Newsletter 13.06.2026

This week’s newsletter is reaching you one day later than usual. Ongoing grading conferences and preparations for the end of the school year have slightly adjusted our regular schedule. Thank you for your understanding.

🎶 Music Brings People Together – Successful Student Concert at GISA

Just a few days after our musical performances, GISA hosted its student concert, “(Not only) Classical Concert.” Organized by our music teacher Jakob Platzek, students from GISA and invited guest musicians presented a diverse program ranging from classical music to pop in front of a full audience in the multifunctional hall.

The concentration and dedication of the young performers, the variety of musical contributions, and the appreciation shown by the audience made the evening a truly special event. Our sincere thanks go to all performers, supporting instrumental teachers, and especially to the young pianist Caleb Sagoe, whose outstanding performances enriched the concert. The evening concluded with three energetic songs performed by the GISA school band.

♻️ Sustainability Project Time

In the final weeks of the school year, our project time is dedicated to the topic of sustainability. Through creative and hands-on activities, students explore resource conservation, reuse, and responsible environmental stewardship.

In secondary school, students from Grades 5 to 8 participate in a variety of workshops focusing on different aspects of sustainable living. Together with Maiden Environmental Services, they learn about recycling and the reuse of paper and plastic materials. In a batik workshop, students design their own textiles and discover how clothing can be created and redesigned in a creative and sustainable way.

Primary school students are also engaged in exciting projects. They are developing their own learning stations, working creatively with glass, and exploring materials, their uses, and possibilities for reuse.

A visible outcome of the project is currently taking shape on our campus: students are creating a large GISA artwork using collected bottle caps. This collaborative project combines creativity, teamwork, and the idea of giving seemingly worthless materials a new purpose.

We look forward to showcasing the results of the various sustainability projects at the end of the school year.

⚽🌍 FIFA World Cup 2026 – Public Viewing for the German Community

The German national team begins its FIFA World Cup 2026 campaign this Sunday. To mark the occasion, we warmly invite everyone to join us for a public viewing event at the Swiss Club on the GISA campus.

📅 Sunday, June 14, 2026
⏰ Kick-off: 5:00 p.m.
📍 Swiss Club, GISA Campus

Our parent community is organizing a small potluck buffet. Anyone wishing to enjoy the buffet is kindly asked to bring a small dish to share. Drinks will be available for everyone.

Please feel free to forward this invitation to other football fans and share it within your networks.

🎓 GISA Again Welcomes Student Teachers

This week, we once again had the pleasure of welcoming German-language teaching students from the University of Education, Winneba, for classroom observations and practical school experience at GISA. Following the visit of a first group the previous week, six additional students had the opportunity to observe lessons, engage with teachers, and gain insights into the unique environment of a German school abroad.

In addition, two student teachers from the University of Passau visited our school, gaining valuable experience of everyday school life and teaching in an international and multilingual learning environment.

We are delighted by the growing interest universities are showing in GISA and see these visits as an important contribution to the training of future teachers and to the strengthening of our partnerships with universities in both Ghana and Germany.

🤝 Tuesday, June 16, 2026, 6:00 p.m. – Annual General Meeting of the School Support Association

Looking ahead to next week, the Annual General Meeting of our School Support Association will take place in the staff room. The association makes an important contribution to school life and supports numerous projects and initiatives at GISA. We would like to express our sincere gratitude to all members and volunteers for their dedication, commitment, and continued support of our school's work.

🇩🇪🤝🇬🇭 Visit from Gesamtschule Berger Feld

From Wednesday to Saturday, GISA will welcome a delegation from Gesamtschule Berger Feld in Gelsenkirchen, Germany. The school is well known to football fans as the former school of German national goalkeeper Manuel Neuer and has extensive experience at the intersection of education, sport, and talent development.

During their stay, we will explore opportunities for a long-term partnership between our schools. Discussions will focus on student exchanges, career guidance, sports development, and joint projects connecting young people in Germany and Ghana.

