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Building Futures
First Stone Ceremony of the new ISL Lower School Building
Following the groundbreaking in April 2011, the International School Luxembourg (ISL) held its first stone ceremony of the new Lower School Building, an 18 831 m² structure, on the Geesseknaeppchen Campus on Tuesday 17 January 2012.
With a current student population of 1078 students from over 45 countries, and faculty of more than 20 nationalities, ISL is the largest school in Luxembourg offering an education in English and offers the widest choice of subjects for the International Baccalaureate.
Throughout the last 5 years, the school has experienced a surge in enrolment growing from 724 students to 1078 in this short period of time. ISL plans to continue accommodating the demand the international business community has for an English language education in Luxembourg. Tuesday’s largely symbolic event began with the ISL Director Chris Bowman and guest of honour, Finance Minister Luc Frieden addressing the audience. This was followed by the first brick laying with the assistance of two representatives of the Lower School Student Council.
Of the 48,5 million euros total cost, the Luxembourg government is contributing 80% to this expansion project. Minister Frieden spoke of Luxembourg’s strong commitment to education saying that it is one of the most important investments a country can make in developing its own future. He also recognised the key role international schools play in helping to attract and retain foreign investors. He stated that this is necessary to the prosperity of the Luxembourg economy.
About the new Lower School Building
This is the second major endeavour in ISL’s ambitious campus expansion project. This newest project is dedicated to children ages 3-11 and located on the southwest corner of the Geesseknaeppchen Campus. The new Lower School complex will offer 37 new classrooms organised in small clusters as well as rooms specifically designed for arts, sciences, ICT and music. Larger spaces such as a library, cafeteria, a gymnasium and an auditorium with a capacity to accommodate up to 400 people are also part of the plan.
‘’It is a true state of the art learning facility of the 21st century following the outcome of the international tender’’, says Patricia Angoy, Lower School Principal. She emphasises that it has been a consultative process since then between ISL and the project manager Paul Wurth. ‘’All details are related to optimising the students’ learning as well as satisfying the demand of the expatriate and local community who seek English language education. As Minister Frieden said, it is a prerequisite to positioning Luxembourg in the different economic sectors.’’
Once the Lower School students have moved, the main building will be refitted so Upper School students will be able to exclusively use this building for their secondary school programme. This initiative is also included in the total cost of the expansion project.
The new Lower School building will open in August 2013 enabling ISL to welcome some further 300 to 400 new students in addition to the number already enrolled. This will allow ISL to educate a total of approximately 1400 students in the near future.
