Vienna -- Secondary Schools

[NeverEndingJourney]

Hello all,

Moving to Vienna this summer. This will be our third move in 18 months. Younger daughter will be in Y5 at the Lycée.

Older daughter will be Y10. She had very traumatic experiences in the French system, so pretty much refuses the Lycée option, though it's the cheapest of the international schools. Can't afford the English-speaking international schools could scrape by for tuition and capital fee but not for lunches, bus and trips. She has had three years of German, though she probably still can't say much, really (school German, you know). Also two years of Latin. I'm in touch with some local gymnasium, but they concur that for their 5.klasse she just does not have enough German even for the VBS.

Does anyone have experience with this? I keep thinking we'll end up homes educating (have done so two different years) but I'm very worried about the social aspect of it (again, we've done it...last time it was in the UK and it was really hard on her, even though at school she often gets teased and bullied). Argh. Don't know what to do. Any advice? Any other teen home educators in Vienna?

NeverEnding Yes, the postage situation is very frustrating. I didn't realise until recently (when they stopped doing so) that Amazon.co.uk used to offer free shipping to certain countries in Europe - not Austria, obviously. Even Amazon.de is a pain; you have to make sure that you're buying from Amazon directly rather than a seller, as most of the sellers are in Germany and often charge a fortune to ship to Austria or won't even ship here at all. Another thing that annoys me immensely is that quite a few UK companies charge more to ship to Austria than to Germany, for example - why? Grr.

suenan Good to hear that you don't have any plans to move! It took me a few years to feel settled here but I can't imagine living anywhere else now (and not just because I couldn't contemplate another move!).

Today I want the simplest solution to this problem: AIS. I am so tired of my girl hating school that I just do not even feel like entertaining the idea of another challenging year (after last year and this). I want her to be in a good mood for once in her life!

I need a job. How can I find a job? I haven't worked in 13 years of trailing my husband around the ex-Soviet Union!

Neverending Oh dear, sounds difficult. I don't know anything about AIS. I have just seen the fees online. ouch. But I can see why it is the simplest solution.

Job searching? Have you had a look at virtualvienna? Sometimes things come up there. Plus the UN sometimes recruits localy - I think there are links to these organisations on the virtualvienna site, but I have not checked in a long time.

We were lucky in that we found a flat pretty quickly - it was within our budget and seemed wonderful to us. We had lived in a tiny terraced house in the Uk, so were just glad to have something bigger! I get the feeling the market does not move THAT quickly, but I may be wrong. Yes, neighbours is just a question of luck - I hope you don't get any wolves or party animals in your next one.

Linzer you are right, the thought of the actual packing makes my feet stop itching immediately. I've often wondered why they charge more to Austria, than Germany. Very strange. I have also done the buying from an amazon seller, I am very careful now.

So I was able to get some info about starting gymnasium with no/little German. Dd can apply to any gymnasium (they did not tell me if she must be accepted by neighbourhood school). She spends the year as a "außerordentlicher Schüler" not being marked (the VBS that offered a place had told me this) and then repeats the year as an ordinary student.

Interesting in terms of becoming fluent in German. Not so interesting to lose a year when dd already wishes she could off to uni now! Though I could just tell a US university that we were doing a sort of homeshooling with Austrian school on the side experiment.

I'm a bit confused by the VirtualVienna site, I must admit.

We came from a tiny, carpeted (ick...do not understand the Brits' obsession with carpet) terraced house on the Hertfordshire/Cambridgeshire border (aka middle of nowhere) so our flat in Strasbourg (which are eerily similar to Vienna flats) was such a wonderful change! High ceilings, beautiful wood floors, no carpet in the wc (double ick), hairdrying possibility near a bathroom mirror (another one I do not understand)...

Good that you've got some information, NeverEnding. I'm not sure if it's the same in Vienna, but our local school (Neue Mittelschule) has to accept anyone from our area who applies for a place. With Gymnasien, both grades and proximity to the school - and whether children already have siblings at the school - come into play as well. However, catchment areas only really seem to apply to primary schools; by proximity to the school, I mean whether pupils live in the same town (those who do have higher priority); it's not like in the UK where a few hundred metres can make a difference. But like I said, I'm not sure whether things are different in Vienna.

