Citizenship , locally and globally - Slovenia

CITIZENSHIP LOCALLY AND GLOBALLY

Slovenia Gimnazija Jurija Vege Idrija


Project partners: AT – BG – DK – ES – GB – IT – LE – NO – PL – SLO

Gimnazija Jurija Vege Idrija, Slovenia

Gimnazija Jurija Vege is situated in Idrija, a small town of 7000 inhabitants. In

Idrija and a nearby town Spodnja Idrija there are two large corporations,

employing the majority of the population living in Idrija and its surroundings.

The students who attend our school are aged 15-19. They attend three

different programs – grammar school, technical secondary school

(mechanical engineering) and vocational school (mechatronics).

The first Slovenian grammar school

The Idrijan grammar school was the first non-classical high school in Slovenia to use the Slovenian language as the prime language, in which the teachers would give their lectures. There have been some disputes whether or not the

Idrijan school is the oldest school in Slovenia to have done that, but it is not a negligible fact that in Idrija the majority of lessons were given in Slovene,

while in Šentvid (the school that claims the title of the oldest school to use the

Slovenian language in their system), only the Slovenian language and religious teachings were given in Slovene.



Borut Hvalec, headmaster

The school today

Work conditions

With the complete renewal of the school building and construction of the gym

the conditions under which the students work have been significantly improved. There is top-quality technical equipment in every classroom, a lab

for conducting experiments and an enlarged kitchen and dining room ensuring the students have the possibility of getting a warm meal.

The school building lies outside the town centre in a peaceful environment

which provides the students with the conditions needed for intensive work. The school is spacious enough for all students to take their lessons in at the same

time. The school library is well-stocked with scientific and technical literature

and is a pleasant place to study, read and do research with enabled access to the internet, on one of the school's computers or wireless network.

In the vocational building, which was renovated a few years ago, we run

lessons for the technical school in



Work organisation

The lessons are only organised in the morning (750 – 1400), except for some optional subjects in the fourth year and some extracurricular activities. The

timetable is adapted to the bus schedules.

If the student fulfils certain conditions, he can ask for a status of a sportsman, an artist, a researcher.

Research work

Students are encouraged to do research work in different fields and they have the opportunity to take part at different research camps.

Competitions

Teachers in Gimnazija Jurija Vege Idrija organize preparation for competitions in different subjects and skills every year. They design school competitions and

the best students attend regional and national competitions. Our students can participate in competitions in the following fields: logic, mathematics,

chemistry, computer science, English, German, Slovene, geography, debate, physics and sport.

Encouraging students’ creativity

Many students are talented in ways which are not possible to demonstrate in everyday lessons. That is why our school organizes many different activities

outside classes, so they can foster their talents. For many years we have been running the Little Theatre school and an improvisation club, and now we again

have a movie club and a contemporary dance group that invite students to join

them. Many of our students find all those activities very useful, and some of them can even use these talents or skills at university.

Sabina Leoni in Katja Vončina 2. c Borut Cigale in Martin Mlakar (graffiti) 2. b



Sport in our school

A. Sport Weeks

Instead of sport days, students at GJV go to a sport week every year and get to know as many different sports as possible, have a good time, and perhaps

fall in love with one of them. Every grade goes to a different camp, and students learn different sports.

1st grade - Dolenjske Spa

Students learn how to do: archery, orienteering, mountain biking, rafting, horse riding, kayaking, Australian football, etc.

2nd grade – Forni di Sopra (Italy)

Activities in this magnificent week are: skiing, snowboarding, night skiing with torches, swimming, ice

skating and sport games.

3rd grade - Nerezine (island Lošinj, Croatia )

In this week students improve their: swimming,

snorkelling, sailing and windsurfing. In this week students also go on a trip with a fishing boat for their entertainment.

B. Other sport activities

With a new gym we also attained an ideal environment for sports activities for the students (table tennis, volleyball, football). There is a highly able group of

students that train in orienteering. In this discipline they have already achieved several titles and they have taken part in world championships.



Introducing the wider environment

Throughout their education in the secondary school programme students have the chance to get to know different places in their homeland and Europe .

