German-English Bilingual School in San Francisco, CA

German International School Of Silicon Valley - San Francisco Campus:
The German International School Of Silicon Valley (GISSV) is a bilingual school serving the broad academic needs of children in the San Francisco Bay Area from preschool through Grade 12 in German and English. With locations in Mountain View, Berkeley, and San Francisco, GISSV is the only elementary and secondary school in the Western United States that meets the strict accreditation requirements of the German government, thus enabling entry into the best European and American colleges and universities.

Bilingual Education Programs in San Francisco:

Kindergarten Program:
The kindergarten program at GISSV consists of cooperative and active learning with a mixed-age group. Our comprehensive entry level not only guarantees individualized learning support, but also a gentle and appropriate transition from Kindergarten to elementary school, enabling self-determined, cooperative, and successful learning.

Kindergarten students have a welcome celebration with other students and parents and are thus inducted into the school community. The entry level provides a gentle and individualized transition period from Kindergarten to elementary school and scholastic learning. Teachers gradually shift their focus from playful to organized learning by employing scholastic educational methods into the everyday routines of the group by means of situation-oriented projects.

Beginning in the second semester, boys and girls of the entry level regularly visit one class in the elementary school. The program includes various topics and subjects: joint physical education, music, art, or story time. Kids freely learn the structures, methods, and everyday routine of the elementary school in the safety of their familiar group arrangement. 

German Language Instruction:
The program offers an interactive story through which the girls and boys receive insight into the spoken language on five different levels. Using a phonetic awareness program based on the German phonetics, the amount of German spoken is increased.

In the entry level children are inspired by the materials, utensils and environment to follow their own thoughts to find a natural way to acquire knowledge, understanding and meaning of the language. Hearing – direction and differences, rhymes, separating words into syllables and recognizing the first letter of words are just some of the activities that are worked on through the so called“ ear training."

GISSV Elementary School:
At the GISSV San Francisco campus, one grade will be added per year to establish a full K-5 program by 2016. The Elementary School at GISSV follows the German curriculum of Thuringia. Our elementary school is available to German, American and international students. We assure the admission of German-speaking students in every grade level and guarantee a successful start for students who enroll during the school year. Additional programs in English are also available for these students (additional fees may apply).

Quality Bilingual Education:
German, Math, Ethics, Local History, Social Studies, Music, Art and P.E. are taught in German to ensure the development of the German language knowledge in oral and written communication. For American and international students, the language development is fostered through student-tailored teaching and immersion.

After completing fourth grade all elementary school students should be able to participate in:
- Native English-speaking classes
- German classes
- Bilingual subjects like Geography, History, Biology, Chemistry.

Requirements for students whose native language is not German:
Students whose first language is not German must learn the basics of the German language as early as possible (before Grade 1). The best method of learning German is to attend the immersion program of the GISSV Preschool and Kindergarten. GISSV may offer special German language programs after arrangement with the parents, teachers and principal. This depends on the student’s German language ability and might be offered at an additional cost.

In the case of older students whose first language is not German, the principal and teachers decide on admission on an individual basis. The teachers of the different subjects and the language teachers guarantee an ideal language development for each student and differentiated learning methods for students who join later in the school year.

For further information on our German / English programs in the Bay Area, please e-mail us via our Contact Page.