GHEORGHE TITEICA SCHOOL CONSTANTA, ROMANIA

EUROPEAN EDUCATIONAL SYSTEMS

COMENIUS PROJECT 2010 2012 WHATS OUTSIDE YOUR WINDOW?
ROMANIA, ENGLAND, SPAIN, HUNGARY, ITALY, TURKEY, POLAND, GREECE

CONTENTS:

1. ROMANIAN EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM ..page 3 2. HUNGARIAN EDUCATIONAL SYSTEMpage 7 3. GREEK EDUCATIONAL SYSTEMpage 11 4. POLISH EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM....page 14 5. SPANISH EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM page 20 6. TURKISH EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM ..page 26 7. ITALIAN EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM ..page 30 8. BRITISH EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM ..page 34

ROMANIAN EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM

1. When do you start and finish your school year? Students start on the 13/14/15th of September (always on a Monday). Teachers start on the 1st of September. We finish on the 15/16/17th of June (always a Friday). 2. How many weeks of school are there in a school year in your country? There are 36 weeks. 3. Do you have mid-term holidays? If yes, when? For the primary school there is one mid-term holiday from the 1st to the 5th of November (it may vary a few days from year to year), and another one is the Easter holiday which is in the middle of the second term. 4. What other holidays do you have and when? The Christmas holiday is from the 22nd of December to the 4th of January and the holiday between semesters is on the first week of February. We also have one day off on the 1 st of December, our national day, and on the 13th of June, which is a religious celebration. 5. When do you finish school? We finish school on the 15/16/17th of June (always a Friday). 6. How is your school year structured: in semesters or trimesters? Write the dates. The school year is structured in semesters: The 1st semester: 15th of September 30th of January The 2nd semester: 7th of February 15th of June

7. What is the structure of your schools: primary, secondary, high school/college, etc. (the compulsory education) and how many years for each? Compulsory education: Primary school: 1st grade 4th grade (6/7 years old 10 years old) Secondary school: 5th grade 8th grade (10 years old 14 years old) High school: 9th grade 12th grade (14 years old 18th years old) Optional: University

8. How many subjects do primary/secondary students have? Can you list them all, please, for each class? And how many classes of that subject they study every week? Primary classes: Romanian language, Math, Religious education, Music, Art, Physical education, Craft. In the 3rd grade they also have English or other foreign language (depends on the school) and in the 4th grade they also have History and Geography. Secondary classes: Romanian language and literature, Math, English, French (they study 2 foreign languages during the secondary school and high school), Geography, History, Music, Art, Physical education, Technological education, Religious education, Biology. In the 6 th and 7th classes they start studying Civic education, Physics and Chemistry. This is the timetable for the 5th grade. In 6th, 7th, 8th grade they have 6 classes every day instead of 5.

MONDAY 12.30-13.20
10 break 13.30-14.20 10 break 14.30-15.20 10 break 15.30-16.20 10 break 16.30-17.20

TUESDAY BIOLOGY

WEDNESDAY ROMANIAN LANGUAGE RELIGIOUS EDUCATION GEOGRAPHY

THURSDAY HISTORY

FRIDAY ROMANIAN LANGUAGE MATH

ROMANIAN LANGUAGE MATH

ENGLISH

MATH

ROMANIAN LANGUAGE TECHNOLOGICAL EDUCATION FORM TEACHER CLASS

MUSIC

PHYSICAL EDUCATION MATH

ENGLISH

FRENCH

ART

ENGLISH

PHYSICAL EDUCATION

FRENCH

ROMANIAN LANGUAGE

9. Who teaches students in primary/secondary school? In primary school, class 1 and 2 they have one class teacher and the Religious education teacher and in class 3 and 4 they also have a foreign language teacher and a Physical education teacher. In secondary school they have a teacher for each subject and one of those teachers is also the form teacher, who is in charge with their class.

