4o Gymnasio Rethymnou
Our school, 4th Gymnasium in Rethymno, is located in Misiria area on the suburbs of Rethymno, about three kilometers from the city center. It is a public school. 389 students, aged 12-15 years attend classes in our school and come from different social, economic and cultural environment. 30% of our students are foreign students, children of immigrants from Albania, India, Bulgaria, Poland and Syria. There are also students from bilingual family environment (mixed marriages) and a sufficient number of pupils with special educational needs such as learning disabilities, dyslexia and related difficulties. These students attend the integration classes for the last eight years. Students diagnosed with autism are reinforced with parallel support teachers. Every year our school takes up activities and school programs with main goal the inclusion of all students in the school community as equal members in order to make them understand and realize the differences among them so that mutual respect is established. As a result, our students are able to cooperate in peace and show the required respect for different cultures. A great amount of the programs, environmental, cultural or health education ones have received awards.
Our school took part in Comenius Project 2012-2014 «Together for PEACE: Promoting European Active Citizenship» coordinated by Scoala Gimnaziala “Constantin Parfene”, in cooperation with other schools from six different European countries. It was a collaboration with seven European schools in which social and civic skills were developed so that our students would become active European citizens in a global multicultural society. Furthermore, national and European values were cultivated. Teachers and students who participated, have gained valuable experience as they had the opportunity to experience different educational systems, to work together, to create friendships, to practice the English language, to communicate with different cultures and to exchange ideas and methods on educational issues of common interest.
Moreover, three teachers of our school attended the Summer Academy (short training) “Human rights in practice in Greece” which was organized for the first time in our country, in Spetses island from 21.10-25.10.2015 with the cooperation of the Council of Europe, the European Wergeland Centre and the Ministry of Education. The Academy was focused on education in Democratic Citizenship and Human Rights (EDC / HRE).
During school year 2015-2016, the school participates in an e-twinning program in cooperation with schools from Berlin and Prague. The common action is called “I am as I am” and its aim is that both teachers and students acquire pedagogical, social and cultural benefits through the mutual collaboration.
Our school also took part in an ERASMUS + STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIP in 2016-2018, FLIP:Finding Learning Innovative Paths. This project aimed to capitalize experiences and best practices in order to develop transversal key competencies in students (age 12-15 years old) by developing and testing a toolkit for implementing the flipped classroom methodology, based on using ICT&OER and creating a more active learning environment. Project’s website: http://4gym-rethymn.reth.sch.gr/flip/
Our school staff is consisted of 41 teachers of all faculties, 4 special education teachers who teach in integration classes for pupils with special educational needs and 4 parallel support teachers. Μost teachers of our school have experience in using ICT & open educational resources in learning process. They have attended seminars and training programs in the utilization and application of ICTs in the teaching practice. They also show great interest in innovative teaching / learning methods and in developing the transversal key competencies in students.
The school is supplied with two computer labs with 12 computers each. all of them are of modern technology. All computers have internet access and are connected to the school network. Moreover, there are computers in the Headmaster?s Office, the Secretariat, the Board Office, the Library and the Laboratory which are used for the school needs and the teaching process in different subjects. The school is equipped with 6 laptops, 3 school classrooms are equipped with interactive digital whiteboards and all the other school classrooms are also equipped with projectors which are sufficient for the needs of the school curriculum, so as all teaching needs and educational process in general. However, the existence of more such audiovisual teaching equipment is required in all classrooms and laboratories of our school.