Vice-principal at Pärnu Kuninga Tänava Põhikool

Liina Õmblus at the library of Pärnu's Kuninga Tänava School.  | BLANCA RÍO REY

“Nobody is left behind”

The headteacher has been working in one of the best schools in Estonia for more than eighteen years, teaching and helping students reach their full potential

DANIELA GONZÁLEZ FERNÁNDEZ AND PEDRO MÉNDEZ MATO  |  Pärnu

Liina Õmblus (Pärnu, 1975) graduated in pedagogy at Tartu University and has been working for eighteen years at Pärnu Kuninga Tänava Põhikool, a historical school where many well known figures in Estonia studied. There she is the vice-principal and coordinator of many important events like festivals or the Erasmus+ programs, which give their students the opportunity to know many cultures all around Europe. She is very active and confesses to fight “a lot to get every student what he or she needs”. She also defends equality: “If somebody is, for example, not good at math he or she will get extra math lessons and then we hope he or she will reach the same level as the other students; and we don’t go on until everyone has reached the minimum level”.

—What have been the changes that this school has gone through in the past few years and how do you remember your participation in them?

—We are more open, and also we discuss all things with students, because before we were not as consistent. Some teachers did and some teachers did not. But now we are very focused on cooperation with students and parents and we think it is very important what everybody thinks, not only what the teachers think. So it is everybody's responsibility to work together. 

—The first thing that you mentioned was that you are more open in general. What do you exactly mean by that?

—For example, the fact that you are here. We are very interested in how they work in other countries. Your school is bilingual, and it is quite an interesting thing for us, because it is a very good idea to learn subjects and languages at the same time. It is important to look around, not only in Estonia, in our schools, but in all of Europe and see what works well and try to do that here too.

—This school is considered as one of the best in Estonia. What do you think that has led to this consideration and why?

—I do not know if we are the best, but I like to work here, and I hope our students like to be here also. It is the people, because we have very good teachers and teamwork is essential in our school. We also have excellent students because they are great teammates. They really like other students and they talk with teachers. They are excellent. It is not only working a lot, because sometimes you need to work hard, and you get better results, but sometimes you need to say “I'm very, very tired. I'm out”.  That's why it is important to cooperate.

“We are very interested in how they work in other countries”

—As an administrator, how do you ensure to maintain the quality of education at this school and what are the main aspects to do so, mostly regarding equality, good behavior and attention to students with special needs?

—I am trained in special education and I am prepared to work with students with special needs. I think it is important to give them the education they need, and I have an overall knowledge about the difference between special needs students and what they may need. It is very important that I like to be with students. If I do not like them, it is really hard to work in a school and it is important, as a teacher, to learn all I said and also do it. I have a lot of classes and I also teach at the university and because of that I should be all the time with a high level of implication; and even more if I train teachers at the university.

—What are the secrets to being an effective vice-principal like you, considering that you have to manage a whole team of teachers and coordinate activities for more than 500 students in 5 buildings?

—It’s teamwork, I do not do it alone. I have a lot of good colleagues and I share with them everything. Personally, I like to be moving all the time and this is a very good job for me. That’s because I like challenges, and everyday I do something new. I don’t like routines, and because of this is why I work like this. Like I was saying, it's necessary to have very good colleagues who you can trust and collaborate with.

—We are here on an Erasmus+ program, an international exchange program that you have been successfully doing for many years. What is the importance for the school and what are the main benefits for the students that have similar experiences to ours?

—The most important thing is to observe the other school systems very closely, and not only visit the countries. We can look inside the school and see how things work. Another very important part of the Erasmus experience are the students. They get to know other students and to be more open. They go to different schools, but they always learn and take back many different things from the schools we visit. It’s a quite good motivator too, because everyone likes to travel and Erasmus gives us the possibility to travel. But it’s not only travelling, it’s the possibility to look inside and learn from other countries.

—What are the most remarkable changes that you have adopted here from what you learned in other countries?

