Institut auf dem Rosenberg - Cutting-Edge Approach to Education

1.       Please enrich us with information about the school and its inception. Brief us about the mission/aim and goal

Perched on a hill overlooking the picturesque, alpine town of St. Gallen sits Institut auf dem Rosenberg a private Swiss boarding school world-renowned for its cutting-edge approach to education. Rosenberg provides the best standards of service and understands that no child is the same, it is important that each person can feel unique and special. Since its foundation in 1889, the school has sought to bridge the gap between education and the real, professional world which lies beyond the school gates. Rosenberg’s key focus is that pupils receive personal guidance to ensure they are reaching their full potential and leave school equipped with the tools they need to take on the unique challenges of the 21st century. The school aims to give students an insight into the rapidly evolving and digital 21st century workplace, so that they learn skills that will serve them beyond the classroom.

For over 130 years and over four generations of the Gademann family, this boutique artisanal establishment has offered an unmatched learning environment promoting individuality and fostering natural curiosity, whilst enabling excellent academic achievements. With a unique holistic, creative and entrepreneurial approach to education, the school is reshaping today’s educational environment.

The school caters for 6 – 19-year olds and offers a truly international, multilingual environment, where 230 pupils of 50 nationalities communicate in several languages. The staff to student ratio is 2:1 with an average class size of eight students to ensure everyone receives individual attention and enables the delivery of excellent academic results. 

2.       Intrigue us about the life of a student at your school

In keeping with the school’s academic approach, Rosenberg ensures that students are given autonomy when it comes to their own health and wellbeing too. To this end, the school’s team of world-class chefs deliver a range of nutritional cuisine and accommodate all dietary requirements, such as vegetarianism, veganism, dairy-free, gluten-free and religious restrictions. Students can even create a personalised dietary plan with the resident nutritional chef and explore a choice of over 30 sporting activities, including personal training sessions with experts in the field and skiing in the surrounding mountains.  

The school itself sits in 24 acres of private parkland equipped with 16 carefully restored and beautifully maintained art-nouveau villas. The school offers golf training facilities, tennis courts, kitchens operated by Michelin-trained chefs and bedrooms adorned with Steiff teddy bears and marble bathrooms.

Also unique to Rosenberg is the Individual Development Plan – IDP® Department, which ensures that pupils of all ages receive personal guidance to carefully plan and support their individual development by identifying and nurturing their talents. 

Pupils have the opportunity to debate at the Model United Nations alongside students from leading universities such as ETH in Zürich and Oxford University, working at Switzerland’s leading hotel the Chedi Andermatt, or experiencing blockchain technologies in the in-house Google-style Creative Lab, plus cultural trips around Europe. Pupils also immerse themselves in creative thinking through workshops with guest speakers from around the world and leading professors from universities such as Harvard. 

3.       Share the special initiatives taken at the institute to ignite the students’ minds to study diversified subjects.

In line with Headmaster and Director, Bernhard Gademann’s belief that traditional academic systems are failing to prepare students for the reality of the rapidly evolving 21st-century workplace, the school offers a unique ‘Talent & Enrichment Programme’ consisting of over 60 co-curricular courses which run alongside traditional academic qualifications. No two students’ individualised timetables are same, with courses ranging from the likes of Creative Technologies & Robotics to tailor-made workshops at the Norman Foster Foundation. 

The school collaborates with some of the world’s leading organisations and industry experts to ensure relevant, up-to-date content. The school’s first-of-its-kind Creative Lab merges the academic world with future technologies and gives students the chance to explore and apply skills in project-based work in areas such as artificial intelligence, robotics, fast prototyping and product design. 

In addition to this, the school features a Rosenberg Future Park – a state-of-the-art facility where students can undertake projects guided by experts in the fields of science and technology such as ETH Zurich university, SAGA space architects and robotics specialists Boston Dynamics. The Future Park is inspired by Elon Musk, and encompasses an outdoor lab, climate garden, vertical farm, a farm bot, and wind trees which generate renewable energy. The Future Park is also home to Spot the robot, designed by Boston Dynamics, which can be programmed by the students and helps to monitor the Future Park.  As the Future Park continues to evolve, these initiatives will also soon be joined by the Rosenberg Drone Port and Future Living Pods, among other exciting projects. The Future Living Pods will enable students to work with ground-breaking space architects at SAGA to experiment with design and technology that will shape future living, combining traditional artisanship with contemporary inventions. 

Rosenberg students have exclusive access to the MY ROSENBERG IDP® student app, a seamless information platform for school calendars, grades, communication and much more. Optimised for Apple® and Android® mobile devices, students can even use the app to inform the school and their parents about their travel plans. 

