EC report 09/10

Group 3 Most of the students from this group have been studying at the EC for several years, it was formerly ‘Group 1’. The young people didn’t feel they make any progress (though they all made great improvements). To encourage the students and maintain their motivation the teachers decided to change the group number every year. A difficult financial situation over the last two years has not allowed us to create new groups from psycho-neurological institutions, so we do not have a group ‘!1’ or ‘!2’.

The main education goal in the group remains expanding awareness and knowledge of the surrounding world and also developing reading, writing and math skills.

This academic year a new student from psycho-neurological orphanage ! 11, Valery Lebedev, joined Group 3. Valera doesn’t know how to read and to write, knows few letters, but he wishes to become literate. To learn reading and writing he attended additional individual lessons.

Students from this group studied hard, they did not miss a single lesson and they all took active part in all Education Centre events.

Group 4 The 2009-2010 academic year was a very difficult one for Group 4. Young people from this group have been studying at the Education Centre for many years. Two years ago they decided to start preparing for their final exams (general mainstream school curriculum): a very difficult task. However, the students’ motivation is very high. They understand how difficult this task is and were ready to spend several years achieving it. Nevertheless, this year Evgeny Botarev and Aleksander Mitkevich decided to leave the Education Centre because it was difficult for them to combine work and study.

Over the course of the year Zhenya and Sasha kept visiting the Education Centre parties and excursions - they know they are always welcome here.

Irina Abramova had a second baby in November but didn’t want to make a break in her studies - she studied within the individual program this year.

At the beginning of the academic year Svetlana Kuznetsova came to the EC. Sveta graduated from a special-needs/correctional school in 1997. She then worked in construction. This year, however, Sveta made a difficult decision: to return to a desk, complete 9 grades and enter college. Sveta has begun her studies in Group 4 (she had a long break in her education and has a very poor knowledge of basic subjects).