Educational visit at the 3rd General Lyceum of Trikala 'Odysseas Elytis' in Trikala, april 2019

  • This is a school located in the central Greece. They’re facing problems with low family income, due to poor economic conditions on the national level. This results in widespread negativism and feeling of insecurity among the students, which has led to lower numbers of enrolled pupils.

    There are 400 students, aged 15 – 18 years, and 40 teachers. There are 25 or more students per one mixed-ability class. Special needs students (dyslectic, deaf and speech-disabled, from underprivileged families) are included in regular classes.

    Teachers are noted for their abilities to motivate and encourage pupils to continue schooling instead of dropping out. The poor financial conditions of Greek families strongly discourage students to complete or continue their schooling, which is crucial to help develop their society and change people’s mind-set.

    The teachers have years of experience in working on international projects in the field of including minorities in the educational system and life in general.

    We were observating and participating at different school lessons. Our main goal was to see inclusion of SEN students and innovative teaching techniques.

    We presented work with SEN students in Primary school Domzale and compared it with Greek system. There are only teachers employed in regular schools in Greece, no other experts like psycologists, social workers, speech therapists etc.

    At School for children with special needs in Karyes we were introduced with their practise and played Boccia (Special Olympics) and some other games with disabled students.

    Taxi drivers (sometimes parents comes with them) come to school to pick SN students up and take them to their homes, municipality pays for this.

    We visited also the Special School of Agria, which has a student population with diverse learning disabilities, motor disabilities, autism, developmental syndromes, sensory disabilities etc. Currently there is 25 students with ages ranging from 6 to 15 years.

    Their staff consists from special teachers, psychologists, social workers, speech therapists, occupational therapists, class assistants, other support staff, etc.

    The Pedopolis of Agria, where the school is, hosts the special kindergarten school of Agria, the Greek Red Cross with non-accompanied children refugees and ELEPAP, the organization that offers therapy sessions to the children with motor and developmental difficulties.

    SN students are included in regular school in Volos for one or two hours per week, depends on their disabilties. 

    We visited a Sports museum in Trikala.

    Some views from Trikala.

    And famous Meteora with its monasteries.