The visit will also include meetings with partners from education, sports, and business. We are delighted to welcome our guests to Accra and look forward to the ideas, friendships, and opportunities that may emerge from this exciting exchange.

🎉 End-of-School-Year Celebration on June 25

To conclude another eventful school year, we warmly invite the entire school community to our End-of-School-Year Celebration.

📅 Thursday, June 25, 2026
🕒 3:00 p.m.
📍 Outdoor Area of the Swiss Club, GISA Campus

Together, we will look back on the past months, recognize special achievements, say farewell to departing staff members and families, and celebrate the many highlights of the school year. Guests can also look forward to a variety of dance performances by our students.

We are excited to celebrate the end of the school year together with students, parents, staff, and friends of GISA.

🕵️ Summer Camp 2026 – “Everyone Is a Suspect”

The summer holidays are just around the corner, and with them comes this year’s GISA Summer Camp. Under the theme “Everyone Is a Suspect,” participants can look forward to a week full of mysteries, investigations, and adventure.

📅 June 29 – July 3, 2026
🕗 Daily from 8:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.
👧👦 Ages 5–15
💰 Total fee: 1,000 GHS

Participants can look forward to creative activities, exciting team challenges, a swimming day, and plenty of detective work.

Places are still available. For registration and further information, please contact Sara Debackere at 059 755 6847.

Nursery and Kindergarten

Two creative and practical activities were at the heart of this week in the nursery.

The children created their own sensory bottles using water, glitter, and pom-poms. This activity particularly supported sensory exploration, concentration, and fine motor skills.

The children also made banana ice cream together. From cutting the bananas to blending the ingredients, they were able to experience the entire process firsthand. This helped foster independence and an understanding of healthy nutrition.

Overall, it was a wonderful week filled with new experiences and discoveries.

🌞 Fairy Tales, Music, and the Joy of Reading in Kindergarten 🌞

This week, we continued exploring the theme of fairy tales. The children used their creativity to make Cinderella shoes, Frog Princes, and beautiful ballerinas with feather skirts. 👠🐸🩰

Music time was equally active and engaging. The children danced with colorful scarves and practiced a group dance to the pop song “Home.” 🎶💃

A special highlight was our Book Day, where we discovered many new and exciting books. 📚✨ We were also delighted to welcome our DaF/DaZ students, who read stories to the children and played games with them. 😊

Of course, there was also plenty of time for outdoor play and free play, allowing the children to enjoy many wonderful moments together. 🌿☀️

Primary School

Grade 1/2

In German lessons, Grade 1/2 continued working on the spelling of words containing eu and äu. The children learned that many words with äu are derived from words with au, such as Häuser (houses) from Haus (house). This helped them apply spelling strategies consciously and further strengthen their language awareness.

The class also had the opportunity to explore topics of personal interest. Some children researched Switzerland, its cantons, and capitals, while others immersed themselves in the solar system or even explored topics from higher grade levels using the Anton learning app. Through reading, researching, and discovering, they expanded their knowledge in a self-directed way.

Creative writing also gained new momentum. The children wrote imaginative stories about zebras and wolves, nighttime adventures in the kitchen, and refrigerator doors that suddenly seemed to close on their own. These activities allowed them to transform their ideas into written texts, further develop their enjoyment of writing, and practice presenting their stories to others.

In English lessons, Grade 1/2 continued working on the use of the articles a and an. The children paid particular attention to the initial sounds of words. By revisiting vowels and consonants, they strengthened their understanding of sound and word patterns. Playful activities helped them remember the difference more easily and use the articles with increasing confidence.

Grade 3/4

In German lessons, the children of Grade 3/4 continued their individual learning journey on sentence elements. During shared activities, the focus was particularly on expressions of time, which the students explored and applied in a variety of ways.

