD 1) in the skills of listening and reading comprehension and written communication. For the fifth year in a row, middle school students demonstrated that their language skills are at a B1 (CEFR) or higher.
For many of these learners, the Language Diploma from the Conference of Ministers of Education is the first official exam they take. However, they managed the excitement very well! Now they are busily preparing for the speaking exam, which will take place in two weeks time.
The DSD I is the preliminary stage to the DSD II (B2/C1 CEFR), which IGS students take in Class 11 and is accepted as proof of language proficiency for universities in Germany.
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!
As part of our career and study counseling for the older students, the admissions team from Fulbright University HCMC visited the IGS on Wednesday afternoon to talk about application strategies and the admission process in general but also especially at Fulbright. They gave an insight into the campus and student life at Fulbright. Our classes 9 to 12 were very impressed and showed their interest by asking many questions.
Thank you Ms. Huong and Ms. Uyen for your engaging presentation. We are looking forward to the upcoming sunset campus tour.
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.
The IGS has been a really great school for me and I really enjoyed studying there for many years. But then I got bored: I wanted to try something new – a bigger school. So I switched to another school, but after a while there I wanted to go back to IGS because I realized that IGS was a better fit for me. The IGS makes me think about everything. The teachers give assignments that exercise my brain. They are thought-provoking and interesting.
I am also just a student and need guidance on many things. The teachers at the IGS make me feel like I can always go up to them and ask things. They often have a sense of humor and make a lot of fun in the classroom, but they also know when it’s serious and what’s fun. The teachers make it very clear. It’s easy to ask when I don’t understand something or what I want to know more about.
The teachers always have a keen interest in what they are teaching and are always willing to guide me on the subject. They always try to encourage me to do my best. And not just with words of encouragement; they actually shape the lesson plans around the students to maximize their potential. It gives me the feeling that they put a lot of effort into what they teach.
Here at the IGS there is a lot of freedom. It is not limited to a specific topic. From a student point of view, there are many possibilities and options to choose from. There is already a structure for the school year, I think but it is very flexible. The freedom of what to learn and the freedom to learn is the best thing about the IGS, I think.
Around 160,000 students are taking part in the 61st Mathematics Olympiad in Germany – and also at international schools – this year. This competition follows the Olympic traditions but, above all, it is about having fun tackling the challenges posed and meeting other math fans. Over several rounds, the participants have had the opportunity to test their knowledge and to measure it against other enthusiastic mathematicians. The demands of the tasks become more complex from round to round. We have already reported here about the participation of the German School HCMC in the competition. In the meantime, Tim from Class 4, Michael from Class 7 and Kevin from Class 8 have advanced to the third round of the competition because of their outstanding mathematical achievements. In this round, in which the best students in a federal state come together in Germany, the students work on math problems for two whole days. Our three IGS pundits were also happy to come to the school campus at the weekend. On the one hand, to work together on their respective tasks, but on the other hand, to talk about aspects of mathematics in a relaxed atmosphere that are rarely discussed in everyday lessons, to play table tennis and to eat pizza together.
We are all very proud of the achievements and the motivation with which our students do mathematics!
There are around 6700 languages worldwide. At IGS, there are also many students enrolled who speak various different languages. February 21st was International Mother Tongue Day, when we celebrate this diversity.
To mark the occasion, the students, in cooperation with the library team, created an exhibition that reflects the linguistic diversity of our school community. Learners collected idioms in their native languages. A great collection of interesting, funny, well-known and unknown idioms was curated, which is now displayed in the library for everyone to see.
Thank you to everyone who contributed to this compilation.
