16. 12. 11. - 15:39

Stuart Simpson leaves behind an educational legacy

By Rebecca Musgrave

For a man whose retirement officially began at the end of last month, Stuart Simpson seems suspiciously busy. It is clear however that the 20 year legacy in Austrian education that Stuart is leaving behind, will take some time to tie up.

Like most expats in Vienna, this staunch Scotsman’s "plan was never to stay forever" but having met his Austrian wife, Gudrun, on a trip to the country he has, he claims, never looked back. As his career began to thrive, working with the board of education to develop a bilingual school system in Vienna, he was fast becoming part of the Viennese scene and 20 years later has undoubtedly left his mark on the city and most notably on the education system.

Having studied at the University of Fine Arts in Dundee and then trained as a teacher, Stuart was certainly headed in the direction of a career in education. After making the move to Vienna with his wife however he found himself not stood at the front of a classroom but at the heart of what he describes as the "very beginnings of using foreign languages as a language of instruction."

Stuart was employed as the first native speaker teacher in Vienna in the mid 1980’s. He began to develop teaching materials for various schools before he implemented perhaps the most highly regarded system of his entire career - the Vienna bilingual school system (VBS).  The initial concept was first developed in 1991 with the first VBS primary school opening in 1992.

With absolutely no knowledge of German before he met his wife, Stuart claims to have "learnt German the hard way", at night school in Edinburgh. "It made me see the importance of learning languages at a young age," he said. This belief is more than apparent in his endeavours to improve the international school system in Vienna, giving children the chance to speak English which, he is convinced, "Whether you like it or not is the lingua franca." Simply being expected to speak English is a burden for non-native speaking children and one which Stuart has significantly reduced in Vienna through a system of integrated learning and foreign language teaching known as CLIL (Content and Language Integrated Learning).

Stuart’s achievements have been countless throughout his career but he appears most proud of the NESSIE (Native English Speaker Support In Education) project. He had the idea in 1986 but only "took the concept out of the drawer, shook off the dust and used it" for the first time in 2009. Stuart has made numerous demands on the board of education throughout his time in Vienna but NESSIE clearly shows the positive results of his persistent hard work. The project which hoped to implement native speaker teachers (NST) in primary schools in Vienna in order to promote knowledge of different cultures and enhance communication skills, has gone from strength to strength. There is now a NST in every district in the city.

So what now for this self-confessed bagpipe enthusiast, besides perfecting his bagpipe playing? "I’d like to learn Gaelic," he claimed. "I’d also like to start painting and drawing. I’ve missed it over the years." And despite his enduring love of Scotland, a permanent move back does not seem to be on the cards. "As long as my family’s here I can’t imagine going back." It seems however that Stuart is not alone in having left a bit of himself back in Edinburgh. One of his five children was so enamoured by her Scottish heritage at the age of 14 that she tallied up her visits to the country and worked out just how many years she had lived there. To Simpson’s Scottish joy it was well over a year.

His settling in Austria however was not all smooth sailing and despite the "huge success story" of the VBS he has had his doubts in the past. These troubles however have made him, he believes, more able to "understand the migrant population" as he is one himself. "I am sure it worked out the right way. Inside tells me I have to go home but it certainly wouldn’t be a punishment to stay!"

Stuart believes that "Vienna is one of the most forward thinking cities in Europe as far as education is concerned." For this very reason it seems that even in retirement he cannot leave the system behind and is still aspiring to greater things for Austrian schooling. One of these aspirations is the implementation of a comprehensive school system in which children could potentially be educated altogether until the age of 14.

Having retired on 30 November Stuart Simpson was back in the office on 1 December. One thing is for sure, this expat is dedicated to his educational cause. Whilst there is always the possibility that he will trade in the educational NESSIE for Loch Ness, Simpson continues to enjoy life in Vienna. "Vienna is good to me and I certainly do my best to be good to it."

For more information on the European Office of the Vienna Board of Education visit: http://www.europabuero.ssr-wien.at/Home/tabid/574/language/en-US/Default.aspx