Statutes

Director’s Message

40 Year Celebrations

With the official 40 year anniversary on September 11, we go into an exciting weekend of activities to celebrate.  Tonight there will be an invitation only formal event, at which alumni and former President Dr. Heinz Fischer will speak followed by light refreshments. Unfortunately, numbers are limited for this event by the maximum capacity of the theatre.

On Saturday we hope to welcome over 1000 visitors to our annual Welcome Back-to-School-Picnic. This is an event  between 14.00 and 17.00 that we would be very happy to see the extended VIS community attending. There will be something of interest for all age groups.  On Sunday the alumni will meet in the Prater.

Website Launch

We have timed the launch of our new look website to coincide with the 40 year celebrations. Please take a minute to visit www.vis.ac.at and enjoy the creative work that has gone into the fresh new look.  In the next two or three weeks we will launch the second big component of our website development by opening up our intranet to replace Moodle. Given the complexities of GDPR it is great to see that the website still has a very strong feel of our VIS community.

Once both sections are fully operational the intent is that the outward facing website will be targeted at prospective parents and a general interest viewer. The intranet will be where we house all of the information that parents/staff want, once they have become a member of our community. The intranet access will be password protected and is intended to provide ‘single sign-on’ for the various VIS systems.

If you see the Development Office team over the weekend do take a minute to congratulate them on their work.

Meet the Director 

Earlier today I hosted the first of my monthly open meetings for parents. Thank you to the parents who were able to attend – for those new to the concept there are three objectives that we try to achieve at each of these meetings.

  1. To provide a forum for parents to come and ask questions about aspects of the school or our academic programmes.
  2. To provide an opportunity for the community to meet a member of the Board of Governors 
  3. To provide an opportunity for me to speak about issues that I feel would be of interest to parents.

A copy of the slides from our meeting today can be found by following this link to Moodle: Please click here!

              user: visparent

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VIS News

Job Vacancies by Conny Schiessel

Our job vacancy for the position as the Assistant to the Secondary IB Office is still open until September 9th. If you are interested please click here to find further information.

Photo Consent

Also discussed with you this week is our request for you to provide consent to share your child's photo in school publications. This helps us to communicate more about your child's learning and also to keep our websites and newsletters interesting and full of relevant images. Please follow this link or code below to give your consent, if you haven't already - much appreciated!


Primary School

by Christine Lang

Photo Week - 12-14 September

It’s time to get our kids looking their best as next week is Photo Week!  From Wednesday 12 September to Friday 14 September, students will have their photos taken in room 212.  To find out when your child will have his/her photo taken, click here for the photo week schedule or see the table below.

You can arrange to have family photos taken after school as well.  If you have any questions about how to access your child’s photographs online and pricing of packages, please contact CAM Fotografie at 0664 260 6016 or by email office(at)cam-fotografie.at

InCAS Assessments

Next week, students in Grades 1-5 will complete the InCAS (Interactive Computerized Assessment System) testing. InCAS is an external diagnostic assessment tool that helps us identify individual student’s development in order to personalize learning and monitor progress.  It is administered annually in September and taken by students aged 6 to 11.

When triangulated with our own internal assessments, the results from InCAS help us gain information about your child in reading, spelling, maths, mental arithmetic, developing ability and attitudes, including progress over time if your child has taken the InCAS assessments at VIS in previous years.  

Once we have access to the data, we will send a summary of their results home with your child along with information about how to read the results. For more information about InCAS, you can visit this website: http://www.cem.org/incas

The InCAS test will require a set of headphones.  Whilst we have headphones available, your child may prefer to use his/her own.

Systems Support

Please find HERE a quick guide for parents on how to use Managebac, which, in the Primary School, is where you can indicate an absence, monitor attendance, see your child’s timetable, see part reports and more.

