Hristo Smirnenski Primary School is located in a small town called Rakovski. It is in the region of Plovdiv, the second biggest town in Bulgaria. Hristo Smirnenski Primary School is one of the most modern schools in the region. It is recognized by Microsoft as Microsoft Innovative School. This award is given to schools that have begun the road of digital transformation using interactive Microsoft tools.
The school also has an eTwinning school label. It is awarded by the National media coalition and got “Digital star” certificate for all activities carried about Media literacy and disinformation. Science, mathematics, engineering and technology is the key for the future students’ realization together with all the key competences we expect each child to have.Since 2016, Hristo Smirnenski has created its own strategy for developing STEM education at school. From 1st March the school opened a new STEM centre where students are engaged in Lego robotics and a lot of programmable devices and robots.
Hristo Smirnenski Primary School includes two different structures: one is for pupils aged from 7 to 10 years and the other one covers pupils from 11 to 14 years. There are pre-school groups for pupils aged 5 and 6 years and who don’t go to kindergarten, mainly from the minority. 500 students are studying in the school. The classes are mixed gender and comprised primarily of Bulgarian students and from the minority. There are forty teachers working at the school. Traditionally, the school organizes activities which develop students’ 21st century key competencies. Students are engaged in different extracurricular activities and clubs according to their individual abilities, specific needs and personality development.
The Agrupamento de Escolas de Montemor-o-Novo includes all schools in the municipality: 8 kindergardens, 13 primary schools, 2 middle to high schools and a single board of direction. There are 261 teachers and 1721 learners in our group of schools.
Our mission is to provide quality education that ensures equal opportunities, both in attendance and success, to all our learners, allowing them to become active and capable citizens, that value learning as an asset for life. We want to strengthen each student’s key competences and their willingness to persist on personal and social development and prepare them for an uncertain future, with vast international possibilities.
We are a certified eTwinning School, Eco-School and Blue-School and an Erasmus + accredited organization. We offer a Learning Support Centre for students with special education needs, which includes a unity that addresses multi-disabilities, and a “Future (Technological) Classroom” open to the school community.
Our learners come from contrasting contexts and, every so often, spend the whole day at school due to a low frequency of public transports and a high geographical dispersion of the municipality.
In order to keep students motivated we started shifting teaching-learning methodologies, involving active student participation, based on the construction of knowledge, as well as an approach to guide them to increase levels of concentration, teaching them to observe, listen and reflect.
Also, we provide different complementary and extracurricular activities, such as a STEAM Club (LABVivo), Environmental Club (ECOciência) European and Voluntary Club, Creative writing club, Inclusive club, Erasmus Club (Yes I Can), Erasmus + and eTwinning projects, Scholar sports etc.
Given the complexity of today’s education we tend to work as an educational territory, where more than 40 local or regional partners, and several international ones, cooperate in the solution of emerging problems and enrich the educational experiences provided for our learners and community.
The Regional school office of Toscany is a branch of the Ministry of education at regional level. In turn, at local level, it is organised into offices called Territorial areas. Its main task is to act as a link between national policies and the autonomous educational institutions in the territory. The Regional school office:
Hristo Smirnenski Primary School is located in a small town in the region of Plovdiv, the second biggest town in Bulgaria.
Hristo Smirnenski Primary School is one of the most modern schools in the region. It is recognized by Microsoft as Microsoft Innovative School. This award is given to schools that have begun the road of digital transformation using interactive Microsoft tools. The school also has an eTwinning school label. It is awarded by the National media coalition and got “Digital star” certificate for all activities carried about Media literacy and disinformation. Hristo Smirnenski has created its own strategy for developing STEM education at school. The school opened a new STEM centre where students are engaged in Lego robotics and a lot of programmable devices and robots.
The Agrupamento de Escolas de Montemor-o-Novo includes all schools in the municipality: 8 kindergardens, 13 primary schools, 2 middle to high schools, with a total of 261 teachers and 1721 learners.
Our mission is to provide quality education that ensures equal opportunities to all our learners, allowing them to become active and capable citizens, that value learning as an asset for life. We are a certified eTwinning, Eco and Blue School and an Erasmus + accredited organization.