—We are in a library right now, and in France, they had a kind of reading rally for students who just had started to read. They read a book and then they have to answer very simple questions. There was like a little competition in reading, and we took that from one of our partner schools in France. But most of all these changes are small things. When I’m see teaching in another country's school and I see something that is small, but that is very effective, I take it over here. Our teachers have also learned about different tools from the students. Also, the teachers are more open now, because you have to speak with everybody; for example, me, although my English is very bad, I can still manage. My first foreign language is German and I never learned English at school. I just learnt it by reading, but, if I have to speak, it's not so terrible [Laughs].

—The tools that are normally used the most to evaluate students are written exams. There are more things, but it’s mostly the performance in these exams and the workbook. How else do you measure student performance?

—We are measuring all year long, because in the school they take a test every week in different subjects, because if we have a topic, it’s very common to take a test, and if somebody did not pass it, he or she will have to take it one more time. We do not go on until everyone has reached the minimum level. If someone is not good enough, he will have to work a little harder. We will not leave behind the students that haven’t reached the level. We have almost twenty lessons per week for the students who need to do something more.  And if the student isn’t in the level needed, he will have to take more. I have talked to teachers from other countries, and they said that they measured and they went on, but what we do here is see if they need more practice, and then go back to that until the student is able to pass the test.

—What happens if the student does not reach the minimum level?

—We work with that student. We have lessons after the school day and we can say: “You should go and have one more math lesson per week because your level is not alright”. If the test was not good for the whole class, then the teacher should go back with all students and teach again and then we go on. But nobody is left behind.

“We are measuring all year long because in the school they take a test every week in different subjects”

—How many students repeat or don't pass a year on average?

—Nobody. Because we do it during the year. In November we make all kinds of exams in all classes and if somebody is not good at math, she will get extra math lessons and he or she has to go to this lessons and then we hope he or she will reach the same level than other students and he or she will continue with regular lessons also.

—Do you need extra teachers for this?

—Yes, sometimes we need more teachers, and some with special education skills. But sometimes it is just that the normal teachers need to teach more lessons to the students with some difficulties. Because sometimes these students need closer personal contact with the teacher.

—So, nobody fails...

—At the end of the year, nobody. In the middle of the year we work with them so we don't leave anybody behind.

—How do you motivate them to go to those extra lessons?

—We try to motivate everybody, but sometimes we can not, and we have to force them to go so they catch up with the normal class. If they do not go to one extra class, they will have to do two extra lessons the next week. And if they refuse to go, we talk with the families and they agree.

—Is that motivation what you want to focus on?

—I try to focus on motivation but it is not easy for everybody, because it is very personal. If something is motivating for me, maybe it is not for you, and it is kind of tricky business to motivate people, but students do not want extra lessons. It is quite a good motivator that they know that, if they do not pass, they get those extra lessons.

—A couple of minutes ago, you said that if none of these methods work, the students can go to extra lessons in the afternoon. How does that work?

—They just do it. If they have to go, we have two types of extra lessons. One is mandatory, and you can go to the other if you need help from the teacher. They are very popular if you feel like “I'm not good enough and I need some extra help”. They can go, but they do not have to go. The mandatory ones they have to attend. It's the rule, everybody knows it, and everybody has to follow it.

—In what way are these extra lessons felt like a punishment?

—For someone who wants to learn and to get better grades it is not punishment, and most want to. Maybe there are some students that don't, but not in general. So it is not normally felt as a punishment.

—Looking ahead in time, what do you believe will be the evolution of Estonian education in the next few years?

—We want to personalize all the student’s base. I do not know how good it can be, because every student is different. For some students, like me, it is very hard to sit down and concentrate, but others need to sit down all the time and be quiet. That’s why it's very difficult if there are 26 students in one class, and if everyone has different needs, to teach them all together. We talk a lot about how to get every student what she or he needs. It's not easy, but we are working on it.