3 buildings, one-campus
Digitally equipped classrooms
Contemporary natural sciences
Room for the humanities
Recreation wing, canteen, bistro and more
The Internationale Schule Südwestfalen (ISS) as an integral part of the Städtisches Gymnasium Olpe (SGO) consists of one campus that encompasses several buildings. It also has attractive outdoor areas with numerous activities and facilities for learning, relaxing, and personal development. Students can relax in the foyer absorbed in their books, prepare papers and presentations, or spend time
together in the bistro area with a small snack. Of course, the ISS has digitally equipped classrooms, technical, and digital laboratories as well as science labs, an IT room and numerous physical education activities such as our climbing wall. In addition, the campus offers broad-range WLAN, numerous charging stations for digital end devices, a modern library and much more. It is place of learning that suits everyone.
Adjacent to our foyer, the E-building houses our modern IT rooms as well as the art and music departments.
The Imberg building for natural sciences is located in the immediate vicinity of the main building. Here our students learn, experiment and research scientific phenomena.
In addition to modern classrooms, the historic Pestalozzi building houses the rooms of the Olpe Education Connector as well as the recreation wing and study hall.
The range of sports offered at the SGO is broad and manages to strike a balance between traditional and contemporary sports. Sports offered include rowing, soccer, rock climbing, inline skating, and skiing. For this purpose, the nearby outdoor sports facilities around the school and our halls are utilised.
Our campus has spacious outdoor areas. In addition to various schoolyards with places to rest and engage in activities, the school's own woodland is also located on the grounds.
Science can be fun
Modern classrooms fully equipped and with plenty of space for learning are an integral part of the International School in Olpe and the SGO. In addition to focusing on multilingual education and the acquisition of digital skills, our goal is to explore science in a practical way and make it more tangible! In our subject-specific teaching and laboratory rooms, students can learn how to use digital data acquisition systems, carry out safe experiments with radioactivity or conduct engineering research on a wide range of topics.
The three chemistry labs offer a variety of options for students to experiment. This is made possible by electricity and gas connections at each double bench. The five digestors in the labs in particular enable more complex experimental setups. In addition, a large number of devices are available for hands-on work by the students.
The five biology and physics classrooms are modern and well equipped. All classrooms have active boards. In addition, one room is set up separately as a technical room for natural sciences. With the existing lift system of supply connections, the subject teachers can supply the students' workstations as needed. The physics lessons are supported by a 10KWh photovoltaic system that has been installed.
With their own personal devices and school iPads, the students can use digitally controllable data acquisition systems to conduct and evaluate experiments. Additional sensors for the acquisition of data are used to record light intensity, current, voltage and pH values. The same sensors can be used to control light barriers as well as other sensors that detect pressure.
With the aid of further donations and start-up funding from the Deutsche Telekom Foundation for the course elective in the WPII subject area Junior Engineer Academy, purchases totalling €10,000 were made for STEM. These include the Filo Cut 3, the Ultimaker 2+ 3D printer with accessories, 10 LEGO® Mindstorms Education EV3 robots, 10 soldering stations with accessories, 10 Arduino starter kits with a variety of electronic components, 8 Osoyoo Robot Car starter kits and 10 Arduino Nanos with additional electronic components, as well as a fusible wire cutting machine for mathematical visualisation and programming.
In addition to the science classrooms, another 13 classrooms are equipped with active boards and 14 rooms with modern, high-performance 75-inch monitors. Thanks to state-of-the-art wireless connection options, which are made possible by broad-range WLAN for teachers, math classes can also be augmented with interactive teaching content and work with CAS systems can be embedded in the lessons. A total of 15 notebooks are available to enhance media supply, all of which are connected to the school's internal WLAN and therefore also to the Internet. This means that class-size groups can work on the computers in the technical rooms at a ratio of 2:1. The media resources are supplemented through rental equipment, which is available to all faculty members. These include two more mobile Apple TVs and 5 beamers.
Energised for work
Learning requires energy! The International School and the SGO have a large, attractive foyer with a bistro area where students can enjoy snacks, drinks, and lunch during school hours. A generous seating area is available for students to relax, work and mingle in a friendly atmosphere during the school day and after-school hours. Furthermore, students have access to a recreation wing, our library, designated study areas, and 3 school courtyards.
The foyer with its bistro, cafeteria and numerous seating and study areas has become an integral part of academic life and a focal point of the school. Every day from the 2nd period to the end of the lunch break, our students have access to all kinds of appetising food.
In our recreation wing in the Pestalozzi building as well as in our library, students can meaningfully use the time before 2:45 pm with a variety of activities.
With our school woodland and several school courtyards, our campus offers numerous opportunities to spend time outside and enjoy the fresh air.
Our sports programme
We want to provide our students with a wide range of sporting activities and motivate them to engage in physical activity throughout their lives. Therefore, at the ISS, we manage the balancing act between traditional and contemporary types of sport in combination with educational concepts. Thanks to our location in Olpe, the "town in the mountains, in the woodland and by the lake", we make use of these unique conditions for sports and offer attractive opportunities for physical activity, from rowing and swimming to rock climbing/bouldering and skiing.
The nearby Biggesee is very suitable for water sports such as rowing. The path around the lake can be used for endurance training like running and inline skating. In addition, our school woodland can be used as a sports facility in nature and for campus orientation purposes.
Another sporting highlight in the school life of the students at SGO is the school ski week at the end of middle school in Gerlos (Austria), which has been a tradition for over 50 years. Skiing basics are already taught in advance at the nearby Fahlenscheid ski area.
Because our sports halls are so well equipped, we can offer a wide range of sporting activities as well as individual disciplines (gymnastics, dancing, climbing and track and field). In addition, classes can be held in the school's own weight room. Core sports activities in physical education include basketball, volleyball, and badminton. Soccer is also one of the core sports at the SGO. For many years, we have been able to achieve great success in the state soccer competitions as a DFB basis school. In addition to the numerous sporting competitions at district and state level, the school community enthusiastically and successfully participates every year in the team cup in the Olpe city district.
In addition to traditional sports, trend sports and sporting activities from other cultures such as Frisbee, flag football, spike ball, kin-ball, rugby, etc. are regularly incorporated in the physical education curriculum.
Students are guaranteed cooperation between the DFB basis coordinator in charge and the leaders of the school project. The school is responsible for organising training, providing the sports facilities, and supplying the necessary materials. The training is conducted by physical education teachers from our school who are also experienced soccer coaches. The participants are selected by the project leaders with no more than 15-20 students in each training group. This gives the students the chance to develop their skills in their sport during school time through additional training at the SGO. Project coordinators at the SGO are Michael Lauer and Frank Dörr.
