Gimnazjum nr 2 im. Adolfa Dygasińskiego w Pińczowie
Project Schools
Gimnazjum nr 2 in Pińczów
Gimnazjum nr 2 im. Adolfa Dygasińskiego in Pińczów (Świętokrzyskie Voivodship, Poland) is a middle-size state middle school (about 350 pupils aged 13 - 16 and 35 teachers) attended by teenagers from Pińczów and nearby villages. Commuter students account for about half the total. The school has got 16 classrooms (most of them with interactive boards), 3 computer labs, a science lab, 2 linguistic labs, a sports/assembly hall, a canteen. There is a newly built multifunctional sports field next to the school building.
Pupils come largely from families living on modern or small income and a growing percentage of their parents live and work abroad. Our pupils have typical teenage interests and are active in charity and volunteer work. They get average results in final exams, Maths and Science being the least satisfactory. Our new first-grade pupils coming from really small village primary schools find it difficult to acclimatize themselves to the new environment and requirements or fall behind with their school work. The school offers after-school classes four days a week in every subject to address the problem. A number of well-motivated students regularly do well in educational contests, though. They take part in after-school classes and are given individual educational preparation.
Three foreign languages are taught in the school: English, Russian and German. Apart from the language teachers, few adults speak foreign languages (Romanian, Ukrainian). A few students have spent their childhood abroad (England) or they come from mixed families (Polish-Italian,Polish -Yugoslav).
The teachers are open minded and eager to use the project opportunity for professional and personal development (e.g. practising foreign languages). They take part in numerous traning courses (recently CIE Mentor training in Warsaw) and are active locally (charity/volunteer work, exchanges with twin towns). They teach individually a number of pupils with special needs and help others struggling financially.
Colegiul National „Nichita Stanescu” in Ploiesti
Colegiul National „Nichita Stanescu” in Ploiesti is a secondary school, with students 11-18 years old. Our school is situated in the northern part of Ploiesti, a 200 000 - people town - 57 km north from Bucharest, the capital city of Romania. More than 50% of our students are commuters; they live in the nearby villages and small towns and they come from families with average economic background. There are also students whose parents work in EU countries (about 15% of the total number of students). 1% of our students belong to Roma families.
There are around 1,000 students in our school, who are particularly interested in English as many of them are eager to work abroad for financial reasons. They also study French, German, Mathematics, Computer Science, History, Geography. We organize a lot of extracurricular activities. Our students are interested in ecology, drama, music, sports, volunteering. Unfortunately our students’ achievements in Maths (both with secondary and high-school students) and in Economics (with high-school students) do not live up to our expectation. 64% of our students are under average when it comes to these subjects while only 17% get under average results in humanistic subjects. A survey we conducted showed that students consider that Maths and Economics are subjects they will not need for the time being as they are not related, in their opinion, to everyday needs.
Our teachers are friendly, open-minded and always ready to improve their teaching skills and techniques, looking for new ways to raise students' interest in study and develop their critical thinking.
Both teachers and students can use computers and the Internet in our school. We have 3 Computer Science labs, we have Chemistry, Physics and Biology labs, an auditorium and a gym as well as 13 interactive whiteboards in classrooms. We currently teach aspects of History and Geography of Britain in English at our intensive- English classes. Also starting with the next school year, 2015-2016, the board of our school have decided to offer a new course “English for Science” to students who study Bio-Chemistry in order to make it easier for them to cope with the requirements of the Universities where they are referred to a wide range of books and articles in English. Thus we are interested in CLIL methods since we will have to teach Science (Physics, Biology, Chemistry) in a foreign language.
Resta-De Donato Giannini
http://www.restadedonatogiannini.gov.it/
The school “Resta-De Donato Giannini” includes pre-primary, primary and low secondary schools. Pupils are from 3 to 14 years old. The secondary school (“Resta”) has got: 16 classrooms, computer labs, a science lab, a linguistic lab, an assembly hall with a stage, a gymnasium, a staff room, offices of the headmaster and Vicar, offices of the secretary. The school is attended by 354 pupils (22 special needs and 17 foreigners), 16 classes in normal time (from 8 am to 2 pm), 30 hours par week. Students in low-secondary school are from 11 to 14 years old.
