The GESS plans to introduce the Global School Programme in the European Section within three years.

Using interactive video-conferencing technology to connect two classrooms in different countries, teachers at GESS have been teaching their grade 9 and 10 students in Singapore and the German Christian School in Chang-Mai, Northern Thailand simultaneously since 2008. The students in Thailand are actively involved in the actual lessons; they have discussions with their classmates about the lesson content without time lags, they receive direct, live help from the teacher and assess their performance by the same standards.

As part of its efforts to raise standards of German education abroad, the Central Authority for Schools Abroad in Germany selected GESS, with its reputation as a pioneering school, to develop this innovative programme for optimising German education abroad.

The virtual extension of the GESS programme allows the school in Chang Mai to offer an education to upper secondary students, even though they are only few in number at the moment. The Chang Mai School hopes that this will attract more students, with a view to creating a sustainable high school in the long term.  The GESS students value this unique opportunity to enhance their communication and medial skills, which plays an increasingly important role in today’s globalised employment market.

Commenting on her experience with the distance learning programme, one grade 10 student said: “You learn to communicate with the whole world using these new systems.   You need that for the jobs of the future.”

The short introductory film was particularly effective in communicating the value of the project, when introduced by the GESS at  the World Congress of German Schools Abroad in June 2010.   The 8 minute long film gives a good insight into life in the Global School classroom, and can be viewed here.