Vienna International School

Vienna International School
Location
Vienna Austria
Information
Type	Private
Motto	"The mission of VIS is to empower learners to achieve their potential in a nurturing and diverse environment, giving them the means and confidence to be successful and responsible in an evolving world."
Religious affiliation(s)	None
Established	1959
Head of School	Peter Murphy
Faculty	168
Enrollment	1400
Average class size	20
Campus	Suburban
Color(s)	Blue/White
Athletics conference	ISST & SCIS
Mascot	Panther
Website	www.vis.ac.at

The Vienna International School is a profit seeking international school, located in Vienna, Austria. The school was built to accommodate the children of UN employees and diplomats when the UN decided to locate one of its offices in Vienna, and it remains affiliated to the UN. About 50% of students are children of UN employees and receive education grants, while much of the remaining students are children mainly of embassy staff and company staff. The school has an enrollment of 1400 students, from pre-primary to twelfth grade.

Facilities

The school is divided into 3 wings. A Primary and Secondary area, an administrative wing and a separate building for Pre-Primary.The school also has an outdoor ecology area. Facilities include:

• 5 gyms
• 1 Theater
• 2 well-stocked libraries (one for primary school, and one for secondary school)
• Numerous computer labs and a wireless network to support work on laptops for Secondary students.

Outside facilities include:

• Artificial turf field
• 2 grass courts
• 1 large paved court
• 300 meters Athletic track
• 3 playgrounds

Modernizations

The school is recently undergoing a refurbishment project, modernizing many parts of the campus. These have included (list not complete):

• Upgrading of 6 science labs with a donation from Borealis, July 2008.
• Preparing an adjacent field to be used for PE lessons, July 2008.
• Establishing a pond (actually a puddle) for a few thousand euros, May 2010
• Upgrading of 2 computer labs, April 2009
• Refurbishing the athletics track, May 2008.

More renovations are planned for summer 2009.

School Day

The school day starts at 8:30 and ends at 14:55 for the Primary school and at 15:15 for the Secondary school. For Grade 11 and 12, some subjects last until 16:00. In the Secondary school, there are 7 periods per day, each 45 minutes long, with 3 minute intervals, a 20 min. break at 10:10 and a 50 min. lunch break from 12:50 - 13:40. The Primary School also has 7 periods a day, with a 1 hour lunch break at 11:40 and a 20 minute break at 10 o'clock.

History

The first English language medium school in Vienna was set up in August 1955 as the International Community School. Previously, it had been the 'British Army School' in Schönbrunn barracks and catered for the children of the British occupying forces in Vienna. The Austrian State Treaty signed in May 1955 resulted in the occupying forces leaving Austria, so the school transformed into the International Community School under the patronage of the British, American and Indian Missions.

It opened on 1 September 1955 in the 18th district of Vienna. By the end of the year, 150 students between the ages of 3 and 15 years attended the International Community School. Soon the building proved too small for the expanding school, which moved into the 19th district. By 1959, 300 children represented 25 different nationalities in ICS. However, most of the children were American or Canadian, so the British and Indian Embassies started a separate British style school in 1959, the English School, while the ICS changed into the American International School.

The English School moved into Grinzinger Straße 95, a premises found with the help of the British Ambassador, Sir James Bowker, the legal advisor at the Embassy Walter Rhodes, and Vienna's Deputy Lord Mayor, Hans Mandl. The English School quickly expanded and was visited by the British Minister of Education in 1961. Some of the first staff of the International Atomic Energy Agency sent their children to the English School in 1959. The school year 1961-62 saw the introduction of William Kirk as director. In 1974, some families of the UNIDO started sending their children to the school. In May 1969, Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip visited the English School on a state visit to Vienna.

In September 1977, Maurice Pezet was invited by the Austrian Government to start the project of developing a Vienna International School on the model of the Geneva and New York United Nations Schools in preparation for the expansion of the United Nations to Vienna. {Vienna is one of the four headquarters of the UN, along with New York, Geneva and Nairobi. The Vienna International Centre (UNO City) is leased to the United Nations for 1 Austrian schilling (7 euro cent) per year.} It was anticipated that there would be two years of preparation for the small existing English School to be incorporated into the school development plan for the Vienna International School (VIS).

