We host nearly 100 % non natives. Our students feel loyal to at least one other country than Austria.This is often combined with a strong national pride. We experience daily outbreaks of aggression due to this pride or sometimes due to poor, constricted living conditions.Our daily experiences with diversity and multiculturalism have raised a special awareness in our staff. Inter-culturalism is our daily life challenge.This is not likely to change anytime soon.The migrational processes into Europe will stay strong and numerous as living condition in poor countries will only worsen in the future due to climate change and political escapades. Europe is what we call „the island of the blessed“ and thus we have a high responsibility for people who live in less fortunate geographical areas. Their children come to our schools and we need to adjust our education and knowledge on how to adapt to these changed circumstances. The more training we can get, the better we are able to respond appropriately. With about 250 students we host more than 40 languages and even more nationalities as many children are binational. So we focus on a European development plan in the area of intercultural understanding, assimilation, tolerance and awareness.
Working with pupils at the age from ten to fifteen or sometimes even sixteen or seventeen years can sometimes be tiring, demanding and exhausting, so it is important to think about how we can improve living together contented, balanced and stable, so that the students feel good and like going to school and have fun with learning and that teachers can work without burnout and successfully. For us it is a great challenge to make tolerant,open-minded and cosmopolitan teenagers out of them, to have the awareness that every single one of them is a member of a united Europe. Another goal is that we want to offer the best education possible to every student and every student is be offered the best opportunities and the best learning support we can give to her or him. It's an important fact that you can only learn properly when you are feeling happy,when you aren't filled with anger or fear. Being resilient with the understanding of the other students and their backgrounds is an important contribution for a good work-life balance and for leading a happy life. We want to create more awareness for diversity and how we can benefit successfully from it in teaching at school and also how teachers and students can benefit personally from it.