This coming Spring, our 3rd and 6th grade students will sit for the A1 and A2 language evaluations by the Zentralstelle für das Auslandsschulwesen (ZfA), the German government agency that oversees German schools abroad. Due to the pandemic, our students who were in Grades 3 and 6 last school year took their evaluations at the beginning of 4th and 7th grades this school year. We are delighted to share that all of them passed their A1 and A2 evaluations and congratulate them on this wonderful achievement!

The A1 and A2 language evaluations are the preliminary steps towards the awarding of the DSD I and DSD II (Deutsches Sprachdiplom Stufe 1 & 2 / German Language Certificate Levels 1 and 2): While the DSD I provides students with the linguistic qualification for studying at a German "Studienkolleg," students in high school will obtain the DSD II which is recognized by all German universities as proof of language ability required from foreign students or students abroad who want to study in Germany.

Thanks to the work of our German Department under the leadership of Herrn Hennig, our students in Grade 8 will take the DSD I exam for the first time in our school's history in March.

You can apply now for both the current and the 2021-2022 school years!

Students without prior knowledge of the German language are welcome to apply from Preschool to Grade 2. Through our Become Bilingual Program for students in Grades K-2, your child's German skills will be accelerated by intensively learning German in small group settings and through extra support in the classroom.

To learn more, please sign up here for one of our upcoming Virtual Open Houses or a personal Admissions video call with our Director, Petra Obritzberger.

On the occasion of Franco-German Friendship Day on January 22, our Director, Petra Obritzberger, and the President of the Lycée Français de Chicago (LFC), Eric Veteau, issued a joint letter, commemorating its origin and highlighting the partnership we've had over the years.

Our Head of German, Herr Hennig, and our French Teacher, Mme Pollina, along with German and History Teachers at the LFC organized a special program for students.

The LFC has welcomed our 8th grade graduates for the past two school years. Thanks to Dr. Rhonda Duffaut, Advisor for High School Transition at GISC, our families in middle school receive an overview of high schools in the Chicago area as well as regular communications and support in decision-making when needed. By continuing their education at the LFC in high school, our students continue their bilingual education while still being taught by GISC teachers at the LFC through our joint partnership program. Until we have our own high school, our partnership with the LFC provides a path to obtaining a bilingual IB diploma at the end of Grade 12.

In a "normal" year, we would have had our annual Winter Performance on the last day of school in December before our winter break. Due to the pandemic, we've had to find new ways of doing things together - including celebrating our cultural traditions. So in lieu of a Winter Performance, we created a Winter Video featuring all of our students, teachers, and staff. Have fun watching it here!

We would like to thank the talented John Hayden Brady for creating another wonderful video for us as well as GISC mom and Board Trustee Marisa Ross-Doepke for generously underwriting the production of this video.

December 6 is Nikolaus Day! And since that turned out to be a Sunday, our students received a special visit from Nikolaus on Friday, December 4, at the end of the school day. Families were invited to have a photo with Nikolaus, and each child was presented with a traditional gift of an apple and an orange to celebrate the holiday season.

We would like to thank Herrn Obritzberger for guest starring as Nikolaus, Frau Janik and our student artists for creating a lovely Nikolaus sign, Herrn Karner for providing delightful accordion music, and Purple Photo Group for joining us to capture this special day in pictures!

We were honored to recently be featured in The New York Times! Science Journalist Melinda Wenner Moyer interviewed our Director Petra Obritzberger for this article on teaching classes outdoors.

Additionally, Steve Miller of WBBM Newsradio interviewed Frau Obritzberger on teaching in person during a pandemic.

We continue to be committed to offering safe, in-person learning at our school during the pandemic, and continue to have in-depth safety protocols and processes in place in order to do so.

We would like to thank everyone for their hard work - and our donors for their additional support in making this endeavor possible. Thank you!

Our beloved Laternenfest & St. Martin's Parade took place in a socially distanced way this time. We handed out lantern kits in advance and came together for our celebration on Zoom. It was wonderful to see so many attendees and a beautiful variety of colorful and creative lanterns!

We would like to thank German Consul General Wolfgang Mössinger for joining us as special guest and reading the Story of St. Martin with five of our students in Grades 7 and 8. We're grateful to the German Consulate General for generously sponsoring lanterns and to GISC mom Halla Wissner for her time and talent in creating lantern designs and kits!

It was our pleasure to have everyone sing along to lantern and St. Martin songs. Also, if you haven't seen the winners of our lantern photo contest, you can find them here.

We would like to thank the following Leadership Guild donors for their support:

Matthias & Christine Amberg

Reginald Brown & Monika Tyrichtrova

George & Angelique Chao

Ivan Di Stefano & Luciana Freitas Dos Passos

Matthias Doepke & Marisa Ross-Doepke

Paul Donahue & Julie Danis

Henrik & Sarka Eraneva

Nathanaël Esposito & Anne Aussems

Andre Fiebig & Tricia Van Eck

Michael & Jean Franke

Kurt Gamauf & Erica Nathan-Gamauf

Jan Henrich & Pam Supanwanid Henrich

Mike & Sabrina Karras

Jay & Silvia Krehbiel

Blake Layda & Julie Steffen

JehanZeb Noor & Eva Kassens-Noor

Michael & Mariam Pahl

Brian & Vera Pollina

Stephan Schuele & Adriana Bermeo Ovalle

Andrew & Heidi Thornton

Anthony & Kim Tranchita

Moritz & Saskia von Gemmingen

We would also like to extend a special thank you to the Target Youth Soccer Grants Program for awarding a grant to assist us in purchasing new athletic equipment and gym accessories for our soccer field. Vielen Dank!

We would like to extend a special thank you to Associated Bank for awarding us a grant in December. Their generous support will help us with meeting our general operating needs, especially our pandemic mitigation efforts this year, as we continue procuring the supplies we need to conduct in-person learning safely and keep everyone in our building healthy. We are grateful for their generous investment!

We would also like to extend a special thank you to Venta USA for partnering with us to put their special humidifiers featuring air purification technology ("Luftwäscher") into every classroom and other rooms throughout our building. Their generosity has enabled us to equip our building for the long Chicago winter, and ensure we can keep everyone safe when we are all spending more time indoors together. We are very grateful to Venta North America for so generously working with us to assist in ensuring our students, faculty, and staff have clean safe air circulating throughout our building!

We cordially invite you to join us for one of our upcoming Virtual Open Houses:

Learn more about our school and the individualized, bilingual, international education we provide to our students. Our Director, Petra Obritzberger, will give you valuable insights and answer any questions you may have. To attend a Virtual Open House, please sign up here, and we will send you access information for this digital event.

If you can't make it to one of our Virtual Open Houses, but would like to learn more about our school, please register here with your preferred time and date for a personal Admissions video call with Frau Obritzberger.

Non-German-speaking students are welcome to apply through Grade 2.

We look forward to hearing from you!

Join us for a celebration of the international community that makes our school such a special place! Our Virtual Gala will feature a fun program and a silent auction featuring exciting experiences and items up for bidding.

More details coming soon!