Here you see the links to the new GR Primary Websites:

 


Secondary School

by Elisabeth Stanners

The academic year has now settled in and we hope that all your children are feeling that they know their teachers and timetable and have good connections to both their teachers and social groups. As ever, if you have any concerns, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Next week is Activity Week. The focus of the week for each grade level is different except for one central aim, which is to ensure that the students have a chance to build their connections to others in the grade level. Often we need to be in a position in which connection is forced on us before we learn about others and begin to appreciate their strengths. It has been my experience that the reality of the person that I have only seen from a distance is very different from the person I come to know through working and talking together. We do not all need to be fiends, but a central tenet of our values as a school is embodied in our Code of Conduct: Respect for Self; Respect for others; Respect for the environment.

Please do not forget that we are planning information sessions for the IB Diploma and IB Middle Years Programme. We encourage you to come to these sessions, particularly if you have any questions regarding the curriculum, courses or how we assess students. We will also show you how to access ManageBac to track your child’s progress.

For each curriculum programme the (same) information session will be offered twice; once in the morning and once in the evening.

 

IB Diploma (Grades 11 - 12) parent information meetings:

Wednesday 12 September 18:00 -19:00 - Secondary Aula

Wednesday 26 September 08:30 -09:30 - Secondary Aula

IB Middle Years Programme (Grades 6 - 10) parent information meetings:

Friday 14 September 08:45 - 10:00 - Room 123/124 (first floor)

Monday 17 September 18:00 - 19:30 - Secondary Aula

I look forward to seeing many of you at the Welcome-Back-to-School-Picnic tomorrow. I will be grilling with the rest of the Senior Leadership Team. Please do come by to have a burger and say ‘hello’.

Photo week

Please click here to see the full schedule!

Photoweek will take place for Secondary students from 17 – 20 September in the Student Study Lounge in the Library. Students from each Homeroom will come down at the designated time for individual and group photographs for the yearbook and for private purchase if desired. Please see the schedule for the time that your child’s Homeroom will go for their photo session.

G11 to Albertina

On Tuesday this week, Grade 11 Visual Art students visited the Contemporary Art Exhibition at the Albertina Museum. Artwork by Andy Warhol, Gerhard Richter and Maria Lassnig were just some of the artists represented. Students spent time drawing, photographing and studying the works in their work journals. Visiting museums and galleries is an important aspect of the DP course and students benefit hugely from the opportunity to see artworks up close. The Contemporary Art exhibition at the Albertina is on until March 2019.


Admissions

Student Withdrawal Information by Tina Lackner

If, for any reason, you need to withdraw your child from VIS you are asked to send a written notice to the Admissions Coordinator, Tina Lackner. The following is an excerpt of the annually published VIS tuition fees schedule 2018-2019, page 5:

Early Departures: Parents/Guardians may terminate the schooling contract prematurely before its expiration at the end of the school year by way of a notice in writing to the Admissions Coordinator. The termination takes effect at the end of the second (2nd) calendar month following the month of receipt of the notice by VIS, unless the notice expressly states that the termination take effect on the last day of a later month. Unless notice is given in writing, fees will continue to be charged and the deposit will not be returned.

School Fees are calculated pro rata on the basis of complete calendar months are payable until the termination takes effect. If the termination takes effect at the end of the month of May, School Fees are payable until the end of the school year. Unless notice is given in writing, fees will continue to be charged and the deposit will not be reimbursed.

For example: If you must withdraw your child/ren from VIS at the end of October 2018, you will have to notify Ms Tina Lackner in writing by the end of August 2018 at the latest.


Sports and After School Activties

Competitive Sports by Jason Bowie

If you are interested in signing up for the ski team, please check out the poster below. Our deadline is October 1st. If you are interested in signing up please click here.


Eco School

Dear VIS Community,

Welcome back to this school year! The Green Teams formed by Primary and Secondary School students have already started with the Eco projects. They are supported by teachers and parents that voluntarily joined the Eco School Team again this year. Thank you!

We want to achieve a sustainable way of living, and in order to set the path, we need to make small changes in our lifestyles. Sometimes those changes don’t affect us, but other times they do. However, if we want to succeed in this major task of living in a sustainable and healthy way, those little changes are essential, and of relevance to our students’ ideas and aims.