Excursions in Slovenia (Gorenjska, Dolenjska and Bela Krajina, Prekmurje, Primorska) are encompassed into the study programme. The school also offers

other excursions: in 2nd year Vienna, in 3rd Florence and in 4th all the students go to Munich.

In the beginning of 4th year students go on a graduation excursion with a specific itinerary. They choose destinations on their own according to interests

and financial conditions. Over the past few years they visited Spain and Greece.

Connecting with other schools

Visits to/from foreign high schools, international exchanges

Students of so called European classes hosted 30 students from a German school from Butzbach in September 2010 and they will repay the visit in May

when they travel to Germany. Last year there was an exchange with a Serbian school in Čačak. And also an informal exchange of two students with a school

in Vienna.

Cooperation in the Comenius Project

In our school we have participated in three Comenius

Projects. The first two were Religion in Young People's Everyday Lives and A Springtime of Traditions.

In 2010 we started a project named Citizenship, Globally and Locally.

MUNOG

Students have had a chance to take part in

MUNOG (Model United Nations) in

Sindelfingen, Germany .

http://www.munog.de/

http://www.munog.de/



YRoNS (Young Researchers of Natural Sciences)

In 2009 students participated at YRoNS in Nicosia, Cyprus. In 2011 the conference will be held in France and our school will also take part.

YRoNS 2009, Cyprus

YRoNS 2012, India



Citizenship

Comenius partner meeting Barcelona, Spain - October 2010

In the 3rd year of secondary school (age 17) students attend classes (15

lessons) where they are taught about democracy and citizenship. They also go to the capital Ljubljana and visit the building of the Slovenian

parliament and the seat of the European Commission in Slovenia. In the history and sociology lessons (grade 1 to 4, age 15 to 19) students

also learn about decision-making processes and the development of the basic mechanisms and documents of democracy.

Under the Slovenian Constitution, state and religion are separated and in

school there is not a subject dealing specifically with religion. In the 4th

year only the students who choose sociology as their optional subject are taught also about different religions. The last Comenius project we

participated in had the title Religion in Young People’s Everyday Lives and students had a chance to learn about how young people perceive

religion in other European countries, the focus was also on the philosophic aspect of religion.

The school has a student council, which consists of students from every

class. They meet about once a month and they do many different things, among others also express their opinion about school rules and other

formal matters. They have a teacher mentor and try to reach consensus solutions. Two students were elected to represent the students in the

School Council, which is the main administrative body at a school.

Different cultures are discussed during the sociology lessons

(subcultures, cultural differences, globalisation, etc.). ‘European classes’ discuss cultural differences and the way in which we perceive them

during their language lessons and use CROMO – Cross-border Module for European Language Portfolio, which encourages respect of different

cultures both inside one country and abroad. During four years students go on excursion to different countries (Italy, Austria, Germany, Greece)

where they come in contact with different languages, habits and cultures.



IT competences are taught in the 1st grade (subject Computer

Science), in the following years this is an optional subject. IT

competences are also taught via other subjects.

English is taught as the first foreign language all four years (age 15-19). An Australian co-teacher is also employed at our school.

All students also learn a second foreign language, they have a choice between German, Italian, Spanish and Russian (four years, age 15-

19). Students can also decide to learn the third foreign language and they choose between the same languages (they study it for three years,

age 16-19). During the last three years we were involved in a pilot project

introducing the European Language Portfolio into lessons.

The school has formed a group of teachers who coordinate international

activities that the school participates in.

We try to make it possible for students to take part in different international

exchanges and projects and thus get an experience of going abroad and meeting

friends from foreign countries.

After school students have many possibilities to develop different skills

and talents. They can choose between theatre, dance, photography group, improvisation theatre, choir …

In the first year they have art classes where they learn about different periods and artists and produce their own art.

http://likovniki.blogspot.com/ One of the changes in our educational system is also the emphasis on

co-operative teaching, which can take place among teachers of the same

or different subjects.