10. Do you give students marks regularly? If so, what type of marks? We have marks from 1 to 10. 1 is given very rarely now, teachers usually start from 3 nowadays. 11. Do all students pass the class every year? Even if they dont learn at all? Do you flunk students? In what situations? Almost all students pass every year. We flunk them only if they really havent learned anything or if they have many absences from school. In good schools this happens very rarely. 12. How do you evaluate your students? We have a class book in which we must give students 2/3/4 marks per semester (depends on the number of hours they study that subject per week) and then, at the end of the semester we make the average mark. For example if a student has a 7, a 9 and an 8, the average is 8 for the first semester. The same thing happens in the second semester, lets say the average is 9, and at the end of the year a student has a final mark, which is 8, 50. These final marks are used to establish the order of the students in a class at the end of the year and the prizes they take. 13. When do your students have exams and what type are they? What subjects do they study for the exams? They have exams when they go from secondary school to high school, at the end of 8 th grade. The subjects are Romanian language and literature and Math. Another exam is the Bacalaureat, at the end of the 12th grade, the end of compulsory education. There are 5 exam subjects: 3 fixed subjects: Romanian language and literature, Math and a foreign language and other 2 which students can choose among: History, Geography, Chemistry, Physics, Biology, Physical education 14. What time do students start school in the morning? How many hours a day do the students stay in schools? Do you have lunch at school? Primary start at 8 oclock and they study 4/5 classes every day. Secondary start at 12.30 and study 5/6 classes every day. We dont have lunch at school. 15. Do your primary/secondary students have homework to do? Every day? How long do you think it takes them to do their homework for the next day? They have homework for every subject, every day. So, for Math or Romanian language, which they study almost every day, they have to do their homework every day, and for subjects which they study once or twice a week they have homework for the next class
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(which may be next week). The homework may take from 2 hours a day up to 4 in the higher classes. 16. Do your students have compulsory uniforms? Yes, we have a uniform, which is chosen by the school committee. 17. How many students are there in a class? There are about 25-32 students in a class. 18. Do your students buy their school supplies or everything is given by the city hall/school? Students receive the books from the Ministry of Education, but they buy all the other supplies for school. 19. Are there extra-curricular activities and clubs in your schools? There are many projects and extra-curricular activities such as festivities for special days, trips, activities for celebrations like Earth Day, Water Day, Europe Day, etc. We dont have clubs. 20. How many hours a day/week do you (teachers) work? At school we teach 18 hours a week, but we work a lot at home and extra hours at school. 21. How are teachers hired in schools? Are you hired by the school head teacher directly or by the Inspectorate, through exams? Teachers are hired through national exams organized by the School Inspectorate. They are allocated to schools according to their marks in these exams.

HUNGARIAN EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM

1. When do you start and finish your school year? We start school on 1 September and finish in mid June. 2. How many weeks of school are there in a school year in your country? There are 37 weeks of school in a school year in Hungary. 3. Do you have mid-term holidays? If yes, when? No, we dont. 4. What other holidays do you have and when? We have a-week-holiday at the beginning of November. Almost two weeks in December/January (at Christmas). Spring holiday lasts for six days. 5. When do you finish school? We finish school in mid June so we have an eleven-week holiday for the summer. 6. How is your school year structured: in semesters or trimesters? Write the dates. We have two semesters. The first semester starts on 1 September and finishes in mid January. The second one starts in mid January and lasts until mid June. 7. What is the structure of your schools: primary, secondary, high school/college, etc. (the compulsory education) and how many years for each? Kindergarten: from the age of 2,5 to the age of 6 or 7 the last year is compulsory Primary school: 8 years from the age of 6 or 7 to the age of 14 or 15 Secondary school: 4 years from the age of 14 or 15 to the age of 18 or 19 To get to a secondary school, pupils need to take an entrance exam. They can also go to a vocational school after finishing primary school. They can study different vocations there. Students take their school leaving exams when they finish secondary school and they get a certificate of secondary studies. Nowadays, it is compulsory to attend a school until the age of 18 but it will be changed soon. Lots of debates are about the age nowadays. Students will need to go to a school until the age of 15 or 16 in the near future. College: 3 or 4 years
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University: 5 or 6 years 8. How many subjects do primary/secondary students have? Can you list them all, please, for each class? And how many classes of that subject they study every week? Pupils have Reading, Spelling, Maths, Science, Music, P.E., Art, DIY, ICT and English in lower primary (the first four year of the primary school). Church schools have R.E. and Ethics. Reading and Spelling: 8 lessons a week Maths: 4 lessons a week Art: 1or 2 lessons a week Music: 1 lesson a week DIY: 1 lesson a week P.E.: 3 lessons a week English: 3 lessons a week Science: 1 or 2 lessons a week Pupils have History, Hungarian Grammar, Literature, Maths, ICT, Art, DIY, P.E., Music, Physics, Biology, Chemistry, Geography and English in upper primary (four years). At secondary school they learn History, English, a foreign language (German, Spanish or French), Maths, P.E., Music, Art, ICT, Chemistry, Physics, Geography, Hungarian Grammar, Literature, Biology and Philosophy (it is only in the last year).
9. Who teaches students in primary/secondary school?