The primary school (“De Donato Giannini”) has got 28 classrooms, a computer lab, a scientific lab, a music lab, inclusion lab, FESR labs, a canteen, a gymnasium and a courtyard, 554 pupils (23 special needs and 26 foreigners), 24 classes in normal time (27 hours par week) and 4 classes in full time (40 hours par week). The pre-primary school is composed of three buildings, located in three different places in the town. 324 children attend it.
The study of foreign languages is very important. Indeed, pupils start learning English at primary school. When they arrive at secondary school they study both English and French.
The school is completely integrated in the territory, it is open to innovation and experimentation and its mission is to valorise the talent of each student.
The school operates in the little town of Turi (population of about 13,000), located near Conversano, Putignano, Alberobello, Sammichele, Casamassima, Castellana Grotte. Agriculture is very specialized, in fact it is based on the production of cherries, peaches, wine etc. A substantial proportion of students pursue secondary education in nearby and bigger towns. The school actively collaborates with upper secondary schools both in Turi and in other nearby towns.
Malazgirt Religious Vocational Secondary School
Malazgirt Religious Vocational Secondary School is located in Sincan with a population of 500,000. Sincan is 30km from the city centre, Ankara. However, its population is getting higher day by day.
The term 'vocational' being part of the school's official name isn't used in the strictly technical way denoting an institution that offers practical training. The education our school provides is similar to what it taught in EU middle/secondary schools. Our school was founded in 1993. It has 22 classrooms, a computer lab, a science lab, a library, a canteen, 660 pupils (13 with special needs).
Malazgirt Religious Vocational Secondary School has 22 classes in full time. (36 hours a week) Our school ranges children from 10 to14 years of age. We have 41 teachers, 3 administrators and 2 officers who have walking disability. Our teachers are open-minded and eager to implement new ideas. They are always to ready to improve themselves.
All teachers have “pupils with special needs” certificates. Furthermore, they take extra courses by Maths and Turkish teachers once a week. We aim to provide extra lessons in all subjects for them. Our school operates in a disadvantaged area as our pupils come from a diverse and deprived social background, many having to face serious problems because of parents' unemployment, divorce or immigration caused by economical recession.
Most of the students are interested in football and folk dances. Some of them are good at poetry, painting and music. They have degrees in art, poetry and sports competitions. At school, there are different kinds of activities such as poem competitions, chess tournaments, dodge ball tournaments, folk dances, taekwondo trainings, choir and theatre activities, spring festival and “bring and buy sale” activity. We also organize trips, especially cultural ones.
We have been doing projects under the title of TUBITAK for two years. We do courses after school. These are related to chess, football and model planes. We give lectures after school to complement regular classes such as English, Maths, Science and Turkish.
This Erasmus project is a challenge for pupils and teachers as well and an opportunity to enhance language and social skills. As our pupils haven't so much opportunities to keep in touch with people from other cultures, this project provides opportunities to open their minds to other cultures and develop cross-culture awareness.
Talsi Basic School
Talsi Basic School is a small school, but still the largest basic school in Talsi Region. It is located in the town of Talsi (population of 13,000) -120km from the capital city of Riga. The school was founded in 1919, it was the first Latvian basic school in Talsi; since 1926 it has been located by Vilkmuizas lake when the new building was built.
We are a basic school with 230 students and we have grades 1-9. In our school we have 2 educational programmes - one is general programme, the other is general plus music programme. In the second programme each child studies music while additionally learning to play a musical instrument of their own choice.
We have drama clubs, a sports club, folk dance groups, choirs, musical-instrumental groups as well. The school is very rich in different traditions. Environment education and "Eco-camps" are popular.
Children additionally can study creative scientific themes once a month on Saturdays and teachers work for free then.
Students Self Government works very actively in Talsi Basic School.
We are 37 teachers.