News for Parents

To understand the culture of a country, we learn about their traditional festivals, make traditional food, sing their songs, and get to know the mythologies behind every festival. Luckily, the Mid Autumn Festival just comes in time for our IGS students to learn more about Vietnam and the traditional festivals that everyone celebrates! 
The whole IGS were packed with our activities to prepare for this festival. What have we done? 
U6 and Secondary students have learned to make and bake mooncakes with Ms Linh: all those tasty mooncakes with different fillings have been produced in our cozy kitchen which everyone is happy to share! 
The Primary school is busy making traditional lanterns with colorful cellophane in different animal shapes. We sang Mid Autumn songs in Vietnamese, read Moon Festival stories for each other and for U6, made comic books about the festival! 
On Friday, 29th of September, IGS organized a Moon Festival event for everyone to join! We surprised our students with an exciting lion dance. This event creates an opportunity for IGS students to experience Vietnamese childhood in the old Mid-Autumn days.

Our long-awaited orders from Germany have just arrived! What a nice surprise for all students this week! Not only new books, we also got the whole Primary Library equipped with our new board games, from Catan to Uno or even Scrabble!
Board games are always known as great tools to help children to release their stress, increase communication and develop teamwork skills. We are super-excited to unwrap all the board games and learn how to play them. 

The school year is already a few weeks old, new students and teachers have already settled in well and the first parents’ evening of the year finally took place on Thursday, September 21st. In addition to the regular class-specific meetings, this year a small “Parent Cafe” was also held in the IGS Campus forum. The (new) specialist teachers in particular had the chance to introduce themselves to the parents and exchange ideas in a relaxed atmosphere.
The IGS team would like to thank you for your attendance and looks forward to a good collaboration.

On Monday, September 18, 2023, the extracurricular program at IGS will begin again.
The current range of topics includes everything from sporting finesse to musical excellence, and into the world of natural sciences. In the Table Tennis AG (led by Mr. Hirnschal), students can demonstrate their athletic skills. The Community Choir, under the direction of Mr. Vale, invites everyone to sing and make music together. Lastly, all those interested in research can quench their thirst for knowledge in the Astro AG led by Mr. Kehm.
Additionally, starting from September 26, 2023, the Chess AG will commence, and we are pleased to announce that we have partnered with the Chess Plus Academy.
We look forward to our students’active participation.

Successful Participation in the DSD I Exam
In the spring of 2023, students from the IGS also participated very successfully in the exams for the German Language Diploma, First Level (DSD I). Twenty participants from classes 7 – 10 passed the exam, which demonstrates proficiency at the B1 level of the German language. The exam is divided into four competency areas: Writing, Reading, Listening, and Oral Communication.
We are very proud of our students!

Last week the children in the U6 area worked on the topic of “Feelings”. Preparations for the first parents’ evening of the year were underway. 
On Wednesday, the parents of both houses were invited to get to know the work in the U6 area better, to exchange ideas together and to elect this year’s parent representatives. There was a large turnout and everyone present used the evening to make new contacts, ask questions and enjoy the get-together in a relaxed atmosphere. 
The entire team considers the evening a great success and would like to thank the committed parents. We are really looking forward to the coming year and working with the new parent representatives!

Last week, an extremely successful preparatory week for the teachers took place at our school in order to be optimally prepared for the coming school year. This week of preparation has proven to be an indispensable part of enabling the teaching staff to have a smooth start to the school year, thus ensuring the best possible start for our students.
Joint activities as well as the pedagogical exchange between colleagues promoted an atmosphere of collegial learning and strengthened the cohesion in the teaching team.
Over all, the preparatory week can undoubtedly be considered a success. We set sail together and look forward to another successful school year at the IGS.

Dear students, dear colleagues,
We hope you all had a restful and wonderful holiday season! With great joy, we would like to welcome you to the beginning of the new school year. A warm welcome also goes to our new teaching colleagues who will enrich our team.
We are looking forward to a positive and successful school year.

The new first graders started school on Wednesday, August 30, 2023. We warmly welcome our “Little Whales” to the Primary School. In addition to various musical performances, including from the Giraffes (Class 2) and a student from the upper school, the children and parents were welcomed by the school Principal, Ms. Schaffer, and the new class teachers, Ms. Jurischka and Ms. Polzin.
After the traditional handover of the school bags by Mrs. Kiefer, the Little Whales’ first day of school began.
We wish you a good start and a great first year with us!
Wir wünschen ihnen einen guten Start und ein tolles erstes Jahr bei uns!

We are pleased to introduce a group of dedicated interns who are excited to bring their skills and passions to the International German School (IGS) in Ho Chi Minh City.
In the coming weeks and months, our new interns will have the opportunity to immerse themselves in various departments and projects in order to gain a comprehensive insight into school life.

Both the Researcher House and the Explorer House had a successful start to the new year. With an enlarged team and new children, the groups got together this week and worked on the topic “That’s me”.
In the Discovery House, the body parts were explored and named. The swimming lessons for the pre-school group could also start on the IGS Campus. After the long weekend, we will deal with the topic “feelings” and welcome the parents to the first parents’ evening of the year.

First aid is important where people come together: at home, on the way to work, at work or at school. In order to be able to start the new school year well prepared, some of our teachers completed a first aid course on 16th August under the expert guidance of Dr. Linh from Family Medical Practice D.2

On August 16, 2023, we welcomed Mr. Christopher David Scholl, Deputy Consul General, and Ms. Hannah Schempf, Economic, Public and Cultural Affairs, to the IGS campus.
We look forward to a lasting cooperation between our school and the office of the General Consulate, and wish you a safe arrival in Ho Chi Minh City.

The anniversary week came to a successful conclusion on Thursday with an atmospheric concert in a festive atmosphere.
The young artists, Hieu Doanh, Ziyuan, Bình An and Khôi, delighted the guests with a virtuoso program with works by Vivaldi, Beethoven, Paganini, Shostakovich, Erroll Garner, Joseph Kosma, and pieces they had composed themselves. We are particularly pleased that both Ms. Bluhm and Mr. Thormann from the Foundation for Education and Crafts, as well as Mr. Tuyen Nguyen and Ms.Quynh Nguyen from Asia Pacific Philanthropy gGmbH accepted our invitation and enjoyed the enchanting  musical performances of our students.

The idea of Identity Day at the start of the anniversary week was to make the school’s own identity visible. The students were on the trail of the question of their own ego. The reflections of the students on their identity in the context of everyday school life were particularly exciting.

Pablo Picasso once said: “Everyone is an artist as a child. The difficulty lies in staying one as an adult.”
With this in mind, the true artists of the IGS were allowed to exhibit their artworks in Villa E on the IGS campus last weekend.
This vernissage, which marked the start of the “Celebration Ten” anniversary week, was framed by a wonderful music program that combined the performing arts with the visual arts. The Community Choir of the IGS opened the Vernissage, the small and large school band as well as the band Moonrise City, musically accompanied the numerous visitors through an atmospheric evening.

The Grade 2 children have been thoroughly enjoying building their own Lego Robots during their ICT lessons. They have learned many new skills working collaboratively in groups of two. Lego education gives an experience of learning through concrete objects. Children select the necessary blocks, place them together, push them tightly not to come apart, while following instructions on their iPad. All of this develops better functions of movement and muscles and increases motor activity. They loved the experience as they learned how to build their robot and then to code their creation to move.  Education is made interactive – and even better when it’s creative and fun! As well as teaching children the basics of programming, Lego Robotics can also help them hone their problem-solving skills. Some of these benefits are found in the usual areas, such as math, spatial activities and early engineering skills. Others are more surprising, especially social skills.