The children also presented their completed reading projects. Through intensive work with a self-selected book, they were able to immerse themselves deeply in their stories and engage with the content, characters, and plot in different ways. They proudly presented both their reading projects and their books to the class. Afterwards, they received appreciative feedback from their classmates on both the design of their projects and their presentations.

In mathematics, the focus remains on multiplication and division. Particular emphasis is currently being placed on mental arithmetic, helping the children strengthen their calculation strategies and further develop confidence in working with numbers.

The Grade 3 students learned about factors and multiples and explored the relationships within the multiplication tables. Grade 4 students worked on more challenging tasks and practiced written multiplication involving two three-digit numbers. With great concentration and perseverance, they followed and applied the individual calculation steps.

German Intensive Class

Over the past two weeks, the German Intensive Class completed Unit 10. The main topics covered were fashion, auxiliary verbs, and the past tense.

In grammar, the learners focused particularly on the Perfekt tense and auxiliary verbs, while continuing to practice German sentence structure and the verb bracket. The highly motivated students from both primary and secondary levels worked intensively on their language skills and expanded their vocabulary related to the topics studied.

In addition, the students prepared for their final assessment by practicing free speaking, reading aloud, and forming affirmative and negative statements.

At the end of the unit, the DaF Intensive Group completed a learning assessment covering the topics and grammar structures from the previous two weeks.

Secondary School

Grade 5

In German, we wrote our class test on the novel 35 Kilo Hope this week. The students also completed and presented their creative reading boxes. With this, we concluded our work on the novel. It was wonderful to see how much enthusiasm and creativity the students invested in engaging with the book.

In Mathematics, we began our final topic of the school year: fractions. To develop an initial understanding of fractions, we explored how shapes can be divided into equal parts. We are now moving toward a more abstract understanding by calculating fractions of different quantities. Place-value systems have also been helpful in converting decimal units—though not minutes, yards, or inches!

In Geography, students gave informative and creative presentations on Germany’s neighboring countries using “countries in a shoebox” projects. Afterwards, we began comparing Ghana and Germany. Working as experts, the students explored topics such as flora and fauna, culture, economy, and landscapes.

Grade 6

Once again, we spent the week learning, practicing, and working together across a variety of subjects.

In German, we continued working on grammar and spelling exercises while revising important topics from throughout the school year. The activities were varied and interactive, allowing us to consolidate our knowledge in different ways. We have laid a strong foundation for the coming school year and feel well prepared for the challenges awaiting us in Grade 7.

In Mathematics, we calculated the values of algebraic expressions and learned how to solve simple equations using inverse operations. We also translated number riddles into equations and solved them. Particularly exciting was the opportunity to create our own number riddles. This allowed us not only to strengthen our mathematical skills but also to improve our language skills by formulating and interpreting problems precisely.

In English, the students presented biographies based on clearly defined guidelines. It was encouraging to see how much they learned from one another and how openly and positively they accepted feedback. The question-and-answer sessions that followed made the presentations especially engaging, with thoughtful questions and attentive participation from the audience.

In Geography, after studying Germany, its federal states, and neighboring countries, we turned our attention to Ghana and its regions. We compared key facts and figures from both countries and identified similarities and differences, deepening our understanding of each.

In Art, our snakes are almost complete. With patience, creativity, and attention to detail, the students are putting the finishing touches on their projects. Before the holidays, the finished artworks will be mounted on colorful backgrounds and displayed behind the glass frames in our hallway. We are already looking forward to presenting the final results.

Grades 7/8

In Ethics, the students explored the religions of Islam, Judaism, and Christianity. The topic became particularly engaging when they planned, filmed, and presented their own explanatory videos about the different religions. The results were both informative and highly creative.

In Social Studies, we followed up on the sustainability exhibition we visited two weeks ago. The focus was on the “journey of a mobile phone” – from the extraction of raw materials and production processes to disposal. Students examined issues such as sustainability, resource consumption, and fair working conditions, while discussing how we can use technology more responsibly.

