Avram Iancu Lower Secondary School, Dej, Romania
”Avram Iancu” Gymnasium’s specific
“Avram Iancu” Gymnasium is a school that provides education starting from primary to secondary level. Nowadays this school has more than 1000 pupils and the number is increasing due to its very good exam results and to the demographic trend of the region it serves. In primary education the school has five study groups for every school’s year. The classrooms host a large number of pupils for every school’s year. In average we have 28 pupils for one class. Despite the fact that in primary education, Romanian law request a number of 20 up to 25 pupils in a study group, our regional representatives of the Ministry of Education refuses to allow smaller
groups, because larger costs of personal will be needed. (In primary he have five school years) Primary education comprises five school years with five different study groups. Every study group has a teacher trained in primary education. That teacher is responsible for teaching almost all the subjects such as Mathematics, Language and communication, Music, Arts, Geography, History, Natural science. Only foreign languages, religion and PE (sport) are taught by teachers with requested specialist knowledge in the field and diploma.
Lower-secondary education comprises four school years with four different study groups. Pupils are studying with different teachers for every school’s subject. The core curriculum is (organized) divided in four sections/ areas: Mathematics and Science, Language and Communication, People and Society, and Art and Technologies. Every study group has a teacher in charged with counseling classes. Counseling is a subject included in pupils’ schedule and has its own curriculum approved by government’s decision.
Teachers’ work is sustained by a very dedicated support teacher that helps pupils with different degrees of difficulties in the learning process. Also the school has a councilor that helps the educational process.
Regarding buildings facilities, our school has two separate buildings located in different parts of the neighborhood. The distance between the buildings is not significant. The school’s main building comprises 20 classrooms, a Library, a Physics and Chemistry lab, a Biology lab and a Computer lab. Almost all classrooms are equipped with projectors connected to a computer. For the Computer lab and some other classrooms also internet connection is available. In the main building’s back yard there is a new and modern sports hall and an outdoor sports field. This main building is destined for pupils enrolled in lower secondary educational training. Only three study groups from primary education are hosted in this building. The second building is destined for primary education. The building has its own sports hall, Computer lab, Library and Outdoor sports field.
Our school vision closely follows its two strategic priorities: developing a consistent policy plan on internationalization, respectively encouraging innovation and quality in education by exploiting the potential of digital technology in the didactic scenarios to ensure that tomorrow’s European pupils are highly competitive in the digital world. We promote student-centered learning, the interdisciplinary approach, we aim at experimenting and developing creative and innovative digital learning methods and tools ( blended learning, flipped classroom, project-based learning, gamification). More than that, as we are gaining experience and acquiring competences a result of the implementation of KA1 Erasmus+ grant, we run a pilot-project based on exploiting the potential of tablets’ apps within the didactic process to facilitate the transition to digital learning ( two classrooms: one at the primary level, respectively at the secondary level). As a result of the same project, we have the opportunity to adopt and adapt the best practices of one of the most efficient educational systems – the Finnish one.
To sum up, our school is renowned not only locally, but also at a national level trough its consistent academic results at Geography, Romanian, Mathematics, Religion as well as due to some projects: Bread in Europe, which ranked fourth in the national contest European Language Label 2008, the KA1 Erasmus+ Developing International Dimension and Digital Learning.