Austria

KOOPERATIVE INFORMATIKMITTELSCHULE (AUSTRIA):

KMSI Kinkplatz is situated on the outskirts of Vienna in the 14th District Our school is located near the “Wienerwald” which is a recreational area in Vienna. The building itself was erected in 1994 and is fairly modern. It is maintained by the local government because it is a public school.

The main focuses are ICT which means that the students have two lessons a week and additional access to the ICT facilities in all other subjects. Social development and interpersonal skills are integrated in all subjects and are supported by projects.

Furthermore we have a school choir and an actors group. 

To enhance the students´language skills we organize Language weeks in Great Britain every other year. We also offer an English workshop week with native speakers as a consequence of a language assistant programme we had two years ago.

Our institution is working with 240 pupils from 22 different nations, aged 10-15 who create diverse learning groups. In addition four classes also have students with physical or psychological needs.

Most of our students do not have German as their mother tongue but speak at least two languages (mostly Croatian, Bosnian, Polish, Turkish,…) In recent years the number of refugee families has increased tremendously, especially children from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Africa  make up an increasing population of students.. Quite a few of our students are socially underprivileged and in immediate danger of unemployment, because they sometimes are from social dysfunctional families. Therefore we have 4 teachers who care for students with special needs, a psychagogue and a psychologist as support staff

The project helps to raise the awareness of being a European citizen and this is one of our main aims.

It also encourages students to study and use foreign languages and to see Europe in a wider context.

We also think that mobility within Europe and relationships to schools in different countries are really important for both staff and pupils.

In a wider Europe it is more and more important to develop additional skills and competences as communication, identity, language skills and ICT development