The Vienna International School officially opened its doors on 11 September 1978 to pupils of 60 nationalities. Primary and Secondary were accommodated in Grinzingerstrasse and Kindergarten was located in Heiligenstaedter Strasse. A part of Secondary moved briefly to Zollergasse and then Schloss Poetzleindorf. A year later the Secondary School moved to Peter Jordan Strasse where it remained until the custom built present campus was opened in September 1984 with Maurice Pezet as Director. The then Chancellor, Dr Bruno Kreisky initiated the idea of a new, specially built school and the campus was entirely funded by the Austrian Government. Dr.Kreisky employed Maurice Pezet, formerly associated with the UN School in New York (UNIS), to manage the project and he became the first Director of the Vienna International School. Dr. Kreisky was present at some of the opening events at the VIS. The new building was constructed in the 22nd District, two U-Bahn (underground) stops from the VIC, and opened in September 1984. It is located on Strasse der Menschenrechte, two hundred metres away from the U1 Kagran underground station and the Donau Zentrum Shopping Mall.

Graduation requirements and courses

Full-year courses at VIS earn one credit each, while semester courses earn half of a credit. A secondary school student must earn 24 credits to graduate. The following subject areas are being offered as of the 2008-2009 school year.

Group 1: Language 1

• English A HL&SL
• German A HL&SL

It is also possible to study a privately taught mother tongue as Group 1 language at HL or SL

Group 2: Language 2

• English B and A2 HL&SL
• German B and A2 HL&SL
• German ab initio SL
• French B HL&SL
• Spanish B HL&SL
• Latin

Group 3: Individuals and Society

• Economics HL&SL
• Geography HL&SL
• History HL&SL
• Information technology in a Global Society (ITGS) HL&SL
• Environmental Systems and Society SL (transdisciplinary course)

Group 4: Experimental Sciences

• Biology HL&SL
• Chemistry HL&SL
• Physics HL&SL
• Design Technology HL&SL

Group 5: Mathematics

• Mathematics HL
• Mathematics SL
• Mathematics Studies SL
• Further Mathematics SL
• Computer Science HL&SL

Group 6: The Arts

• Music HL&SL
• Theatre HL&SL
• Visual Arts HL&SL
• Film HL&SL

Rather than taking an arts course, students may opt to take another subject from Groups 1 to 5 as their 6th subject

Camps & Trips

Additionally to one-day excursions starting in Pre-Primary, the school offers yearly whole-grade camps from Grades 2-9 and specialized trips from Grade 10-12.

• Grade 2: Applehof
• Grade 3: Ottenstein
• Grade 4: Klagenfurt
• Grade 5: Radstadt
• Grade 6: Hallstatt
• Grade 7: Wagrain
• Grade 8: Florence
• Grade 9: Murau
• Grade 10: Spanish: Granada, French: Besançon, Humanities: Mauthausen
• Grade 11: Spanish: Barcelona, Music: Munich, Biology: Lunz am See, Art: London
• Grade 12: Biology: Apetlon, Drama: Cardiff, Art: Venice

School magazine

The school magazine is called the Spotlight. It is published four times yearly, with additional issues for student council elections or other special events.

Famous visits

• 19. May 2009: Heinz-Christian Strache
• 15. June 2009: Sr. Lucy Kurien, founder of MAHER

Famous alumni

• Salam Pax
• Tobias Ellwood, Member of Parliament, United Kingdom

Sporting achievements

• The VIS Golf Team is the only VIS team to win the National Schools' Championships.
• The VIS Rugby Team has defended its title as Austrian Rugby Champions (u18) for 6 years in a row now. Players are regularly included in the u18 Austrian National Team that attends the FIRA-AER European Championships every year.
• The VIS rugby team won the Swiss school invitational in 2009 and was second in 2008.
• The VIS rugby team was recently promoted to the 1st division of ISST permanently as a result of their impressive performance at BSN.
• Over the past ten years, the VIS SV Boys Basketball team has won 6 consecutive championship titles and two second place awards in the International Schools Sports Tournament.
• The VIS JV basketball team has now won the SCIS tournament 2 years in a row.
• The VIS Tennis Team has, after a series of turbulent years, regrouped and started to return to its former strength by winning the third place at 2009 SCIS for the boys and third place overall in 2010 at ISST.
• The VIS Ski racing team won overall in 2001 in the Heinrich Harrer Cup in Seefeld.
• The VIS SV rugby team came third in the 2011 division 1 rugby ISST held at ASL.

2009 Achievements

Gender	Sport	Competition	Place
Male	Tennis	SCIS	3rd
Male & Female	Golf	SCIS	2nd
Male	Varsity Volleyball	ISST (2nd Division)	1st
Male	Varsity Rugby	ISST (Division 2)	1st

2011 Achievements

Gender	Sport	Competition	Place
Male	Varsity Rugby	ISST (Division 1)	3rd

Scouting

Vienna International School is the home of Vienna International Scout Group 88 (German: Wien 88-Internationale Pfadfindergruppe). The Scout group is affiliated to Boy Scouts and Girl Guides of Austria. It is the only English-speaking group within the Austrian Scout association. It was founded in 1980.

External links

• Official School Site
• Scouting Group Site