Vienna International School
The Vienna International School is a non-profit international school made up structurally of the parents of each student at the school, and 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 80% of students are children of UN employees and receive education grants, while much of the remaining students are children of embassy staff and Austrian nationals. It awards the International Baccalaureate Diploma and/or an Austrian Matura by fulfilling extra requirements. VIS has an enrollment of approximately 1300 students, from pre-primary to twelfth grade.
History
The Vienna International School was originally set up in August 1955 as the Vienna 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 Vienna International Community School under the patronage of the British, American and Indian Missions.
It opened on the 1st of 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 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 VICS. However, most of the children were American or Canadian, so the British and Indian Embassies started a separate British style school in 1959, while the VICS 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 school quickly expanded and was visited by the British Minister of Education in 1961. 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, who helped raise the quality of education at the school considerably. In 1974, children from families of the UNIDO started sending their children to the school.
In May 1969, Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip visited the school on a state visit to Vienna. Another significant director of the school was Maurice Pezet, until June 1985. In September 1978, the decision was made to change the English School into a specific United Nations school, and the name "Vienna International School" was introduced. The Austrian government and Chancellor Dr Kreisky supported the school, and the idea of a new, especially built premises was established. The new building was created in Kagran, two U-Bahn (underground) stops from the UN, and opened in 1985.
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 were being offered as of the 2005-2006 school year.
- English
- General English Classes
- English as a Second Language
- Languages
- German
- French
- Spanish
- Latin
- Mother-Tongue Courses
- English
- History
- Western & Eastern Civilization
- Modern World Problems
- Early Modern European History
- Economics
- Information Technology in the Global Society
- Geography
- Philosophy
- Arts
- Visual Arts
- Theatre Arts
- Fine Arts
- Concert Choir
- Concert Band
- Film
- Mathematics
- Algebra
- Geometry
- Sciences
- Biology
- Chemistry
- Environmental Science or Geoscience (alternating years)
- Physics
- Ecosystems & Societies
- Design Technology
- Electives
- Computer Science: Computers and JAVA Programming
- Theory of Knowledge
- Physical Education
Trivia
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- The VIS Golf Team is the only VIS team to win the National Schools' Championships.
- The school lies in the 22nd district of Vienna, only two train stops away from the United Nations
- Unlike most international schools, a large proportion of VIS's students remain in the school for the whole period of their education as their parents are permanent residents of Vienna.
- The VIS rugby team has defended its title as number 1 in Austria for 4 years now.
- The school features a broadcasting system called the VISis
- The VIS Senior Varsity Boys Basketball team has won 6 ISST Championship titles in the last 8 years and two Second Place Victories, lead by coach Lothar Wedekind. [1]
- The school has its own Yearbook Team which consists of a supervisor and seventeen students; the 2005/06 yearbook, printed by Walsworth Publishing Company, was 273 pages long and sold for 45€.
- The VIS Tennis Team consists of about ten students which regularly attend SCIS Tournaments.
- VIS has changed its directors 4 times in 3 years
- The VIS JV basketball team has now won the SCIS tournament 2 years in a row