Information and Updates: 2023-2024 School Year
July 10, 2023
2023-2024 Student Body
As we move toward the midpoint of the summer vacation period, we would like to present some information concerning the way in which enrollment for the 2023-2024 school year is progressing. In summary, the school will remain very international with no majority of any nationality within the student body and will be composed of between 80% and 85% full-boarding students—including roughly 30% new enrollments. Although the junior high section will be somewhat smaller than in most years, the 11th graders represent one of the largest classes in our history and is expected to include around 32-34 students who will be split into double sections in all subject areas. The senior class is right at the perennial average with 20 students presently enrolled; two new to the school.
Programming Changes
One of the most significant changes in programming that will be implemented this coming school year will be the placement of all elective courses within the daily, academic schedule of classes. For the junior-high students, their electives (Theater Arts and Studio Art) will be held during period 7. For the high school students in grades 9 through 12, the elective course offerings will be scheduled during Period 6 (13:50 to 14:40), the penultimate class period of the day. This change has been made due to the frequent conflicts between electives and tutorials, teachers’ office hours and sports team practices when the courses were held in the afternoons and evenings. Scheduling the electives during Period 6 should also lend more seriousness to the instruction and learning occurring.
The elective courses will meet twice weekly and on the other days, Period 6 can be a supervised study period. Students are required to enroll in at least one elective course. Taking two or more may lead to conflicts of scheduling depending upon which two days of the week the electives are held. Therefore, we would like to ask for a bit of flexibility and the identification of the most-preferred elective course which should be scheduled as a priority. Although it will take some careful consideration for implementation of the electives within the individual student schedules, we are very certain that ending conflicts for students who would like to participate in sports team practices and who need the extra assistance provided by the faculty members during their office hours, will be of great benefit for all.
As you may be aware, the Advanced Placement® program has added AP Precalculus to their examination offerings and AIS-Salzburg will be offering this course at the 11th grade level starting in September. In order to accommodate the students who are not in need of an AP-level mathematics course, we have added Mathematics 11 which should better accommodate their needs. As several university destinations in Europe require at least one AP® Examination score in a mathematics subject, this should open up diploma equivalency and acceptance to a broader number of students who may not be able to handle the challenging AP® Calculus AB course in the 12th grade.
Aside from these adjustments, the schedule during academic days will remain the same, starting with the first instructional period at 8:30 AM (8:00 on Thursdays for Ethics Seminar sections) and ending by 3:35 PM each afternoon. Again, physical education courses will be held on Wednesday mornings as they have been for some time now, with academic courses commencing at 10:30 AM.
Physical Changes
The outer classroom building on campus is presently undergoing a significant facelift as you may have read about in the most-recent newsletter. While this is a significant improvement in the context of our instruction, we will, unfortunately, be unable to utilize the building at the start of the school year. The planners and those carrying out the reconstruction have informed us that they will try their best to have the building completed by the end of September, so we will have to be a bit creative with classroom assignments during the first four weeks of the school year before being able to spread out into the new building.
Policies New and Reviewed
Of great importance to our school and its offerings are the various and foundational policies that express our expectations and establish the important parameters of care, instruction and child protection a boarding school must implement and carry out as a highest priority. The following policy statements and guidelines will be up for review this summer and the school administration and staff will be reviewing and amending these in the months before the start of the school year in September:
Child Protection Policy
Anti-Bullying and Cyber-Bullying Policy
Equality and Diversity Policy
Data Protection Policy
Along with the review of these, the school staff and administration will also update and review all aspects of policies which govern the academic and social-behavioral side of the school as found in the Student and Parent Handbook as well as other internal documents. We hope that all parents and guardians of our students are aware of our efforts to energetically and directly implement best practice in these areas for the benefit of our entire community. Updates and editing should be completed before the school year begins in early September and the updated policy statements and procedures will again be posted over the school’s website for ease of access by all community members.
We are looking forward to an exciting, fascinating, challenging and memorable school year starting in September and hope that our entire community is equally optimistic and anticipating great things!