Since 2008 we have started the project eco-school as a way of life in

order to make the students aware that care for environment means care for future. We wish our students had enough and strong argument to

convince their friends and peers to live responsibly and protect our environment.

http://likovniki.blogspot.com/



Comenius projects the school has participated in:

2004:Springtime of Traditions 2007: Religion in Young People’s Everyday Lives

Student exchange 2010



Prevention of bullying

Idrija, Slovenia - January 2011

1. At GJV we believe that the most important thing is not just to fight

against bullying, but to provide circumstances and an atmosphere in

which bullying is more unlikely to appear. When students come to GJV at

the age of 14, they attend workshops dealing with social skills,

communication, self-esteem. These workshops are carried out separately

for each class and the class teacher also takes part.

Katja Gutnik, Sindy Smodiš, Janja Tušar, Anja Logar Katjuša Koler, Ana Rupnik, Meta Močnik, Vanda Podobnik

2. In the beginning of each school year, every class has a meeting with

their class teacher where they discuss rules of behaviour at school in

general and rules of behaviour among class mates. These rules are then

shown also to the parents at the parents' meeting.

3. The school psychologist conducts a survey each year asking students

about how they feel at school. The questionnaire is anonymous and

students are also asked about the student-student relationships,

teacher's attitude towards students and also students' attitude towards

teachers. This gives the teachers an insight into what the situation

concerning bullying is like at our school.

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_cOhEX4zOpHU/S9g67x5FW_I/AAAAAAAAAmU/6inllA7CqYM/s1600/a7.jpg

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_cOhEX4zOpHU/S9g4kNGuQFI/AAAAAAAAAlk/mpsIvmoF7z0/s1600/a5.jpg



Sabina Hadalin, Andrej Vehar, Primož Grahelj, Jaka Kopač

4. At the technical secondary school and vocational

school there are more cases of bullying, which is why

during the main breaks one or two teachers are asked

to stay in the hall, check the toilets, etc.

5. Every year there are some public initiation rites

organized. To prevent bullying on such occasions,

students who organize these events have quite a few

meetings with the headmaster and discuss the rules. Each student is

allowed to say he doesn't want to participate if he feels uncomfortable.

“Baptism” of the first year students

Acute action

1. If a teacher sees a student being bullied he reacts immediately. We talk

to all the students who were involved about the situation and about their

feelings and try to find common ground for further cooperation.

2. In more severe cases, the parents of all students involved are contacted

and the headmaster and the psychologist are also present at the

meeting.



Social Skills in the class-room

Kongsberg, Norway - March 2011

We often apply some rules unconsciously and it would be good to make also

the students aware of them. Some rules are connected to learning but can also be applied to real life

situations. When we discussed this subject with other colleges we realized it would be

interesting for all colleges, to think about “rules”, exchange ideas and share experience. This is one field where we could learn a lot from others and make

this Comenius project meaningful for our school.

HABIT 1: SET GOALS

I often ask students to set their own goals for the term and think how they

want to achieve them.

HABIT 2: THINK ABOUT YOUR LEARNING AND PROGRESS

Especially after the test, what did I do wrong, what could I do better. Have I accomplished my goal and if not why.

HABIT 3: DON’T SPEAK WHEN OTHERS TALK

If you do this, you are like a train, that runs over the person. You don’t feel

good when others do it to you either.

HABIT 4: THINK ABOUT THE CONSEQUENCES OF YOUR ACTION

You almost always have the choice to do this or that. But before you decide to

do something think about the consequences of your action not just for you but also for others. Ask for advice.

HABIT 5: TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR YOUR ACTIONS

If you do something wrong be a man and take responsibility for your action. Be

able to admit your mistake and apologize.



HABIT 6: BE YOURSELF AND RESPECT OTHERS.

Be faithful to yourself and respect others also in the ways they are different

from you.

“leave me suffering” - Project

HABIT 7: BEING AWARE OF THE CARING AND DEADLY HABITS

(The basis of Glaser's choice theory)

Primož Grahelj

Bojan Božič, Jernej Ravnikar,

Seven Caring Habits Seven Deadly Habits

1. Supporting 1. Criticizing

2. Encouraging 2. Blaming

3. Listening 3. Complaining

4. Accepting 4. Nagging

5. Trusting 5. Threatening

6. Respecting 6. Punishing

7. Negotiating differences 7. Bribing, rewarding to control



Student Council

Riga, Latvia - May 2011

Each secondary school in Slovenia has a Student Council.

