Data Protection Compliant and Modern Collaboration at School

The Bert Brecht Gymnasium in Dortmund is a publicly funded school with approximately 1,000 students. As one of the leading educational institutions in the region, the Gymnasium tackled the challenge of digital transformation early on. The school began building its own digital infrastructure as early as 2019, due to an initial lack of sufficient support from the school’s governing body and the state. Under the leadership of Sabine Schmidt-Strehlau, Headmistress, and Christian Gervens, responsible for the Learning Management System (LMS), the school established itself as a pioneer in the use of collaborative cloud solutions in the education sector.

Although the school recognized the potential of Google services for collaborative work early on and successfully introduced them in the free version, it faced a critical hurdle: the continued use had to comply with the strict DSGVO (GDPR) requirements of the district government and the school’s governing body.

The primary goal was therefore to retain the advantages of Google Workspace tools – especially seamless collaboration in Google Drive and the organization of lessons via Google Classroom – while simultaneously ensuring full legal certainty and data protection compliance. This included the explicit requirement that all relevant data be stored within the EU.

The school decided on the strategic switch to the paid version of Google Workspace Education (Google Workspace for Education Standard). This step was the key to meeting the conformity requirements.

The technical implementation included:

• Specific Configurations: It was ensured that data is hosted exclusively on European servers.
• Regulatory Security: The administration, led by Christian Gervens and Sabine Schmidt-Strehlau, blocked standard products that were not data protection compliant (such as Google Maps) within the school environment to ensure compliance.
• Consolidated Communication: Google Mail became the sole official business email address for teachers and students, significantly simplifying internal communication and administration.
• Collaboration at the Core: Tools like Google Classroom and the collaborative functions in Drive (joint work on documents) became a central element of everyday teaching.

PCG acted as a reseller and experienced Google for Education Partner to meet the Gymnasium’s compliance requirements.

PCG supported the internal administrators from the confirmation of DSGVO compliance to the implementation of complex configurations for the paid version. This expert guidance allowed the school management team to focus on pedagogical leadership and shaping learning, while the technical and regulatory burden was reliably lifted.

The school’s administrators found the cooperation and contact to be “a great help” in implementing the required European configuration smoothly and thus securing the long-term, safe use of Google Workspace. The Gymnasium has booked the current version for three years and intends to continue on this path of digital excellence.

The switch to the paid Google Workspace Education version and the consistent configuration, supported by PCG, provided decisive business and pedagogical advantages:

• DSGVO Compliance and Legal Certainty: By setting up European servers and contractual safeguards, approval for the long-term use of the platform was successfully obtained from the district government.
• Improved Efficiency: Consolidating on Google Mail as the single official business email address optimized communication management.
• Future-Proofing: The new infrastructure lays the foundation for the integration of forward-looking technologies such as Gemini (AI assistant) and the optimization of administrative processes.
• Stable Pedagogical Foundation: Despite new challenges in dealing with AI in the classroom, the school now has a reliable and flexible digital environment that enables constant adaptation and innovative teaching methods.