Newsletter 31.10.2025

🌟 Welcome Back, Sara Debackere!

We are thrilled to share that Sara Debackere is back on duty! Sara is once again your contact person for all questions regarding lunch, afterschool activities, and school projects. We are so happy to have her back on the team! 💛

At the same time, Amanda Farouk will continue to be part of our team — but in a new role. We sincerely thank her for all her great work so far and look forward to seeing her contributions in this next chapter.

A big thank-you also goes to Barbara Farouk, who has taken over the Cooking Club, Arts Club, and Friday Fun activities. We’re excited to see much more of her in action soon!

🍴 Lunch – North Ridge Café

The November lunch menu from North Ridge Café is now available!

Many thanks to the café team for providing our students with such delicious and nutritious meals every day.

🧒 Teen Club Fun at Bliss Trampoline Park!

Our Teen Club had an unforgettable afternoon at Bliss Trampoline Park!
There was jumping, flipping, and laughing all around — the air was filled with excitement and teamwork. Between friendly challenges and plenty of shared fun, everyone had the chance to let loose and enjoy the day.

The next Teen Club outing will take place on November 22, 2025, at Cypher Zone for an afternoon of laser tag battles. 🔫🎯

📚 New Books for Our School Library

After a long journey across the Atlantic, a large shipment of children’s and youth literature has finally arrived at GISA — ready to be explored and enjoyed!

We’re especially proud to introduce our new tiptoi® section: interactive books that combine reading, listening, and learning in playful ways. With a digital pen, children can activate texts, sounds, and games, discovering the world of knowledge in a whole new way.

A heartfelt thank-you goes to our Support Association for their generous contribution, as well as to Buchhandlung Klein Rottweil and Aktion Eine Welt Rottweil for their guidance, organization, and smooth handling of the shipment.
We also thank the Ravensburger Publishing House for donating a starter set of tiptoi® books to enrich this exciting new section.

Reading connects – across continents! 🌍📖

🧤 Lost and Found

A Lost and Found box has been placed outside Sara Debackere’s office.
If your child has misplaced any belongings, please take a moment to check the box.
Please note that the box will be cleared every two weeks, so be sure to check regularly to reclaim any lost items.
Thank you for helping us keep the school neat and organized!

🎨 Learning with Head, Heart, and Hands – Even Beyond Class Hours

At the German International School Accra, learning doesn’t stop when the timetable ends.
Our extracurricular activities (ECAs) are a cornerstone of our educational philosophy. They nurture creativity, teamwork, responsibility, and self-confidence — and they’re simply fun!

From dance and theater to music, art, and sports, our ECAs allow children and teens to discover their talents, grow beyond themselves, and experience what community truly means.
Our dedicated ECA instructors bring passion, cultural diversity, and their own unique strengths to each session — creating learning spaces full of imagination, energy, and joy.

👉 Learn more about our ECA team here: https://gis-accra.org/en/about-us/latest-news/meet-our-extracurricular-teachers 

🇪🇬 Professional Development in Cairo

Earlier this month, our DaF teacher Bernard Adjei Boateng attended the first in-person module of the Training Program for Local German Teachers (FOLK) at the German School of the Sisters of St. Borromeo (DSB) in Cairo.

Organized by the Federal Office for Foreign Affairs (ZfA), the course focused on key topics such as lesson planning, parent communication, and digital learning. Bernard returned with new ideas and impulses for his DaF lessons at GISA and was able to exchange best practices with teachers from across the world.

A big thank-you to the ZfA and the DSB Cairo for the excellent organization of this inspiring and enriching training opportunity!

💐 Farewell to Eva Gruber and Vreni May

With warm hearts and deep gratitude, we say goodbye to Eva Gruber and Vreni May, who have brought so much care and enthusiasm to our school community.

“We would like to sincerely thank everyone for the warm welcome, support, and great collaboration. Working with the children has brought us so much joy and will be dearly missed.”
– Eva Gruber & Vreni May

We thank both of them from the bottom of our hearts and wish them all the very best for their next adventures! 🌸

👶 News from Kindergarten

Our Kindergarten Head, Olivia, will attend the ZfA Conference for Kindergarten Directors in Bonn from November 3–7, 2025.

