A typical school day at Ursprung: (A Day in the Life of a Ursprung Student?)
A day at Ursprung starts early. At 6:15 the alarm service knocks at your door, “Good morning, everybody!” There’s time
to get ready until 6:30 when the first study session begins, in which you can check your homework or prepare for a test.
Breakfast is at 6:50. There you meet all other Ursprunger students. Currently there are about 200 students in our boarding school:
130 boys and 70 girls live in two residence halls in double rooms. School starts at 7:30. There are either five or six
lessons in the morning with one big break inbetween. If you are already exhausted during this break, our
„Fairegiologisches Buffet“ can provide you with healthy snacks that are from the region, organic and have the Fair-Trade logo.
Since it opened in 2012 it has become really popular amongst hungry pupils and teachers.
The school kitchen is organic too. Lunch is either at 12 o’clock or 1 o’clock, depending on the number of lessons in the morning.
You can choose between two meals: one with meat and one vegetarian. Afterwards, you spend one hour studying, if you have no classes
in the afternoon. Otherwise you go back to school, but don’t worry; Those lessons are hardly ever what you would usually associate
with the term school. Mostly, classes in the afternoon mean working on our organic farm, working in a laboratory or doing project work.
Students that specialise in agriculture spend, of course, more time in the cow shed and in workshops, while you can find the
environmental-technology students more often in the lab. After either study time or school you’ve finally have some free time to
spend with your friends. Feel free to chat and discuss current topics whilst drinking tea and nibbling cookies at our weekly tea-time
meetings. Play musical instruments: every week there are several music teachers at our school you can take lessons from, or you can
join our brass band, our choir or other, smaller music groups. Be sporty! Aside from several sport lessons in the evening, like
volleyball or artistic gymnastics, you are always welcome to borrow a bike, cross-country skis or simply play a game of soccer or
table tennis with your colleagues. If you are more the intellectual type, the library is opened for you also in the evenings and
provides a great variety of books. Of course the city of Salzburg is just around the corner too. You can reach Salzburg within 20
minutes by bus.
Dinner is at 17:30 and afterwards there are another two hours for studying. Bed time is at 21:15 with lights out at 21:45. Of course,
study times and rules decrease the older a student becomes. Pupils from the 2nd grade on get evenings off while the youngest spend
one evening per week watching movies together.
Events:
HBLA Ursprung is a great school with a lot to celebrate. The school year starts with the big Thanksgiving celebration in October and
continues with the celebration of St. Nikolaus on the 6th of December where nice pupils get gifts and bad ones are punished by Nikolaus’
evil companions. In December “Anklöpfeln” takes place which is an old tradition where students dress up as shepherds, go from door to
door and sing Christmas carols for charity. The school’s music groups also play two concerts that are widely known and very popular in
the area around Salzburg: one before Christmas and one in spring. In April, there’s prom with most students working or celebrating.
It takes place on the weekend after Easter and the school hosts more than two thousand people in its halls. In June there’s the last
big event, the Hoffest, which is a day of funny games and a big barbeque in the evening.
As you can see, the HBLA Ursprung has a great, lively community. We’d like to welcome you soon.
