St. George's Austrian High School

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St. George's Austrian High School

Established	1882
Type	Private, coeducational (since 1995) gymnasium
Director	Franz Kangler
Teaching staff	ca. 45 Austrian, 25 Turkish
Students	ca. 620
Grades	Prep, 9 – 12
Location	Istanbul, Turkey
Campus	Urban
Colors	Red, White
Website	http://www.sg.k12.tr
Stairs connecting the former boys' and girls' courtyards

St. George's Austrian High School (Turkish: Sankt Georg Avusturya Lisesi, German: Österreichisches Sankt Georgs-Kolleg) is a private Austrian-Turkish high school located in Istanbul, Turkey. It is one of several secondary schools that were founded by European or American missions in Turkey during the 19th century, but were then secularized after the founding of the modern Turkish Republic in 1923.

Today, the school is subject to regulation by the Turkish Ministry of Education, and almost its entire student body is Turkish, but a large part of its administrative and teaching staff remains Austrian (appointed by the Austrian Ministry of Education, Arts and Culture), and it offers a mixture of Turkish and Austrian curricula in a bilingual environment.

1 History
2 Curriculum
3 School-leaving qualifications offered
4 School library
5 School counselor
6 Alumni
7 Notable alumni
8 See also
9 External links

[edit] History

Sankt Georg was founded in 1882 by Austrian Lazarists and was originally intended for German-speaking Catholic children living in the Ottoman Empire. After the Ottoman (and Austrian) defeat in World War I, the school was ordered closed by the occupying Triple Entente forces in Istanbul, and all of its staff was sent back to Austria. The school was reopened shortly afterwards when the Republic of Turkey was founded (1923). After the invasion of Austria by the Nazi Germany in 1938, the school turned into a "German school" and it was closed once again in 1944, due to the freezing of relations between Turkey and Germany. It was reopened in 1947. In 1995, the girls' and boys' schools were merged together.

[edit] Curriculum

The school combines both the Austrian and the Turkish curricula to prepare its students for the Turkish and Austrian school leaving examinations and to enrich their general knowledge. Under the current curriculum, students at Sankt Georg can learn up to three foreign languages. German and English are the two compulsory foreign languages taught at Sankt Georg. Aside from these two languages, students can choose either Latin or French as their third foreign language. Most subjects (including math, sciences, philosophy and arts) are taught in German by Austrian teachers, but subjects related to Turkish culture and language (such as Turkish literature, history and geography) are taught in Turkish by Turkish teachers. Students learn German in a compulsory one-year preparatory program.

[edit] School-leaving qualifications offered

Turkish high school diploma (Lise diploması)
Austrian Matura: Students wishing to pursue their tertiary education at universities in Austria, or in the European Union generally, have the right to sit the Austrian Reifeprüfung examination at Sankt Georg. Once students pass the examination, they obtain the Matura certificate, which is equivalent to International Baccalaureate (IB).

[edit] School library

The current school library opened in 1988, after 2 small libraries within the school building were brought together. As of 2006, it contains more than 16,000 books, 20 periodicals/magazines in Turkish, German and English, and CDs/DVDs.

[edit] School counselor

Ms. Sylvia Vogl is the school counselor for the Sankt Georg Austrian High School.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Alumni

Alumni of Sankt Georg gather at school every year in the last week of April at an annual Alumni Day called "Strudeltag". Another annual Alumni Day is organised around May in Vienna, which is intended for graduates of Sankt Georg living/studying in Austria or in other European countries.

[edit] Notable alumni

Rutkay Aziz, actor and director
Zeynep Damla Gürel, Special advisor to the head of state in European affairs; former deputy of Republican People's Party (CHP)
Ediz Hun, movie actor and MP
Zerrin Arbaş, actress and Best Model of Turkey 1965
Merva Ulusoy, program editor and presenter for the show Headquarters on CNN Turk news channel
Tunç Hamarat, World Correspondence Chess Champion 1999-2004
Murat Ses, keyboard player and composer
Fatih Ozguven, author, literary translator and columnist