New GSIS principal ready to build on firm foundations

Since taking over as the new principal of German Swiss International School (GSIS) in February, Alexandra Freigang-Krause has been following through on one initial objective.

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New GSIS principal ready to build on firm foundations

Published: 4:00pm, 24 Jun 2024

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That is to get a comprehensive understanding of everything happening in the school by visiting classes from kindergarten to senior secondary, conferring with teachers and listening to parents, so as to have a clear appreciation of current strengths and operations, as well as to identify areas and opportunities for improvement.

There is, of course, a lot to cover, with both a German International Stream and an English International Stream running in parallel for all age groups plus a host of on-campus initiatives and extracurricular programmes.

What helps, though, is that the core values and strategic direction are long established, meaning that any changes will be incremental and be the result of open dialogue, well-considered collaboration, and the continuing pursuit of excellence.

“Being the principal of such a complex school, it is important for me to get an overview of the two streams and the educational work,” says Freigang-Krause who, before moving to Hong Kong, was part of the management team at Bavaria’s central institute of teacher training where she oversaw professional development in social studies, ethics (philosophy), the arts and languages. She also provided professional training for Chinese teachers, equipping them to integrate and develop curricula for Islamic cultural studies. “But one thing I would like to see is more German-ness and Swiss-ness to reflect our heritage and features of those distinct cultures.”

GSIS has established a partnership with ALBA Berlin Basketball Academy Asia (ABBA Asia) to provide its students with a premier basketball programme as part of their extracurricular activities.

A first move in that respect is to encourage everyone in the school to understand and use at least 10 phrases in German and to keep building on that. To assist, there will be more signs in German around the campus and an extra push to bring students together more regularly for cross-stream activities.

The 10-phrase approach can also be used to promote wider familiarity with both Cantonese and Putonghua, something which will help in teaching students about history, traditions and cultural differences.

Regarding the two main curriculums, which lead up to either the Deutsches Internationales Abitur (DIA) or the International Baccalaureate (IB) as a final qualification, certain requirements are mandatory.

However, specific course content is kept under constant review to ensure local relevance, global perspectives, and judicious use of the latest tech tools.

Teachers and students from the two streams collaborated as one team at the recent Secondary Spring Concert

“In the context of AI, we certainly ask ourselves how it can be integrated in terms of classroom teaching and staff workloads,” Freigang-Krause says. “And awareness of the planet is a topic which is now part of most subjects because, in this day and age, finding sustainable solutions is one of our priorities.”