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.

Dr. Matthias Völkel has been teaching History, Social Studies, and Ethics at SIS Friedrichshafen since the 2023/24 school year. In March 2025, he took on the role of Head of Secondary School (upper classes) together with Stephan Busse.

Dr. Matthias Völkel originally comes from Gera in Thuringia, where he also completed his high school diploma. He studied Modern/Contemporary History, Political Science, and Philosophy at the Technical University of Dresden and then worked for six months at the Pennsylvania State Archives in the USA. Afterward, he wrote his doctoral thesis at the Chair of Eastern European History at Ruhr University Bochum, during which he undertook extended research stays in Moscow and Kyiv. From 2020 to 2023, he taught at the Universidad de Oviedo in Spain.

Dr. Matthias Völkel values the diversity of our international school and sees it as an opportunity to contribute to educating our students into open-minded and critically thinking individuals.

Stefan Busse has been teaching German, History, and Social Studies, as well as the seminar course and German IB at SIS Friedrichshafen since 2023. In March 2025, he took on the role of Head of Secondary School (upper classes) together with Dr. Matthias Völkel.

Stefan Busse grew up in Tübingen, where, after graduating from high school in 2003, he began his studies in German Studies and History at the Eberhard-Karls-University of Tübingen, completing them in 2009 with his first state examination. He spent two semesters of his studies as a foreign language assistant at the Lycée Lumière in the French town of Luxeuil-les-Bains. After completing his teacher training at the Rotteck Gymnasium in Freiburg im Breisgau, Stefan Busse obtained his second state examination at the Freiburg Seminar in July 2011.

From the 2011/12 school year to the 2022/23 school year, he taught German, History, Social Studies, Psychology, and WBS (Economics / Career and Study Orientation), as well as a seminar course, at the Montfort-Gymnasium Tettnang. Additionally, he led the student council (SMV) for several years.

Stefan Busse is firmly convinced that school can only succeed as a community project. Therefore, he advocates for close cooperation between students, teachers, and parents in the spirit of educational and partnership collaboration. For him, the constructive interaction of all involved parties, a vibrant school community, and a positive learning atmosphere are the foundations for developing students into knowledgeable and socially competent, responsible individuals.

Valérie Nadeau comes from Canada and she would proudly insist that she is from Québec. She completed a Bachelor of Science (Major in Wildlife Biology) at McGill University, followed by a Master of Science (Hydrogeology and Ecotoxicology) at INRS-ETE (Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique – Eau, Terre et Environnement) in Québec. She worked as an environmental consultant (project manager) for three years before starting her Master of Education at the Université de Sherbrooke.

This is her eighth year of teaching at SIS Friedrichshafen, as a Biology and NWT teacher. Before moving to Germany, she was teaching Sciences for four years in Québec (Collège St-Paul and Collège Notre-Dame de Lourdes). She’s also been teaching in Salem in the last two years. She is immensely happy to be back full-time at SIS, where her heart is. Both her kids have been attending SIS Friedrichshafen since Kindergarten and really enjoy their school life there.

Valérie is generally known to have a lot of energy. She likes challenges and enjoys working in a team, which she applies in her day-to-day life. As a teacher, she lets the students’ curiosity direct their learning in a respectful and cooperative environment. Her position as Head of Secondary gives her the opportunity to keep learning and have the feeling of being helpful, which she highly values. 

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.