During this time, we warmly welcome Daniella, our new intern for the nursery and kindergarten – we’re happy to have you on board! 🌟

🕯️ Kindergarten Lantern Festival

Our annual Kindergarten Lantern Festival will take place on
📅 Thursday, November 13, 2025, starting at 4:00 PM.
Families can look forward to a magical afternoon filled with light, music, and community spirit! 🏮

🎄 Christmas Market 2025 – Save the Date!

Our much-loved Christmas Market will take place on
📅 Saturday, November 29, 2025, from 3:00 PM to 7:00 PM.

A festive family afternoon awaits — with creative activities, delicious food and drinks, and a visit from Santa himself! 🎅✨

More information will follow soon.

✝️ German Evangelical Church in Accra

They are delighted to welcome Military Chaplain Rüdiger Scholz from Brussels, who will celebrate a Reformation Sunday Service with the congregation this weekend.

📅 Sunday, November 2, 2025
📍 Ridge Church (next to Kempinski Hotel), 1st floor – wheelchair accessible

Please also note the upcoming First Advent Service on
📅 Sunday, November 30, 2025, followed by coffee, Christmas treats, and a small buffet. Please note that services are entirely held in German language.
All denominations are warmly welcome – no registration required.

For questions, please contact:
Doris Bloniarz (Church Council) – WhatsApp 📱 +233 544 336 181

🌿 Kindergarten & Nursery

This week in the nursery was all about autumn, music, and togetherness! 🍁🍂 🎂 We celebrated a birthday — with cake, cookies, and a joyful circle game 🦋.
🎨 The children created a colorful autumn window picture: a bright tree made from their own handprints 🍂🌳. There was plenty of painting, gluing, laughing, and creative fun. 🕯 The first lantern songs could already be heard — full of excitement for the upcoming Lantern Festival 🎶.

It was a week filled with color, music, and shared experiences! We also continued our preparations for St. Martin’s Lantern Festival 🕯✨. The children worked joyfully and with great creativity on their lanterns — each one turning out wonderfully unique.

Together with Rita, the children learned new English words through play 🇬🇧😊 — using picture cards, small games, and plenty of opportunities to try them out 🎲📚.

During our learning time, we carried out an exciting volcano experiment 🌋🔥. The children observed how the volcano “erupted” and had great fun experimenting, observing, and discovering together 🤩👐.

Friday marked our very first Water Day 💦🐠🐳! The children enjoyed splashing, experimenting, and exploring water in all its forms 🌊😄. We also celebrated Skylar’s birthday this week 🎂🎉. The children sang, laughed, and truly enjoyed this special day together 🎈😊

🏫 Primary School

This week in Grade 1/2 was full of activity and creativity!

With great attention to detail, the children crafted beautiful zebra lanterns — and even two tiger lanterns — for St. Martin’s. They cut, glued, and decorated with care, and the results are truly impressive!

In German class, students used the iPads to write their own fun and imaginative stories, sharing ideas and discussing suitable illustrations.

In Math, everyone is practicing at their own level — using materials like bead strings, base-ten blocks, number lines, and even egg cartons.

The class representatives also played an active role this week: they reported from the student council and collected new ideas for school life. One popular wish — more arts and crafts time — was warmly received!

Another wish has already come true: a game lending system, organized by the older students for the younger ones. A wonderful idea showing how democracy, community, and responsibility are alive at GISA!

Grades 3/4 – Science, Math, Sports, Art, and Projects

In Science, we carried out fascinating experiments: We discovered that solids can dissolve in liquids (like sugar in water) and that substances can change their state. We also learned how to separate mixtures using funnels, filter paper, and cups.

We explored the difference between smoke and steam, discussed mass and volume, and found out that air can be trapped inside some containers — like a balloon! We also talked about medicine — learning that it comes in different forms (syrup, tablets, injections, inhalers) and that only doctors can prescribe it — you must never take medicine on your own.

In Math, we practiced mental arithmetic — thinking fast, combining cleverly, and having fun! In DaF class, we worked enthusiastically with iPads and started our first exercises with the DeutschFuchs learning program — a big hit among the students!