4.       Kindly brief us about the distinct academic programs of the school. 

As a core programme, Rosenberg teaches the Rosenberg International Curriculum (RIC) which prepares its students to obtain any of the offered final examinations. The Rosenberg International Curriculum is internationally accredited and widely recognised for its academic depth and its cross-subject links to encourage interdisciplinary thinking. The RIC offers the flexibility for students to join at different stages of the programme. It is also not at all uncommon for Rosenberg students to take early external qualifications or classes well ahead of their age-group. 

Rosenberg’s teaching artisans continuously develop the Rosenberg International Curriculum to ensure it is both relevant and up-to-date. In the process of this, the school keeps up with the latest advancement in international curricula development and collaborate with world-leading universities such as ETH Zurich to jointly develop our coding, robotics and technology offering. 

Rosenberg is also unique for offering its own Talent and Enrichment Programme which runs alongside five different academic qualifications including the American High School Diploma, British GCE Advanced Levels (A-Levels), Advanced Placement (AP), the International Baccalaureate IB and the German International Baccalaureate (GIB). The Talent & Enrichment Programme is made up of over 60 co curricula courses such as Creative Technologies & Robotics, Sustainable Design with the Monaco Yacht Club, Visual Communication: Branding & Marketing and Wealth Creation & Investment. 

Modern Languages are also an essential component of Rosenberg’s academic structure, with languages including: German, Spanish, French, Italian, Japanese, Mandarin, Turkish, Russian, Portugese, Swedish, Polish, & many others upon request. 

5.       How do you maintain student diversity in the campus and encourage international students to be a part of the school?

 

Rosenberg can call itself a truly international school: representing 230 students from over 50 different nationalities. Rosenberg celebrates diversity and the school is enriched by its students’ diverse backgrounds and international outlook. In nurturing their natural talents, Rosenberg enables students to make a lasting, positive impact on the world – and are aware that with their exceptional start in life, comes responsibility. 

6.       Share with us some famous Alumni stories 

Rosenberg is known for its discretion surrounding its families and alumni. Rosenberg strongly believes that famous alumni don’t display or represent the quality of the school as a school can only be as good as it is today. What is well known is that most of the families that send their children to Rosenberg are some of the leading entrepreneurs of this world.  

7.       Under the section of “Words of Trust” (Testimonials), we intend to highlight a few of your Students’ experiences along with their academic profile. Kindly provide us with 3-5 excerpts.  

In order to safeguard the security and privacy of our students, Rosenberg doesn’t share insight into its student’s profiles. 

8.       What kind of financial aid and scholarship do you provide to the students?

Rosenberg offers a limited number of scholarships and financial aid programmes. The very selective process is completed long before the student attends the school, and usually all spaces are assigned a couple of years in advance. 

9.       What are the diversified careers opportunities students get after passing out from the school?

Preparing students for the world beyond the school gates is of utmost importance: Rosenberg recently joined forces with Euromonitor International to produce a report on what the future of entrepreneurship looks like for the next generation. This report highlights the entrepreneurs and educators who are currently reshaping the world of leadership proving that now more than ever there is a need for a generation of entrepreneurs or entrepreneurial thinkers. The study shows that a staggering 65% of primary school children will work in jobs that currently don’t exist, and start-up culture is redefining today’s mainstream corporate world, attracting aspiring entrepreneurs to brave the unknown.

Alumni of Rosenberg are an exclusive global community of exceptional and diverse thinkers, such as: technology founders, Silicon Valley figures, changemakers and members of well-established industrial dynasties. Bonded by a collaborative, boundary-pushing state of being, connected via the Alumni Association’s proprietary Rosenberg Alumni App. Students go on to study at leading universities around the world where they continue to develop their individual talents and passions which have been fostered at Rosenberg. 

10.   Please talk about the Annual events and extra-curricular activities held at the campus to motivate students

This year Rosenberg is due to host its Rosenberg Summer Camp, which offers a wide selection of classes and activities such as performing arts, engineering, experimental science lab, informatics, robotics, applied arts, and public speaking. The camp is open to non-Rosenberg students and will allow children who have fallen behind academically during the lockdowns a chance to catch up and prepare them for the new school year. Rosenberg has already proven how beneficial this can be for students. Following months of teaching online last year, the Rosenberg students were invited back to school over the summer holidays to recap on the virtually taught classes. 

More than 60 Co-Curricular Options are included as part of Rosenberg’s Talent & Enrichment programme including: Diplomacy & Leadership, Wealth Creation & Investment, Applied Robotics, Art Portfolio, Survival Skills, Business Entrepreneurship, Biotechnology, Fashion & Textile Design, Family Business, Culinary Lab, School Band, Performing Arts and Creative Technology & Engineering 

 As well as more than 40 Athletic Options, including: Horse-Riding, Fencing, Basketball, Swimming, Archery, Yoga, Skiing, Tennis, Kickboxing, Golf, Football, Personal Training, Table Tennis, Mountain Biking, Hip Hop & and Contemporary Dance. 

In addition, our students can sign-up for Talent & Enrichment weekend trips that we offer a few times per school year, visiting places like Rome, London or Paris.