Job-shadowing visit to Elementary school Spinut

Elementary school Spinut Split, Croatia VeljaÄ?a 2019.

Croatian elementary education system: • consists of eight years • compulsory • children begin school at the age of 6 or 7 • The students stay with their class throughout all 8 years.

• Since the primary school became mandatory, the literacy rate in Croatia is substantially high at 98.1%. The majority of children manage to complete primary education.

1st through 4th grade • These grades are taught by one teacher per class that teaches every subject with the exception of foreign languages and religion (music 4th grade). Subjects include Croatian, mathematics, visual art, nature and society, physical education, music education, and foreign language (usually English). The students stay in one classroom for the four years. • Religious education is an elective subject.

RAZRED 1.a

24

PB 1.b

27

PB 1.c

27

78 PB

2.a

26

PB 2.b

23

2.c

17

66 PB 3.a

26

3.b

21

3.c

22

69 4.a

22

4.b

24

4.c

22

68 281

5th through 8th grades • Students are taught by different teachers for each subject including history, geography, biology, chemistry, physics, informatics and in addition to English, often a second language. The students no longer have one classroom, but rather move around the school to get to their classes.

5.a

20

5.b

20

5.c

19

59 6.a

25

6.b

18

6.c

25

68 7.a

26

7.b

24

50 8.a

24

8.b

18

8.c

19

60 PRO

4 237

522

Grading • Grading is done on a scale of 1 to 5, with 1 being “insufficient” (nedovoljan) and 5 “excellent” (odličan). 1 is the only failing grade. As the system offers little nuance, teachers also use + and – signs. Note that more children achieve “excellent” than “insufficient”, although this is partly due to parental pressure on the teachers.

• eDnevnik

• The building, where the elementary school Spinut is situated, was built in 1954. The school uses just one part of the building, while the facilities of the Faculty (Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences and Faculty od Physical Education) are placed in other part of the building. • Elementary School Spinut School has 522 students in 23 classes. 16 teachers are employed from the 1st to the 4th grade and 30 from the 5th to the 8th. School psychologist, pedagogue and speech therapist also work and are employed in our school.

• The school is located near the city centre as well as the Marjan ForestPark which gives us the opportunity to develop plans for additional activities and field education. The Diocletian's Palace is the town's main attraction being a part of the historical centre of Split, included in the register of World Cultural Heritage by UNESCO.

• Educational offer: • The school gives regular elementary educational programme, according to the national curriculum, set by the Ministry of Education, which lasts for 8 years and it is compulsory for all pupils (age 6-14) • Day care programme : • One out of three classes chooses this programme. It lasts just first three years of education. It is the programme paid by parents, and it is not offerered in every school in our town. The pupils stay at school to 16:00.

The programme consists of classes, lunch, free time and studying. Two teachers work in this programme.

• Optional classes: • In Croatian schools there is a possibility to choose subjects which are not compulsory and regular according to the national curriculum. It is possible to choose Religious Education in the 1st grade, in the 4th grade it is possible to choose one more foreign language (Italian or German language) to learn (it is compulsory to learn English in the 1st grade). Along with the languages, Computer Science is also possible to choose. Optional subjects are also assessed as well as other regular subjects.

Extracurricular activities: • This form of the classes is the part of weekly teachers’ assignment and it is organized depending on the teachers’ schedule and their competences. These activities make a framework of the school curriculum. The school makes possible to give its students various, inspiring content of higher quality. The students choose one or more activities, the attendance is not an obligatory and the activities are not assessed. In the school curriculum there are numerous activities created for the students to choose: • 1-4 grades: drama, dancing, art groups, young volunteers • 5-8 grades: school choir, art, drama, young journalists, first aid, Chinese language, students’ council, school cooperative group, young geographer, sport’s club, cooking, web tools, english club, split time machine

• Education of the students with disabilities: • In the school there is a special group of pupils who have lower mental disabilities and they are partly integrated into their class. Apart from partial integration, there is also inclusive class where is an autistic pupil educated and a class where is a highly visually impaired pupil educated. Seven pupils have an assistant in classes.

Teachers’ professional development: • Our school has always been open to cooperation, professional development and innovations and therefore is regularly participating in projects concerning different areas of education.

• Teachers improve their knowledge and competencies regularly, they attend numerous educational trainings and they apply gained competencies to their work. Although Croatian educational system is characterized by traditional classes, a lot of teachers use more modern methods in their everyday work: the projects in classes, research classes, field classes, the experiment in classes, and doing European projects, a part of our teachers uses ICT in classes. The projects on the school level are planned by the school curriculum at the beginning of the school year.

European projects: • Erasmus + projects, KA1: 1. 2014.- 2016. „On the road of innovation“ 2. 2016. – 2018. „ Tracing for quality“ 3. 2018.-2010. „Be In- Be Innovative” • Comenius project 2012. – 2014. “Let's meet where our cultures meet”

• http://os-spinut-st.skole.hr/ • https://www.facebook.com/tracingforquality2016/ • https://spinutonline.wixsite.com/schoolspinut

Fadila Zoranić