In Sports, there was great excitement with cartwheels, gymnastics, and acrobatics. The children showed courage, control, and teamwork as they created wonderful movement routines. In Art, things got spooky and creative just in time for Halloween: we designed Halloween drinks — from sparkling potions to glittering “blood cocktails.” 🧙‍♀️🎨

And of course, our Christmas projects are in full swing! Everywhere, children are crafting, painting, singing, and rehearsing — and their progress is already impressive! 🎄✨

🎄 Anticipation for Advent at GISA!

Christmas may still be a few weeks away, but there’s already a touch of holiday magic in the air at GISA! 🎅🎨

Eleven creative primary students have teamed up during project time to design a special GISA School Advent Calendar.
Behind each “door” hides not a sweet treat 🎁 — but a fun activity for the whole school community!

Whether it’s crafting 🧶, marveling 🌟, playing 🎲, or sharing a small treat 🍪 — every day in Advent will bring a surprise to enjoy together.

This project makes the pre-Christmas season at GISA not only colorful and creative, but also full of togetherness and joy! ✨🎶

🎓 Secondary School

This week, students in German completed their written test on picture description, successfully wrapping up this unit. In HTW (Crafts & Technology), they continued working on their nail string art projects. In English, students practiced writing biographies, sharing useful tips and ideas. In History, the class explored camping in the Stone Age, mammoth hunting, and Stone Age cooking. In IT, everyone got to see a computer from the inside — an exciting look into how technology works!

For Grade 6, it was another week full of discoveries:

In German, students discussed possible destinations for a class trip, developing and presenting convincing arguments. In Math, they explored fractions on a number line — directly on the hallway floor! We also welcomed our new Math teacher, Mr. Wolf, on Tuesday — a warm welcome to him!

In History, the class researched Stone Age food and learned fascinating facts about the last Ice Age in Europe.
And in IT, they examined the internal parts of a computer and learned about their different functions — hands-on and exciting!

A week full of curiosity, teamwork, and learning!

🔬 Grades 7 & 8 – Science, Geography, and Media

Students in Grades 7 and 8 learned about the structure and use of microscopes. With great curiosity, they prepared slides, adjusted magnification, and even examined hair samples — their own and those of classmates!

In Geography, after studying explorers, inventors, and Martin Luther in History, the focus shifted to forms of energy — from fossil fuels to renewables. Through group work, the students created presentations and models, even looking ahead to the year 2075 and their own energy predictions for the future.

🗞️ “Racing Reporters” Project Group – First Insights

This week, our young journalists from the “Racing Reporters” project began preparing their first interviews and visiting other project groups to gather impressions and conduct conversations.

Kwadwo and Arcani started by interviewing participants from the Advent Calendar and Christmas Songs projects.

🗞 Project: Advent Calendar

Question: What are you doing in your project?
Answer: We’re creating an Advent calendar with small boxes.
Question: What is it about?
Answer: It’s a big poster with little gifts.
Question: What kind of gifts are you planning?
Answer: Maybe snacks and music.
Question: What do you like best about your project so far?
Answer: The calendar, the drawing, and the crafting.
Question: What are your plans for the project?
Answer: To do something together and spend time with each other.

The other reporter teams also collected first impressions from projects such as Drawing, Baking, DIY, the Elves’ Workshop, and a French Christmas Story.

📅 Dates & Outlook

🕯 Thursday, November 13, 2025
St. Martin’s Lantern Walk

📖 Friday, November 21, 2025
Reading Day & Maths Night

🔫 Saturday, November 22, 2025
Teen Club – Laser shooting at Cypher Zone

🎄 Saturday, November 29, 2025
Christmas Market

🎅 Thursday, December 4, 2025
Visit from St. Nicholas

🎓 Tuesday, December 16, 2025
Last school day before the Christmas holidays

🏕 Wednesday, December 17 – Friday, December 19, 2025
Christmas Camp

🎁 Wednesday, December 17, 2025 – Wednesday, January 7, 2026
Christmas Holidays

🏫 Thursday, January 8, 2026
First school day after the holidays