Egri Kemény Ferenc Sportiskolai Általános Iskola
Egri Kemény Ferenc Sport Primary School
Our school is located in Eger, in the north of Hungary. There are 27 classes in 8 grades.
It has got a branch school in the neighbouring village with eight classes (1 class in one grade).
The main school also has a building in another village with 1-4 grade pupils in one multiage class.
Altogether there are 790 students and 76 teachers.
Our educational vision is expressed in our Pedagogical Programme.
Our pedagogical creed is based on child- and personality-centerism. The everyday pedagogical work is basically determined by the Jenaplan method. Our community aims at renewal and we are open towards the different elements of reform pedagogy. We prefer modern teaching methods such as cooperative teaching/learning techniques or project based learning. Our teachers are succeed-oriented. We also help talented students. We consider parents as our partners in our pedagogical work.
Jenaplan pedagogy has been used in our school since 2001. This is the pedagogy of trust. It can be used as a method based on the national and local curriculum. It’s a kind of different way to achieve the goals.
Our aim is to activate students’ learning and social instincts and their desire to move and to act not just in lessons but in out-of-class activities as well.
We try to create a friendly, homely learning environment with open shelves and a carpet.
School day is started with a so-called “circle talk” when the teacher and the students sit in a circle and prepare for the day’s work. Talk as a basic form plays a central role in personality development and learning.
A lot of learning tasks are carried out in group work, though frontal work is also used when it’s needed for factual knowledge.
Students’ independent work is also very important, when the teacher helps and controls the students’ activity from the background.
Our aim is to make students active participants in the teaching-learning process.
An important feature of Jenaplan pedagogy is the use of “weekly plan”. It’s made by the teachers based on the students’ timetable and it contains the learning material and tasks in every subject planned for the week. It helps students to prepare for the week as they see their tasks in advance. During remote teaching we also marked which lesson is going to be a video lesson. This also helped the students to get ready for it.
Parents can check this weekly plan on a safe website (with a username and a password) and can download it as well.
We try to create a close touch with parents. To foster this we organize so-called “family afternoons”, when parents, grandparents and siblings work and play together with the children and the teachers. If it’s possible we involve parents in our projects, too.
We do projects which are organized around a given topic.
We carry out four projects in lower primary (classes 1-4) during the school year in connection with the four seasons. In upper primary classes (5-8) we also do projects about different topics involving only one class or all classes in one year.
In our school there has been an advanced level of physical education since 1972. In the lower grades, there are six physical education lessons per week, from which one lesson is a sports choice lesson. During these lessons students can get acquainted with different sports. In the first and second grades, children have four swimming lessons a week. In the third and fourth grades students have the opportunity to join our school’s water polo program. From the fifth grade they continue their physical education studies in groups, thus providing them with an opportunity to prepare for competitions. In addition to school physical education classes, all students attend training at a sports club of their choice at least twice a week.
It is a tradition in our school that in the fifth and sixth grade children take part in a ski camp, in the seventh grade in a hiking camp, and the eighth grade in a water camp.
From the first grade students compete regularly within the framework of the MDSZ (Hungarian School Sport Federation).
In the branch school Complex Basic Program is also adapted which reinforces the method of differentiatied and personalized teaching. Beside the acquisition of knowledge, skill and aptitude development is of high importance.
The main part of the program is the Differentiated Development in Heterogeneous Learning Groups. It’s a strategy to handle groups including students with different knowledge levels. It utilizes students’ existing knowledge and creativity. Knowledge construction and knowledge sharing is based on peer interaction.
The Program also helps personality development.
In our school there are several out-of-class activities and school programmes. We also experience outdoor education activities. We take our students on school trips and we usually organize open-air schools, too. We also celebrate our national holidays.