Zespol Szkol nr 3 w Siemianowicach Slaskich

Zespół Szkół Nr 3 (School Complex) consists of Gimnazjum Nr 3 (Middle School) and II Liceum Ogólnokształcące (Comprehensive School) and is situated in Siemianowice Śląskie in Silesia, in the south of Poland. The complex was created in 2016 when Middle School 3 was moved from its old building to the premises of our High School. In the meantime, the newly-elected Polish government introduced a reform of the system of education that liquidates middle school and brings back the old system (primary – 8 years, secondary – 4 or 5 years). Therefore, schoolyear 2018 – 2019 will be the last year of their existence.

The region is currently undergoing a big change of economic profile. It used to be an industrial centre, full of coal mines and steelworks, but currently heavy industry is on the decline here, which is beneficial for the environment, but contributes to increasing economic problems, even to poverty. Lots of our students come from very poor families or their parents are divorced or separated, or there is one parent working abroad. These factors are meaningful as far as their school performance is concerned. On the other hand, Siemianowice is not far from places of cultural or historical importance, like Cracow or Oświęcim, for example, let alone Katowice – the centre of Silesia, where cultural activity of various kinds is on the increase.

Our school organises a lot of events whose aim is to activate young people and give them an opportunity for creativity and to foster cooperation and partnership. They include, among other things, Jan Matejko's Day (Matejko - a famous Polish painter, the patron of our school) or The European Day, devoted to the culture of members of the EU (students at our school learn English, German and Spanish). Our educational goals are concentrated on preparation of the students to taking Matura examination (our high school leaving examination) at the age of 19. Due to the aforementioned economic circumstances, lots of students lack motivation, though. Financial problems undoubtedly influence students' attitude to learning; we believe that this project will help to broaden their horizons and offer a possibility to exchange views and opinions with teenagers from other countries, which in turn will result in better self-esteem and will strengthen their confidence, not to mention a great opportunity to brush up English. We hope it will be beneficial for all participants.

Our activities:

The school carries out a lot of actions aimed at development of students’ entrepreneurship skills as a part of extracurricular activities. The main ones include:

- Participation in an EU project “Szkoła Liderów Przedsiębiorczości” (The school of Entrepreneurship Leaders”). Participants (groups of volunteers from grades 1-3) took part in monthly workshops, devoted to various issues (time management, communication skills, self-presentation, business image creation etc.) where they could learn skills useful in their future jobs. That project included schools from the whole voivodship and was organised on a competitive basis. Our school took the second place among all participants after it had prepared the event at the Medical University in Katowice, the purpose of which was to encourage university students to do voluntary work at the hospice “Cordis” in Katowice.

- For many years our school has been actively cooperating with hospice “Cordis” in Katowice. Our students – volunteers – engage in various actions for the hospice, such as organisation of concerts, fairs, money collections, helping with household chores at the hospice and most of all as medical volunteers helping at the wards of the hospice.

- Our students also take voluntary actions in other areas: organisation of events for kindergartens, disabled people, sports events, helping animal shelters etc. (including WOŚP - Polish Christmas charity action.

- Participation in the all-Poland project “Dzień Przedsiębiorczości” (The Entrepreneurship Day). Its aim is to enable students get acquainted with their chosen profession by one-day training in a respective company, which helps them to verify their expectations and knowledge regarded certain jobs. The advantage of this project for a comprehensive school consists in the uniqueness of such working experience that is not offered within general education.

- The school also cooperates with institutions, such as District Employment Agency, Youth Employment Agency, Pedagogical and Psychological Clinic and universities; the goal is to offer guidance for students as far as their vocational preferences and labour market prospects are concerned. Additionally, the school offers a wide variety of workshops and lectures, for example: interpersonal skills training, learning techniques and methods, self-presentation, assertiveness etc.

- Our Ecological Club is active in many areas: they meet on a regular basis, participate in many national programmes devoted to preservation of endangered species (hamster, black stork etc.), they have had their programmes broadcast by our local TV station and have organised ecological camps for students, they take part in clean-up-the-world action etc.

- Students have the opportunity to take part in drama activities within “Teatr Nieduży” (“Little Theatre”) where they prepare their own scripts and performances. As a part of Polish language lessons, media classes participate in Film Academy – a project focused on making them familiar with renowned film classics and go tp the thear]tre on a regular basis.

- A Debating Club at school offers its members participation in Oxford-style debates, which are organised regularly in our region.

- Our students learn English, German and Spanish (this is the first year). We take part in various language projects, such as AIESEC, for example (as a part of that programme we hosted students from Georgia, China, Taiwan, Ethiopia, Romania, Albania or Afghanistan). We also have a regular students exchange with a school from Germany, Gimnasium Waldstrasse in Hattingen (it started 25 years ago), which is facilitated by the organisation Polish-German Youth Cooperation.

- Within the last 5 years we participated in:

2012- 2014 COMENIUS Multilateral school partnerships „Are we green enough?“ 2012-1-BE3-COM06-05545 3