How GGS Georgstraße in Gelsenkirchen Is Unlocking Learning for Every Child with Showbie

GGS Georgstraße had a digital infrastructure in place, but the real challenge was pedagogical — how to support students at vastly different stages of language acquisition and learning experience, all within the same classroom.

Many children were new to the German language and education system. Families had limited access to technology and learning support at home. And teachers needed a way to provide genuine differentiation — not just across ability levels, but across an enormous range of linguistic and cultural starting points.

Teaching across such a wide range of language levels and learning backgrounds is an enormous undertaking. Students still developing German needed ways to demonstrate what they truly understood, children who arrived or returned after long absences faced the challenge of reconnecting with their learning, and for parents staying connected to school life was something the school was determined to support.

What the school needed was a platform that could bring everything together — shifting the focus from the tool itself to the teaching practice it could support.

For Christian, the turning point came at the BETT show in London, where he first encountered Showbie. He knew immediately that it was what the school had been looking for — a single, consistent workspace where tasks, feedback, learning records and resources could all live in one place, giving teachers the clarity and structure to focus on what matters most.

With Showbie, the school moved from a collection of digital tools to a single, consistent learning environment. The shift was deliberate,  from tool-focused to practice-focused. Tasks could be tiered by language level. Learning materials could be provided in students' home languages to support their gradual acquisition of German. Feedback could happen in the moment, across language barriers. And everything, work, progress, feedback, could be stored in one place, accessible to teachers, students, and families alike.

Tasks are now built for different stages of German language acquisition, so every student can access the same topic, regardless of their fluency. Students work in small groups on assignments tailored to their language level and learning needs, meaning real differentiation happens in every classroom, every day.

For students still developing written German, multimodal submission tools have been transformative. Voice recordings, videos, photographs and written work can all be submitted through Showbie, meaning every child has a way to show what they know.

Feedback, too, has changed. Teachers can respond to individual students in the moment through voice notes, written comments, or annotated work, across language barriers and in ways that feel personal.

For a school with a highly mobile population, digital portfolios have become one of the most valued features across the school. Students who leave and return, or who arrive mid-year from another school or country, come back to a complete record of their learning. When a student returns, everything they need is waiting for them — their work, their feedback, and a clear record of how far they have come.

"Everything is saved. Nothing gets lost," one student said. For a child navigating a new country and a new school, that sense of security matters.

Teachers, meanwhile, can see exactly where each child started and track their development over time, giving them the evidence they need to plan next steps and have meaningful conversations about progress.

Parent engagement at GGS Georgstraße has also shifted. Through Showbie's accessible interface, families, including those navigating a new language themselves, can follow their child's learning at home, view teacher feedback, and stay connected to what's happening in the classroom.

One parent described their child coming home and immediately opening Showbie to continue working. "When she doesn't understand something, she shows me the explanation videos. Even when I don't understand, I can follow along, because the teachers explain it so well."

For families who might otherwise feel distant from their child's school experience, this visibility matters.

The impact at GGS Georgstraße has been, in Christian's own words, "unimaginably huge."

Teachers say they can no longer imagine working without Showbie as lesson preparation is more focused, feedback happens in the moment, and students are more motivated, more independent, and more confident.

For students, the difference is felt directly. Children who once had limited ways to participate now have a genuine voice — recording themselves, presenting their work, and demonstrating understanding on their own terms.

GGS Georgstraße demonstrates what becomes possible when strong teaching is supported by the right tools.