Student Council consists of one or two members from each class. There is also a teacher mentor who is there to help with elections, meetings,

initiatives, etc. At the beginning of the school year each class votes for

the 'class president' and 'vice president' and those are the representatives in the Student Council.

Two representatives from the School Council are elected into the School

Council, the highest body of each school. In the School Council there are three representatives from the municipality, 5 representatives of school

staff, three parents and two students.

Student Council is part of the School Student organisation of Slovenia (DOS), which represents

students' interests and caters for their implementation.

The school council has their own web page

where they can publish news, summaries from meetings etc.

All pupils attending our school have the right

to vote and to be elected to the student Council. Student Council members are unpaid.

Student Council organizes different activities. It gives suggestions, forms

opinion on different matters and passes them to the headmaster in written form.

It is in charge of the school radio that works during the main break. It

organizes different school sports competitions (volleyball, basketball, football).

It promotes charitable actions, especially those that help students at our school. This year the school collected money for the students who

suffered in the September floods.



It also organizes sociable events for the students of our school, e.g.

dances.

Maja Zelenc

Modern dance

group

Monika Vidmar

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-gse1xZrPyE0/TfB7ZkPz0yI/AAAAAAAAApc/PWbz1mD2shQ/s1600/MajaZelenc.jpg



Creativity

Vienna, Austria - October 2011

The school emphasizes modern methods of teaching such as:

- Team teaching (teachers of different or the

same subject prepare a lesson together and do it)

- Cross-curricular teaching (teachers of

different subjects’ present one theme together in

a classroom)

- Project days (students go out of school and

work on a project)

- Six hats (http://www.debonoforschools.com/asp/six_hats.asp,

http://sixthinkinghats.com/)

- Debate (certain themes are discussed following the rules of a debate)

- Cooperative learning

- Learning through doing (students make leaflets where they present

data discovered and analysed during project days or typical Slovene recipes

in different foreign languages)

- Role plays

http://www.debonoforschools.com/asp/six_hats.asp

http://sixthinkinghats.com/



- Drama in classroom

Teachers encourage creativity among students and give them a lot of

possibilities to be creative both during classes and also during extra-

curricular activities in the afternoon.

- art in connection with other subjects (Slovene, biology,

sociology, sports,informational technology…) http://likovniki.blogspot.com/

"Model of an atom"Anja Tušar in Jerca Prezelj

"Model of paracetamol"Tomi Tušar in Timotej Kopač

"Cell mutation"Ervin Černigoj, 1.c

http://likovniki.blogspot.com/

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_cOhEX4zOpHU/SlWGFLbtbXI/AAAAAAAAAbs/TLGUF19SZEk/s1600-h/5.jpg



- foreign languages (illustration of poems, drawing of idioms,

sketches of a scene from a text, short movies, short 11 words poems called

Elfchen, writing own end of a story or a fairy tale, free stories, video project

(students wrote a script, acted the scene, filmed and edited it)

- natural science (laboratory experiments in factory laboratories, this

year students will prepare a laboratory experiment using English literature

and with the help of an English teacher and they will carry it out

themselves, students make leaflets where they present data discovered and

analysed during project days, role play of chemical elements, biology in

connection with art - a cell, chemistry in connection with art - an atom)

- Slovene (role plays, drama in classroom, cartoon of a text, filming an

add, dance - O. Wilde: Saloma, debate, creative writing, improvisation,

presentations of a book in form of a debate, TV-show, drama)

Koblar Mateja 1. a

Galičič Neca 1.a



Extended community

Llandrindod Wells, Wales - March 2012

Gimnazija Jurija Vege is situated in Idrija, a small town of 7000 inhabitants. In

Idrija and a nearby town Spodnja Idrija there are two large corporations,

employing the majority of the population living in Idrija and its surroundings.

The students who attend our school are aged 15-19. They attend three

different programs – general secondary school, technical secondary school

(mechanical engineering) and vocational school (mechatronics).

Our school cooperates well with the local community. There are many

afternoon activities that students attend and they are led by experts from

the local community (e.g. a film course is led by a famous local director), ex-

students (e.g. an improvisation course is led by an ex-student of our school),

university students (e.g. a drama course). The municipality partially finances

some of these courses and other projects.

