Vienna Elementary School

Vienna Elementary School (VES), together with Vienna European School, is a private English-language school in Vienna's 18th district, about 15 minutes from the city centre, whose campus of three buildings is linked by the elementary playground and lies close to Türkenschanz Park. It takes children from kindergarten and preschool through elementary school (Grades 1-4), Junior High and Senior High. Preschool runs an English submersion programme with German, theme-based learning that includes Montessori methods, and regular field trips. The Senior High is legally a private upper-secondary Realgymnasium with a focus on science and languages: all subjects follow the Austrian curriculum and lead to the Austrian Matura, with most subjects taught in English. Students work in smaller groups for individual support, and the school adds presentation skills, leadership and values education, university preparation and vocational guidance. A command of English is not required to apply; applicants visit the school, meet the director and take a simple placement test.

Facilities across the campus include two gym halls, one with a climbing wall and gymnastics equipment such as mats, a balance beam, rings and bars, changing rooms with showers, a large garden with a playground and a nearby park used at recess. There are libraries with books in English, German, Spanish and French (including a separate Grade 4 library), music rooms, art and craft rooms, a science lab, a study room and a Homework Club room, a theatre, a ping-pong break room and an accessible roof terrace, with accessible restrooms and a lift in the high school building. Warm organic lunches are supplied by BIO MENÜ, with almost all ingredients from local Austrian farmers and regular, vegetarian, pork-free, gluten-free and lactose-free menus.

After-school programmes run for an additional fee: a Homework Club until 4 pm from Monday to Thursday and weekly one-hour activities such as football, fun dance, choir, Spanish, guitar, piano and vocal coaching, with karate and ballet for the youngest pupils. In Junior High, clubs include chess, German as a second language, a French club, a Spanish club, maths support and football. The school calendar is full of events: a fall presentation, Halloween, Thanksgiving, a Christmas fair and show, ice skating, carnival, St Patrick's Day, a science fair, a talent show, piano and guitar recitals, a choir concert and a school sleep-over, plus field trips to museums, concerts, exhibitions and factories.