Our Team, Our Opening Hours and How to Reach Us

Richard Lord joined SIS Friedrichshafen as principal, with over twenty-five years of teaching and school leadership experience, including thirteen years as a headteacher in two secondary schools in the United Kingdom.

He gained a bachelor’s degree in German with complementary French at the University of Exeter before completing his post-graduate certificate in education at the University of Cambridge. He recently obtained a master’s degree in educational leadership from the University of Chester.

With a background in curriculum design, Richard Lord has a passion for the international dimension in education. Having participated in a Fulbright Administrator Exchange to the United States, he has developed curricular links and professional development programmes with schools across Europe, Eastern Asia and the United States. As a fluent speaker of English and German, Richard Lord is an avid supporter of the bilingual concept at SIS Friedrichshafen. 

In his free time, he enjoys reading, a variety of sports and spending time with his family.

Julia Maria Grötzinger has been teaching philosophy, ethics and French as well as the seminar course and TOK (IB) at SIS Friedrichshafen since September 2017. In the school year 2020/21 she took over as head of secondary school (upper classes) .

Julia Maria Grötzinger grew up in the Upper Swabian district of Biberach and became involved in voluntary work with the scouts and the youth culture association at an early age. After graduating from high school in 2009, she studied philosophy and French at the Albert Ludwig University in Freiburg. During this time she spent two semesters working as a foreign language assistant in Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, France. She obtained her second state examination at the Seminar Weingarten in July 2017.

Respectful interaction and criticially reflecting upon values and attitudes is of utmost importance to Julia Maria Grötzinger. Through this she would like to shape the future of the students. It is her greatest desire that the students grow into citizens of the world, capable of facing global challenges, and yet remain attached to their roots.

Theresa von der Dellen has been a teacher at SIS Friedrichshafen since the beginning of the 2021 school year and teaches the subjects Physical Education and English. In the 2022/2023 school year, she took over as head of the lower and middle school levels at the Gymnasium.

Theresa von der Dellen was born and raised in the northern Black Forest, but since her student days in Konstanz, she cannot imagine a more beautiful place to live and work than the Lake Constance region. As a person who is very enthusiastic about sports and close to nature, Theresa von der Dellen was already active in many sports clubs as a child and teenager and practised coaching with great enthusiasm.

She gained experience abroad in English-speaking countries during her high school years in Oregon (USA) and during a semester abroad in Cork (Ireland) as part of her teacher training. She took her second state examination at the Weingarten Seminary.

When working with children and young people, Theresa von der Dellen is particularly interested in social interaction and the joy of learning. In sports lessons as well as in the classroom, the students learn to treat each other with respect and can develop their independence and individual skills.

Sandra Huber has been teaching at the SIS Friedrichshafen Primary School since 2019 and took over as the head of primary school for the 2022/2023 school year.

Sandra Huber grew up in Oberkirch, Baden. Even in her youth, she enjoyed working with children and so she was a children's coach in the local athletics club for many years. After graduating from high school in 2009, she went to the USA for a year as an au pair. She then went on to study European primary education in Freiburg. In 2017, she came to Lake Constance for her traineeship and took her second state examination at the Meckenbeuren seminary.

It is important to Sandra Huber that the pupils develop into independent, respectful and cosmopolitan people at an early age and enjoy coming to school.

Fatma Toprak has been the head of kindergarten at SIS Friedrichshafen since February 2023.

She was born and raised in the Upper Swabian district of Biberach an der Riß. After completing her studies in "Methodology and Didactics of Teaching German as a Foreign Language", she was able to gain a wide range of theoretical and practical teaching experience abroad. Following the voice of her heart, she completed her studies in "Early Childhood Education" in Istanbul in 2016.

Since children and young people live in a world that is largely determined by media, Fatma Toprak sees media education as an important part of educational work. As part of a further training, she received training on the topic of media education "Robots & Coding".

She considers it a privilege to work with children. It is a matter close to Fatma Toprak's heart to strengthen the children in their actions, to observe and accompany them in their everyday life, to laugh with them and to let the seemingly smallest moments become big ones.