In Mathematics, prisms were the main topic. Students drew oblique sketches of prisms and calculated their volumes. To verify their calculations, various prisms were filled with water and measured in practice. This provided a tangible and practical understanding of mathematical concepts.

Biology lessons focused on important and relevant everyday topics. Students explored the menstrual cycle and consolidated their knowledge using a large floor diagram. In addition, personal hygiene and different hygiene products were discussed. Students compared the advantages and disadvantages of various menstrual products and gained practical insights through an experiment demonstrating the absorbency of a tampon.

In Geography, we explored the fascinating topic of tropical cyclones. Students learned how hurricanes, typhoons, and cyclones form, the climatic conditions required for their development, and the impact they can have on people and the environment. Through various learning stations, they investigated their formation, structure, distribution, and consequences for affected regions.

In History, our journey through time took us to the 17th through 19th centuries. Students explored the causes and consequences of industrialization and examined how this period transformed societies around the world.

German as a Foreign Language (DaF) 5–8

This week, our DaF students began a new and at the same time final chapter of the school year: “Birthday.”

We started by discussing birthdays and birth dates and sharing ideas about how we would ideally celebrate our own birthdays. The students then wrote invitations to their dream birthday parties. This writing task also served as targeted preparation for the written component of the IVA II examination, which will take place next week.

In addition, all students continued working on their lapbooks. The results are already impressive and clearly demonstrate the creativity, effort, and commitment the learners have invested in their projects.

Next week, the IVA II examinations will take place. We wish all our DaF students every success and keep our fingers crossed for them!

🔜 Dates & Upcoming Events

⛪ Sunday, June 14, 2026, 10:30 a.m.
German-language Church Service at Ridge Church
Everyone is welcome, regardless of denomination.

⚽ 🇩🇪 Germany – 🇨🇼 Curaçao
Sunday, June 14, 2026, 5:00 p.m.
Join us for a public viewing event at the Swiss Club on the GISA campus. Our parent community is organizing a potluck buffet. Anyone wishing to enjoy the buffet is kindly asked to bring a small dish to share.

🤝 Tuesday, June 16, 2026, 6:00 p.m.
Annual General Meeting of the School Support Association
The Annual General Meeting of the GISA School Support Association will take place in the staff room. We would like to thank all members and supporters for their volunteer commitment and their continued support of our school.

🇩🇪🤝🇬🇭 Wednesday, June 17 – Saturday, June 20, 2026
Visit of the Delegation from Gesamtschule Berger Feld (Gelsenkirchen)
We look forward to exciting encounters, inspiring conversations, and the exploration of potential cooperation projects between our schools and partners in Germany and Ghana.

⚽ 🇩🇪 Germany – 🇨🇮 Ivory Coast
Saturday, June 20, 2026, 8:00 p.m.
We will once again gather at the Swiss Club on the GISA campus to watch Germany’s second group-stage match together.

🎉 Thursday, June 25, 2026, 3:00 p.m.
End-of-School-Year Celebration
Join us in the outdoor area of the Swiss Club as we celebrate the conclusion of the 2025/26 school year with recognitions, farewells, and student dance performances.

⚽ 🇪🇨 Ecuador – 🇩🇪 Germany
Thursday, June 25, 2026, 8:00 p.m.
For Germany’s final group-stage match, we will once again come together to cheer on the team.

📄 Friday, June 26, 2026
Last Day of School & Report Card Distribution before the Summer Break

🕵️ Monday, June 29 – Friday, July 3, 2026
Summer Camp 2026 – “Everyone Is a Suspect”
A week full of mysteries, adventures, creative activities, team challenges, and detective work for children and young people aged 5 to 15.

🇩🇪 Monday, July 6 – Friday, July 24, 2026
DaF Summer Programme 2026
A playful and engaging German-language programme featuring projects, language games, and individualized support.

🏫 Monday, August 17, 2026
First Day of the 2026/27 School Year
We look forward to welcoming all students back to the German International School Accra after the summer holidays.