We cooperate with two big hi-tech corporations (Kolektor, Hidria) that also

have their own research institutes. They are most successful in the automotive

industry, air-conditioning and other electro industry. Students visit both

corporations and have a chance to see what they do in the research institutes.

They carry out some laboratory work in physics in the laboratories of these

factories. Students who are interested in natural sciences can attend certain

courses held by experts in the field (e.g. robotics). Students of technical

engineering and mechatronics also do their practical part of the lessons in

different factories in the local environment. These corporations also make

donations to school and finance research activities of our students.



The municipality and the school cooperate on

a number of occasions, e.g. on the so called

‘eco-day’ (our school is an eco-school), at

celebrations, etc.

There is a group of volunteers who visit the

elderly in the old people’s home in Idrija on

a regular basis.

We cooperate with the town library and

organize different events together. The library helps us invite famous

Slovenian writers and poets and lively conversations are held there. The

project ‘Reading is Cool’ is also a common project of the town library and our

school.

Talk with the wirter Vinko Möderndorfer

When our students do work that is of interest for the local community (e.g.

tourist brochures of a certain area), we contact the local tourist agency and

offer the material at their disposal.

The students of our school often decide to do a research in a certain field and

we try to find experts who monitor and help with the research. The experts

either come from the local industry, universities or other institutes.

Students of the general secondary school, who choose psychology as their

elective subject, visit the Idrija Psychiatric hospital and learn about work

there.

Gimnazija Jurija Vege puts a lot of effort into cooperating with as many

institutions in the local environment as possible. We are always open for

suggestions, we value the knowledge we can get from the surroundings and

we believe we can also contribute a lot to the lively atmosphere of our town.



Intercultural competences

Varna, Bulgaria - May 2012

At our school we try to develop intercultural competences in different ways:

Each year one of the classes is the so called ‘European class’, which

focuses also on the development of intercultural competences. In the first year students go on a national exchange – the class has an

exchange with another school in Slovenia. We believe it is essential to learn to respect people from your own country first and also to learn how

to be a good host. In the second year these students go to an international exchange. First they host students from another country,

and then in a few months they visit their friends in the other country. These students have a special subject in school, called Slovenia in the

World. During these lessons teachers also focus on intercultural competence, using materials in CROMO (Intercultural Cross-border

Module).

Our school has been a part of the ‘Foreign teacher’ and Enriched Foreign Language Learning projects for the last five years. The aims

of the project are developing intercultural competences, authenticity of

learning goals and objectives and teaching language across the curriculum. Intercultural competence is developed in both foreign

language lessons and also as a cross-curricular goal. The foreign teacher is not only an ambassador of the culture he/she comes from, but also an

active promoter of multiculturalism and inter-cultureless. The first foreign teacher who was employed was a teacher from

Australia. He was a co-teacher not only with English teachers, but also teachers of other subjects. There was also a German teacher employed

part-time and now there is a teacher from Turkey, who has a degree in English. The presence of foreign teachers at school encourages students

to be more open and tolerant.

We organise different excursions to places around Europe to make students aware of how important it is to get to know other cultures and

people, their habits. We discuss the differences and similarities they

notice and try to put them in a wider context.

The school takes part in different international projects. One is MUNOG – Model United Nations of Goldberg. Students who take part

have a chance to debate about the current global issues; presenting a



country in the UN (they cannot represent the country they come from).

It is for students with a passion for debating, exploring and challenging

themselves. It gives them experience of interacting with students from a range of countries. It is both a politically educational trip and a culturally

enriching experience.

The other one is Yrons (Symposium for Young Researchers of Natural

Sciences) is a project for students who are interested in natural sciences. They do research and practical work on a certain topic (e.g. this year two

students made biodiesel from beechnut and tested it) and then they present their work at the conference. This year the conference will be

held in New Delhi, India and a group of students is taking part at the conference.

And not to mention Comenius projects which are also a great opportunity for all students to develop their intercultural competences since students

have no costs and can meet other young people from various countries.

Špela Jereb, Vanja Bratuž, Lena Lapanja, Anja Pivk

Urška Žonta, Rok Gantar

Tina Žakelj, Tjaša Tušar, Jasna Kofol, Daša Šturm, Katja Stanonik

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Citizenship , locally and globally - Slovenia