Carpets... no, you won't find many here. We have carpets on the stairs and in the bedrooms, but that's quite unusual. Agree that carpets in the bathroom are icky, but my parents moved to a newbuild and miss their old carpeted bathroom; they find the floor in the new one too cold. Sockets in bathrooms are seen as a hazard - I think it has something to do with fuses, but am not entirely sure. The Austrians are generally not quite as cautious about health & safety matters as the British (take, for example, candles on Christmas trees).

suenan Agree about the market moving slowly, possibly because it's not very common to move house - once you've bought a house (or, even more likely, inherited it from a family member), you tend to stay put. Not sure whether that would still apply to flats, though. I think the high costs of moving (estate agents' fees, large deposits, etc.) also put people off moving. We had to a pay a €5000 deposit on the first place we rented here, which we lost when the landlord went bankrupt.

Sorry - a little late to the party here.

I used to work for the OSCE... What grade will he be? If he's a P4 or above then the school fees should be no problem at all, even without a working spouse. We had a great lifestyle, great car, etc etc at that level in Vienna with two kids in the VIS. I know many people who do the same at P3 level and also have an absolutely OK standard of living, so unless he's not a professional staff (in which case he wouldn't be offered schooling anyway) then I'm surprised you think you can't afford it. Happy to answer PMs if needed.

Believe me - it's a much better quality of life in Vienna at that level than a grade or two higher in New York where we are now...

Good luck - it's a wonderful city for families

(PMd MrMeaner)

Sue, do you think it's possible to negotiate rent a bit? I mean, should I go ahead and schedule a viewing for a flat that's a bit higher than we would like in view of negotiating down a bit?

Also, is the intersection at Nussdorferstrasse and Wahringerstrasse super busy? I see there's a park on one of the corners.

Me again :-)
Nowhere in Vienna is super super busy, but from a Vienna perspective I guess that one could be seen as quite busy... The summer is the main issue, because you will likely not have air-con, want the windows open and then depending on what floor you are on you may notice it. It's also a tram route, which means you get the pings of the bell. Like anywhere, though, you would get used to it - now living in NY and I would be happy to plop myself down in the middle of the Gurtel and still fall asleep peacefully... It's near the Altes AKH which is nice for kids and has a couple of good beer gardens.
Re rent negotiation, it's worth a try, but I actually found them really inflxible on that - they seem to prefer to keep something on the market for months and months rather than drop a little and get it off their hands, even if financially it makes more sense. If you point out to them that 100E a month less is better than another 2-3 months unrented they may see sense, but I found them strange in that regard.

Best of luck.

Hi MrMeaner,

Yeah, we live on a boulevard in Strasbourg, which in Paris would be awful, but here it's just dead most of the time -- except for recess time at the school across the street. I'm guessing Vienna is quite similar.

Why is the Altes AKH good for the kids? Is there a park within it? Is it still a hospital or just an old hospital?

Hi,

just quickly as have to put dc to bed.

That corner is very busy, as Mr Meaner says. I know it well, and don't think I would live there. (Is the flat a strange shape? with the kitchen kind of at the centre of the flat?) The park is indeed the quiet part of that corner but the two roads that intersect are busy- not Paris busy but still. Also there are no trees to reduce the sound. But also worth checking if flats face the street (if it is the one I saw advertised then it does) as flats in the courtyard will be quieter - from traffic anyway, neighbours is another matter!

Check this out, this may give you an idea:

www.laerminfo.at/karten.html

On negotiation - they might go down in price. There is no harm in trying - you have a steady income etc so that will all be positive. But as MrMeaner says, flats do tend to sit empty for a long time. But try!!!!

Altes AKH was an old (teaching) hospital - and a very famous one. There is now mostly university related stuff in the old buildings. But there are big courtyards, with beer gardens, a playground (though your dds may be too big for it), a christmas market etc. It's quiet, calm and green (ish).

Why isn't there a true British school in Vienna? Like the one in Bratislava? Wish it were a bit closer!

Hello there!

I was a student in the Lycee Francais a long time ago (graduated in 1999) so it might have changed a lot since, but for what it's woth I have kept good memories overall of the place. To me, it seemed more relaxed than the normal French system I was in, before my parents moved to Vienna.

We used to live just one street away from the Lycee, so am partial to the neighborhood

Hello Laureline. Thank you for telling me about the Lycee. My younger daughter will attend, so it's nice to know it's a good place. We've excluded it definitively for my older daughter, though. There is simply too much trauma, too much chance for triggering old hurts. Plus, the curriculum isn't really adapted to my high tech girl.

We'll definitely be living in the neighbourhood, though, so looking forward to that!