German European School Singapore
entrenches roots and reaffirms commitment to Singapore as they announce a new GESS Campus
T
he Ger man European School Singapore (GESS) has recently announced the development of their new campus, opening an exciting chapter in the institution’s story as they merge two existing campuses into one purpose-built school with state-of-the-art facilities. With the potential to grow the school community to 2,000 students, the new grounds will have important school facilities and spaces – specially designed to accommodate the evolving mindsets of future generations. Feedback and contributions by teachers and the community on the school’s layout and design were strongly taken into account, as the aim was to custom-build a campus that meets the comprehensive needs of students, teachers and the community. Facilities at the new campus will include a competition-sized spor ts field and a spor ts hall, an Olympic-size swimming pool, music and drama facilities, a European Culture Centre, cooking lab, state-of-the-art design technology studio, age and subject specific classrooms, a canteen, specialist rooms, a library and an auditorium.
A groundbreaking ceremony took place at the 3.05 hectare site of the planned school on May 9th, 2016, located at Dair y Farm Road in Singapore. The campus will be ready to move in to during the 2018 June/July school holidays in order to operate by August. GESS plays a vital role integrating the European community into Singapore by providing students with a holistic learning platform which emphasises the value and virtues of global diversity. The school provides education in German, following the German Curriculum, and an English-speaking education, following the IB Curriculum. GESS also provides a Danish Mother Tongue Programme to suppor t the maintenance and development of the Danish language for native speakers. The programme is available to students from 3 up to 18 years of age and is an integral part of the timetable with no additional fees. The school cur rently educates 1,500 students of more than 50 nationalities from 18 months to 18 years and is open to take new admissions. For more infor mation please visit www.gess.sg.
From left to right: Dr Bettina Fischer, Dr Michael Witter, Dr Vivian Balakrishnan, Dr Michael Pulch, Dr Thomas Hufnagel, Mr Hermann Battenberg
June 2016 • ScandAsia.Singapore 7