German International School Boston

This school has many issues with unaddressed bullying. Teachers, parents, and ultimately children do not care about the problem, as they only stay at GISB for a couple of years until they go back to Germany. I do not recommend this school if you have bright, sensitive children.
—Submitted by a parent

What attracts us are the high teaching standards, emphasis on independent and group learning, as well as the opportunity to obtain American and international diplomas. Beyond that, we want our children to grow up in a multicultural environment where they interact with innovative, cosmopolitan role models every day. The GISB delivers.
—Submitted by a parent

Small classrooms, bilingual education, offers excellent after school programs, has very competitive tuition in the Boston area. My kids have been very happy there for over 4 years now!
—Submitted by a parent

We had our son for three years at the German International School. We never doubted about this decision and we would always send him to this school again. Our son was welcomed warmly, was easily integrated in his class, found lots of friends and felt really happy from the beginning on. Before he did not like school as much as at this time and even now (half a year later), he misses this school. Concerning the education at school we were also very happy. Most teachers worked a lot for the class and the school, were always willing to talk, to answer an email in very fast time. They really did a good job. Also everything else in school was organized better and better every year (it is still a young school! I can t imagine what it will be like in a few years . Always improving!!!). We miss the school and its community a lot. It is a nice small school with good education!
—Submitted by a parent

We enrolled our oldest daughter at the GISB six years ago, back then there were 74 students enrolled. Since then we have seen the student body grow twice its size, we have seen the school extend to 12th grade (the first DIAP - deutsche Internationale Abiturpruefung - is written these days), saw it awarded the title of an excellent German School abroad (exzellente deutsche Auslandsschule) by the Bund-Lander-Inspection and most important of all, we see our daughter, our son and now since last fall our little one thrive at this school. Not only academically, but also in terms of self confidence and social intelligence. The teachers are young and motivated, the principal does not only have visions but really pulls through with them and the atmosphere is always friendly and like a big family. Our kids love this school and so do we.
—Submitted by a parent

The GISB is a wonderful bilingual school that responds to its community and delivers a challenging and broad curriculum with care. Our children have been at the school for five years now and enjoy every day. In fact, it is usual very difficult to get them to leave school at the end of the day because they enjoy every minute. The teachers are extremely dedicated to their work and deliver every day. The principal does done an excellent job of responding to the diverse community of highly educated professionals and their children who are active in making sure that their children get the most out of their school. I say this as a teacher at a nearby institution of higher learning. The curriculum follows in most respects a standard German curriculum. Our experience with mixed age class homeroom (which does not extend to most subject lessons) has been extremely positive despite our initial skepticism. We were later surprised to learn that this teaching model is more widespread than we realized and that some parents had themselves had experience with the model in the US as well. The kids love it, too
—Submitted by a parent

We just moved into the Boston area and it wasn't any question about where our child is going to go to school especially after we looked at the school and met with the staff. The cooperation and community between parents and teachers concerning lessons, education and goals, individual care of the children is really exceptional - especially compared with schools in Germany. Our child is visiting the Vorschule and is already learning on the same level as in the first grade in Germany. The classes are small so that the teachers can concentrate on each child individually. The school received an award of excellence which we support to the full extent.
—Submitted by a parent

We enrolled our children recently in grade 4 and grade 5. We were previously at American schools, and we find the German school excellent. There is a balanced approach to children, allowing them to express themselves. Content wise it is excellent, but it clearly different from most American schools. We are veru happy there - the kids are alive with energy, are taught independence, but also have an appropriate level of demands on them academically. Parent involvement is high in terms of extramural activity, but in the classroom, it is the children who are responsible for their success, not the parents.
—Submitted by a parent

Our experience at the GISB was stressful and extremely negative. Our son s teacher was inexperienced with his age group, insecure and inconsistent, and was obviously dominated by the asocial and undisciplined children of her Entry Level classroom. There was no place for creativity. Focus was on drilling letters and numbers. Vacation homework did not include any English, which is a serious issue for multicultural families. Young and old children are left to themselves in the Afternoon School Program. One afternoon, a First Grader intentionally punched our son on the nose. No incident report and no disciplinary action followed up. This is simply unacceptable. Tolerating bullying is encouraging it. There are safer, less stressful and more multicultural ways to learn German in the Boston area. We do not recommend the GISB.
—Submitted by a parent

As a parent of children who attended this school for many years i can attest to the quality of many of the teachers. Unfortunately this only gets you so far - when there are problems with teachers or with the curriculum (which is experimental, mixing grades even in the higher classes) the administration is unlikely to respond. We decided to remove our children after serious problems with certain teachers went unresolved year after year.
—Submitted by a parent