Local Community Engagement

All ISB students, parents and teachers are invited to participate in the Swiss Clean Up Day, a national day dedicated to clean up forest areas all over Swizerland. We clean up the forest areas around our three campuses.

Find out more about Sustainability@ISB

We are partnering with the Primarschule for along-term clean up campaign of our Fiechten campus and surrounding areas. Each week, a different class from either the primarchule or ISB will collect trash around the campus. We will take a picture each week to post on a shared bulletin board. Our goal is for the weekly aount to be reduced as people take more pride in their school and surroundings.

Our ISBx after-school programme offers a wide-range of activities run by local clubs, associations and individuals, including ballet, robotics, photography, cooking, sowing, arts and crafts, Zumba, etc.

We have started a new partnership with the Bartolomé Soccer Academy to coach our Football Academy and with the Allschwill Basketball Club to coach our Basketball Academy. Both activities will take place on the Aesch Campus and be available for ISB students and local Primarschule students.

ISB partners with Sinfonieorchester Basel, whose musicians provide expert coaching to instrumentalists at International School Basel during Instant (Symphony) Orchestra projects. Our students are also given exclusive access to Sinfonieorchester Basel rehearsals. Members of the Sinfonieorchester adjudicate the two annual ISB Music Competitions.

Find out more about ISB Music Programme.

We offer our premises free of charge to local associations to host their own events. This includes cultural, sports and humanitarian associations such as Basel and Young Red Cross, Basel Child Trust, Music Ensembles, etc.

Find out more about ISB supported charities.

Each week, the school's Sunshine Committee advertise among all staff local events and communities in and around Basel area, to make it easier for them to integrate with the locals.

Each year, we invite a representative from the Basel Police Department to talk to MS and SS students about youth responsibility and crime prevention. A separate similar presentation is organised for their parents as well about these topics. As part of their Wellbeing class, Grade 9 students receive a talk about substance use and the law by a representative of Baselland Polizei a youth crime worker.

Our University Counselling department partnered with our Community Association's local network to invite a variety of professionals in for a lunchtime presentation to students. These were well attended, and covered a range of professions in the Basel region. We will build on this next year and continue to expand opportunities for local professionals to connect with our students.

Find out more about ISB University Counselling

Some of our Swiss parents present different Swiss traditions like Samichlaus or the origin and practices of the Basel Fasnacht to the Junior School students.

We also invited a local author to read to all our Dual Language students in German, as part of the Junior School Book Week.

Grade 6 Students visited the Thun Castle as part of their investigation the Global Middle Ages with research projects focused on the medieval period in Asia, Africa, South America, and the Middle East. This trip provides the comparison and contrast of life and culture in medieval Switzerland. Students participate in tour modules focusing on different aspects of medieval life such as food, hygiene, childhood, and law. In addition, students participate in a 2-hour workshop that includes writing script, weaving, and chain mail fabrication.

As part of the MYP Grade 10 Geography curriculum on Tourism and Global Climate Change, our students visited Grindelwald. This trip addressed two major global issues: the impacts of mass tourism in a Swiss Alpine village and the effects of global climate change on shrinking glaciers, particularly the Eigergletscher.

Grade 8 students, in the context of their investigation on how natural landscapes are formed, visited Lauterbrunnen valley to collect primary evidence/data in order to respond to hypothesis and carry out an I&S investigation.

Grade 5 students from ISB Junior School exchange letters each year with students from the Arlesheim Primary School through a "pen pal" initiative. Later on, we invite them to visit ISB and finally our students visit Arlesheim.

Grade 9 German students also have a Pen Pal system with students from a Aesch local school. After exchanging letters, they are visiting and hosting students from Aesch to practice their German and to get to know the local community and make friends.

A group of Grade 10 French and German students participate in a language exchange with two schools in Valais, visiting their schools for a week and living with host students and hosting students here for one week.

Our Grade 9 students attended classes at a Swiss German school in Brig, to immerse themselves in the language, while also discovering different parts of Switzerland by hiking to Betmeralpstock to view the Aletsch glacier.

To help ISB parents and staff integrate in the local community, we offer group German lessons organised by Inlingua language school. The classes take place on our campus right after drop off times or before pick up times, to make it easy for them to attend.