Student Houses

At the German European School Manila (GESM), students are organized in Houses that transcend grade levels and sections. This House System at GESM aims to provide all students with opportunities to participate in a range of weekly activities, both sporting and academic, that they otherwise might not get within normal school hours and life outside GESM. For example; inter-house sports tournaments; house charity drives for local organizations; inter-house quizzes and academic competitions.

Students are awarded House Points for participating in House activities as well as their work in and out of the classroom. House Points are tallied and at the end of the academic year and the winning House is awarded the House Cup.

GESM House System's 6 key aims:

Promote friendly competition, teamwork and cooperation amongst the student body
Foster positive relationships between students in the German and International sections
Encourage participation and inclusion in school, class and extracurricular activities
Encourage good behavior to create a positive learning environment at GESM
Promote the use of German language at GESM
Provide leadership opportunities for students

The House system is intended to complement and improve school life for students and make GESM the best school it can possibly be. Each House elects two House Leaders (one from each section, German and English). The role of the House Leaders is to organize activities and competitions for their respective Houses and ensure all members of their House participate and are included. The House System is an excellent way to bring staff and students from both sections together to build a true and enduring school community spirit. Furthermore, it is an avenue where students across grade levels get to work together on projects where the younger batches get to be challenged by older House mates, and older ones learn to be examples for the former.

There are two sets of Houses at the GESM, each of which comprises the secondary departments (English Secondary and Mittelstufe) and the primary departments (English Primary and Grundschule), respectively.

Primary Student Houses

There are four student houses at the English Primary (Grades 1E to 5E), namely House of Bremen, House of Berlin, House of Münster and House of Frankfurt. Each House is moderated and convened regularly by their respective faculty advisors. Student agency is emphasized in the activities and project undertaken by the Houses and friendly competitions are organized regularly among and between the Houses.

House of Berlin

House of Münster

House of Frankfurt

House of Bremen

The Grundschule, in contrast, will have two student Houses, built in the same principle and eventually aims to work with students of other departments both of the other section and the other grade levels.

Secondary Student Houses

In contrast to the above-mentioned Houses of English Primary, student Houses for the English Secondary, Mittelstufe and the Senior Years (IBDP & CP), meanwhile, are named after Philippine islands and animals:

Bohol Sharks

Boracay Scorpions

Cebu Cobras

Palawan Eagles

The difference in their names, however, do not distinguish the sets of Houses from one another in terms of function and level of activity.

In the latter, House events become an avenue for students from higher grades, namely Grades 10, 11 and 12, to be able to impart and give advice to younger peers who are about to advance to the International General Certificate of Secondary Education (IGCSE), and the International Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma Programme (DP) and Career-related Programme (CP).