We thank the VIS community for supporting those small changes, which are needed in order to achieve our sustainability goals for this school year.

Eco School Team (2018-2019)


Other Programmes

Mother Tongue Programme by Bettina Schwarz, Henrike Schauer and Tamsin Roberts

Studies show that continued learning in your child's home language has a positive impact on their school learning. Across the school, the Mother Tongue programme has students from Grade 1 - Grade 12 learning in around 30 different languages! There will be new some teachers this year and a selection of new Mother Tongue books, suitable for our younger readers will be in the library soon!
For information about the programme and contact details for the Mother Tongue teachers, please use the following pathway on Moodle (user: visparent/ pass: viewsite): Home / ▶Courses / ▶Parents / ▶Extra Curricular Activities

Mother Tongue lessons in Primary School:
Tamsin Roberts: pypmothertongue(at)vis.ac.at

Mother Tongue lessons in Secondary School:
G6-G10 Bettina Schwarz: mypmothertongue(at)vis.ac.at
G11-12: Henrike Schauer: ibmothertongue(at)vis.ac.at

Don't forget, if your child has just moved up to 6th Grade and the MYP programme, Bettina will be happy to answer any questions you may have.

Latin Lessons for G7 students by Bettina Schwarz

Dear Parents / Guardians,

This year's beginner Latin classes 2018/19 will take place every Monday from 15.30 to 17.10. 

Latin classes are taught in English, based on the international course programme of the Cambridge Latin Course. The curriculum of the 4-year Latin programme at VIS usually starts in grade 7. The Diploma at the end of Grade 10 is officially recognized as Austrian Matura Equivalence in the subject Latin.

Latin is also a prerequisite for the study of certain subjects at university, especially in Austria (law, medicine, languages, history etc.) 

Grades for Latin are given as in other subjects and are included in school reports as an external grade. The costs per semester are approx. € 250 – 350, depending on the number of participants.

If you wish to take Latin classes, please register ASAP directly to kerstinstevens(at)hotmail.com.  

Please find further information in the attachment. First class: Monday, September 17th, 2018

VISMA Instrumental Music Programme by Daniel Bottoms

Dear VIS students and parents! 

Please note that late registration for the VISMA (musical instruments) extra-curricular program is still available.  If you missed the deadline, please contact your former teacher directly and/or send an email to: visma.music(at)gmail.com and we will try to work you into the timetable!  All students are welcome! For more information please click here!

Model United Nations Club by Alistair Lang

Are you interested in the political climate of today?  Do you enjoy the cut and thrust of public speaking and debating?  If so then Model United Nations could be for you!  

MUN is an after school activity that involves research on contemporary social, economic and political issues, public speaking and debate. If you are interested in participating in this activity, there will be the first sessions on: Thursday, September 20th. 

 

Grade 6-8: Thursday, September 20th @ 15:30 in room 147 with Ms Stewart

Grade 9-10: Thursday, September 20th @ 15:30 in room 142 with Ms Flanagan

Grade 11-12: Thursday, September 20th @ 16:00 in room 146  with Dr Lang

There will be an opportunity for all students to participate in and help organise our very own MUN conference (MUNoV) this year to be held at the Vienna International Centre and to also travel to a conference abroad.  Sign up for the whole year will cost only 100 Euros for the club programme (extra costs for the conference to be confirmed).

 


PTA


Weekend Ideas

  1. If you are looking for more things to do the little town of Eggenburg turns into a medieval town this weekend.  The whole town is turned into a medieval show with fire spewers, knights tournaments, medieval crafts and much more. 7 euros entrance fee for ages 16 and up - additional charges for some special performances. For more information, please click here.
  2. A festival all around horses is taking place in the 11th district. If you and you and your family love horses this is the place to check out. For more information, please click here.
  3. The Augarten park is hosting a harvest festival where you can taste and enjoy local produce and meet the people behind the products. It is also a beautiful park for walks and play time with the family. For more information, please click here.

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