GISJ awarded best German school abroad

The German International School of Jeddah received an excellence award from the government of Germany for best German school abroad. The German consulate celebrated the success of the school at the residence of Dr. Rolf Theodor Schuster German Consul General on Sunday.
Schuster welcomed the school staff, board members of the school and special Saudi guests on the occasion to celebrate the important award given by German President Joachim Gauck.
Schuster said the school was inspected in May 2012 by two inspectors from Germany and he received the award in October. The aim of the inspection was to check school facilities, premises, administration, and cooperation between the teachers, students and parents.
“This is a very special award and also a very big and positive surprise for me as very few recognitions of this kind are signed by the Federal President of Germany. It was a great pleasure to receive this excellence award for our school in Jeddah which we are celebrating today and at the same time a perfect occasion to meet Saudi friends for more cultural exchange.”
Volkmar Guenl-Baxmeier the school headmaster said it is the most important award for the German school in Jeddah because it is the award of excellence which is given by German President Joachim Gauck to the team of the German International School Jeddah including teachers, board members and parents as a token of their recognition to their success and hard work of past three years.
“I am very proud of the success of the school as the award of His Excellency does not come every year. We are planning to start our multilingual International Baccalaureate (IB) high school for A levels in the coming one or two years. By initiating grades 11 and 12 our school will be complete. We have applied to the IB organization in Switzerland. The IB program is a highly regarded high school diploma in Germany and a major milestone in the development of the German International School of Jeddah,” said Baxmeier.
Baxmeier said for that he will also attend a three-day training from the IB organization.
The German school was established in 1975 with kindergarten for children age 3-5 and then continued with preschool , elementary school (grades 1-4) and secondary school (grades 5-10). Baxmeier joined the school in 2009 and succeeded in changing at the school in the years since.
The German International school Jeddah is following the German educational system. The school coordinates with the central office for German schools abroad (ZFA) and adopts German curriculum. This allows students to keep in line with the German education system in case they need to return to Germany.
The German school presently comprises 104 students and 51 children attending kindergarten and preschool. Lessons are held in German and comprise intensive classes of four different languages — German, English, Arabic and French.