Colegio Helvetia

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Colegio Helvetia is a private multingual (Spanish, German, French) Swiss school located in Bogotá, Colombia.

1 History
2 Features
3 Administration
4 Links
5 Sources

[edit] History

Founded in 1949, only 49 students and 5 Swiss teachers activities in an old house located in the Carrera Septima (Seventh Avenue) in Bogota.

Four years later it was moved to its current location, at the 128th street near the Boyaca Avenue. The new buildings were constructed by Victor Schmidt, a swiss architect who lived his last years in Colombia. The Colegio Helvetia was declared Colombia's national monument in 1992. The first group of students graduated in 1954.

Since its founding year until 1969, the school only taught in Spanish and French, but in that year, a German section began and boys and girls, who received classes in different groups, were brought together.

The buildings did not change much until the year 2000, where the CI (Centro de Investigación) was built, a modern and complete library with books in Spanish, German, French, English and Italian, and broadband Internet access.

In 2003, former principal Karl Schmidt implemented the Matura, a demanding four-year programme of international education Swiss diploma, that grants students access to any university in Switzerland or in the European Union. The first class to graduate with the Matura was the 2007 class, in June 29.

[edit] Features

The school is divided into three levels: Dibi-Däbi (kinder 1- second grade), primary school (third grade-sixth grade) and high school( seventh grade- twelfth grade). It has two sections, French and German. The school has two libraries, one for Dibi- Däbi and one for the other two levels. It also has one gym, two soccer fields, three basketball courts and 5 volleyball courts.

[edit] Administration

The principal was, until June 29, 2007, Karl Schmidt, who already had been the principal in the 90's. The new principal since August 2007 is Pascal Affolter, who plans to renew the system so few classes are given in spanish, and many in the language the students chose to speak, german or french.