Newsletter 21.03.2025

We look back fondly on the GISA Cup 2025 last Saturday. Here you will find a richly illustrated review and an atmospheric video.

Excitement is in the air as rehearsals for our upcoming musical Hercules have officially begun! Although we have only just started, the energy and commitment of everyone involved is already making this production something special. Save the date: Thursday, 22.05.2025 in the evening at the Goethe-Institut.

Today, Maia Grütter took us on a journey back in time to the 1980s with a photo exhibition. The former teacher from Switzerland, who taught at our school, the former Ramseyer Memorial School (RMS), from 1980 to 1982, spoke to interested parents, staff and pupils, who were amazed at some of the changes.

Due to renovation work at the La Palm swimming pool, swimming lessons will be paused until further notice. In the meantime, sports lessons will take place as usual on the school grounds. We will inform you as soon as swimming lessons can resume. Thank you for your understanding!

Teen Club at Bliss Hello teens! Tomorrow, Saturday, 22.03.2025 from 14.00 to 17.00 we're spending a great afternoon at the Bliss trampoline park! We're heading off for a day of bouncing, flipping and laughing with friends. Whether you're a pro at jumping or just want to hang out and have fun, this is the perfect opportunity to join in.

Coffee and cake picnic this Sunday! Join us the day after tomorrow, Sunday, 3/23/2025 for a cozy picnic at the Swiss Club! Bring something sweet to share, and let's enjoy some great food and even better company. See you there! ☀️🍰

From next week, the AG offerings will be expanded to include “board games”. On Tuesdays and Thursdays from 2.45 p.m. to 3.45 p.m., children can play games under supervision in the Swiss Club. Free of charge. Parents are also welcome.

On Saturday, 12.04.2025 there will be an open day from 3 pm to 6 pm. Please share the invitation with interested families.

Our Grade 6 and 7 students are preparing for their first Cambridge Checkpoint exams, which will take place April 14-17. As pioneers in this program, we are confident that they will do us proud. They recently completed a 30-minute training session on how to approach the questions and understand the marking scheme to boost their confidence and give them the skills they need to succeed.

Eid Al-Fitr is expected to take place on Monday, 31.03.2025. Eid Al-Fitr is a public holiday in Ghana. We are currently awaiting official confirmation from the Ghanaian authorities, as the date is usually announced at short notice. As soon as we receive official confirmation, we will inform you immediately. It is possible that the public holiday will not be on Monday, but later in the week. We ask for your understanding that we are unable to provide any specific details at this time.

Kindergarten and nursery:

This week in the nursery, we have been working on the exciting topic of ‘colours and shapes’. We sang the song ‘A big, round balloon’ together - the children were allowed to join in with the movements and discover the round shape of the balloon. At our craft table, the children coloured in yellow suns and then glued them onto blue paper - creating many beautiful, colourful works of art. Our surprise basket was particularly exciting! Various objects were hidden in it, which the children took out and matched to the right colour. This was great fun and encouraged awareness and attention.

This week in kindergarten was still all about vehicles. We repeated word cards on the topic in German and English and learnt about new vehicles. We also tried to build our own boats using lots of different materials and folded them out of paper. On Friday, during our water day, we were not only able to play with water, get each other wet and start our own water slide, but also test our self-built boats.

During learning time, we trained our creativity and fine motor skills by gluing trees and bouquets of flowers out of colourful paper. In terms of language this week, some children described a search picture with different police vehicles and thus repeated new and familiar words and some children made rhymes with the help of picture cards.

In DaZ/ DaF, the children made a ‘circle of emotions’ this week, in which all children were able to tell how they feel. They also learnt about the parts of the body and named various pictures and symbols and matched them to the appropriate items.

In the ‘English Club’ this week, the beginners worked on colours and shapes and played the game ‘Simon says’.
The more advanced children were read two stories, which they then discussed, learnt new words, reproduced them in their own words and answered questions about the content.

Primary school:

Another week in which the children in class 1/2 showed a high level of personal responsibility in their work. The first-graders were inspired by the second-graders and also tried out reciting various one-off lines - the corresponding songs certainly helped to motivate them (link: https://youtu.be/JFluqGEWFQg?si=r-oA2JeqcSoVMfM-). In addition, creative writing gained momentum again and exciting adventures of the mythical creature Vinicios were invented. Creativity also played a major role in the maths conveyor belt: whether the shark eats the fish, the chewing gum comes out of the vending machine, the cans are thrown away or the monster's teeth rot, they all have one thing in common... beautiful, minus tasks can be calculated and practised. This week, the maths conveyor belt group in class 1/2 has dedicated itself to repeating the darned minus calculation.

Class 3/4 had an exciting week. In our science lessons in class 3/4, we have been looking at rocks, the different types of rock and how they are formed - a very interesting topic with potential for great discussions. We also continued to look at the structure and layers of the earth. In maths lessons, we learned how to read the time with an analogue clock and how to calculate the time in 12-hour and 24-hour format. Multiplication and division problems were also part of our maths lessons. Class 4 had German lessons with Mrs Mamodaly and really enjoyed the lessons. Object descriptions were on the programme. The musical preparations are slowly picking up speed and the pupils in class 3/4 are very enthusiastic.

Secondary school:

We all agreed in the class council that the week felt short and was fun. The pupils also spend a lot of time together during the breaks. The pictures give a little insight into a spontaneous ‘car race’. In HTW we are almost finished with our marble labyrinths. Unfortunately, we can't be in the workroom at the moment, so we have moved to the art room and are not only using wood, but also enjoying a selection of versatile materials. Next week we will present the final products. In class 5, biology, we started with the introduction to biology, the branches of biology. We continued with the human organs, where we analysed the main organs in the human body, their location and their basic functions in the human body. In Year 6, we looked at rocks and the rock cycle, their formation and where they are most commonly found. We continued with fossils and soil, the types of soil and their properties. In maths, we looked at statistics and probability, with students learning how to calculate the mean, range, mode and median. As a revision in preparation for the Cambridge exams next month. In Geography, the topic of Europe was successfully completed with a test; now the journey continues towards the continent of Africa. To conclude the topic of the Roman Empire, the pupils are now becoming experts and working on presentations of topics such as ‘The Legionary’, Julius Caesar’ or the “Colloseum”.

This week, the seventh-graders in German had a lot of fun reading the novel ‘Holes’, putting themselves in the shoes of the various characters and writing texts from their perspective. We also worked on a new spelling topic: the nominalisation of verbs and adjectives. In maths, English and science, the students are preparing for the upcoming Cambridge exams. These will take place in the week before the Easter holidays. In Geography, they were busy creating and interpreting climate diagrams, while in History they compared the medieval plague with Covid 19 and other historical epidemics. In sport, we are slowly coming to the end of our basketball series. The students have developed their skills and abilities and are able to organise a game together.

The DaF class at secondary level (the motivated pupils in years 5, 6 and 7) have made further progress in German. They were able to work on their vocabulary in geometry, colour theory, understanding, following and giving instructions, spelling, first contact with the German system of enjoyment and geography. The DaF group wrote another learning objective test on this week's topics this Friday.

Outlook:

Sun., 23.03.2025                        Coffee and cake picnic

Mon, 31.03.2025                        Expected (!) . Eid Al-Fitr - no lessons

Sat., 12.04.2025                         3 pm - 6 pm: Open Day

Fri, 18.04.2025 -
Fri, 02.05.2025                          Easter holidays

Tue, 22/04/2025 -
Fri, 25/02/2025                         Easter camp ‘Jungle Adventure’

Thu, 22/05/2025                      Musical ‘Hercules’ at the Goethe-Institut