SOMETHING IS IN THE AIR …
Graf-Adolf-Gymnasium is a secondary school similar to a British Grammar school or US-American High School.
It has been a UNESCO Associated School for two years and looks forward to becoming a fully internationally associated school in the near future, because our students, parents and teachers are very proud of belonging to this international network and want to promote the ideas shaping our school as a UNESCO school.
Male and female learners aged between 10 and 19 (year 5 up to year 12) attend our school. There are 820 students and 50 teachers here at GAG.
German is the mother tongue of most of our students. They have to choose English as their first foreign language in year 5, and then they can choose French or Latin in years 6 and 8 and Spanish in year 10.
Our school is situated in a nice rural area, but our students – especially those in years 10 and 11 are very interested in spending some months abroad as exchange students. GAG goes global because our students choose so many different countries all over the world, e. g. Poland, Chile, Canada, the United States, Australia, and Namibia, a country we intend to establish even more intense contact with in the near future. Our exchange activities are partly individually organized, but also supported by our school and other official organizations.
We are cooperating with partners at a local, national or international level.
There is an annual exchange with a French school in Chalonnes, and a Polish school in Wroclaw, and with organizations such as Model United Nations (Istanbul) and Model International Criminal Court (Poland). Our students also take part in local business simulation games.
We cooperate with three additional German UNESCO schools in our region, and are in regular contact with our national and regional coordinators. In April 2008, our UNESCO group took actively part in the International Project Day 2008 (Finding a Home – Next to Each Other – Together) by traveling to Kamp Lintfort, a town in North Rhine-Westphalia/West Germany where representatives of UNESCO schools from North Rhine-Westphalia met to celebrate this day with lots of joint activities.
At GAG, our nearly 820 students, all teachers and lots of parents celebrated the International Project Day with a variety of activities and events, e. g. a theatre performance Our Vision of One World, and exhibitions such as 60 Years of Human Rights, Child Soldiers, Child Labor. 
What we focus on is making our students become aware of the importance of seeing our world as One World that has to be protected in its uniqueness by each individual according to his or her best capacities. Our manifold activities (concerning simulation games, and participation in international projects such as Model United Nations and Model International Criminal Court) and annual project days focus on themes such as human rights and how to protect them, the effects of globalization, sustainable development, and intercultural learning.
We are very happy that each year students from many different countries attend our school for some months informing our students about the countries they come from.
Giving each student individual support and accepting mistakes as a source of learning and development are the main factors shaping our school, and we know that there is still a lot to do to reach this goal.
Parents are frequently involved in our school activities by attending parents’ meetings, award ceremonies, different kinds of conferences, and our UNESCO-group, and they actively take part in various projects offering their knowledge and support.
We publicize news and activities on our Homepage, in our School Yearbook and by simply talking about them in various groups and classes, so that more and more students will learn about our activities, become interested and feel motivated to commit themselves to them.
K. Plikat-Schlingmann, GAG 2009
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Graf-Adolf-