In lower primary classes pupils have two teachers responsible for the class. They share the subjects. One of the teachers is the class teacher. They also have a foreign language teacher. There isnt a teacher assistant in the classes. In upper primary pupils have a teacher for each subject and one of those teachers is also the form teacher who is responsible for the class. In secondary school the same as above in upper primary.

10. Do you give students marks regularly? If so, what type of marks? For example we have marks from 1 to 10. 1 is given very rarely now, teachers usually start from 3 nowadays. We regularly give marks to students. We have marks from 1 to 5. Five is the best and 1 is the worst mark. At least two marks need to be given a month, one is enough if there is one lesson a week. 11. Do all students pass the class every year? Even if they dont learn at all? Do you flunk students? In what situations? Most of the pupils pass the class every year. Only a very few of them fail if they dont learn at all or have lots of difficulties. We sometimes flunk students at the end of the school year. They can take a test at the end of August. If they fail it, they have to start the class again in September. If not, they can start a new class. 12. How do you evaluate your students? We also have a class book in which marks are given to pupils per terms. At the end of the term we make the average mark. At the end of the school year, a final mark is given based on the average marks through the school year. Pupils get a school report at the end of each term. Marks are indicated in the school report. They get a mark for their behavior and diligence, too. Excellent students get a certificate of merit and a book by the head teacher at the school ceremony at the end of the school year. During the school year, we can evaluate pupils work and attitude in their school book in writing in red, black or blue ink. Red means good, black or blue means bad comments. Is there such a marking system in your schools? 13. When do your students have exams and what type are they? What subjects do they study for the exams? In Hungary students dont take any exams at the end of their studies at primary school. They take exams at the end of their studies at secondary school. They take written and oral exams. 14. What time do students start school in the morning? How many hours a day do the students stay in schools? Do you have lunch at school? Pupils start school at 8 oclock. They have four or five lessons a day in lower primary. They finish lessons at 12 or 1 oclock but they can stay in the after school club until 4 or half past four. They do their homework and play in the playground at the after school club. Most of the pupils have lunch at school after finishing their lessons. Some go home after lessons and have lunch there if they dont go to the after school club.

They have five or six lessons in upper primary so they finish at 1 or half past one. The older they are the more lessons they have a day. 15. Do your primary/secondary students have homework to do? Every day? How long do you think it takes them to do their homework for the next day? They have homework to do every day. It takes about one hour and a half or two hours to prepare for the next day. 16. Do your students have compulsory uniforms? School children dont wear a uniform at school. Boys wear a white shirt and black pair of trousers and girls wear a white blouse and a black skirt only at school events. Some schools have their own tie or scarf which can be worn at school celebrations. 17. How many students are there in a class? There are about 20-25 pupils in a class. The minimum number of pupils is 19 in lower primary and 21 in upper primary. A special needs pupils means two pupils. 18. Do your students buy their school supplies or everything is given by the city hall/school? Our students buy their own school supplies, books and exercise books. Books are provided by the school (it is financed by the government or local government) for pupils with a poor background. 19. Are there extra-curricular activities and clubs in your schools? There are a few clubs like English, Art and Craft, Folk dance, Spelling, Maths, Drama, choir and sports (football, handball, wrestling, fencing). 20. How many hours a day/week do you (teachers) work? The compulsory number of lessons is 22 per week in Hungary. If you are a class teacher it is 20 lessons a week. It is said that it will be increased to 28 lessons a week soon. 21. How are teachers hired in schools? Are you hired by the school head teacher directly or by the Inspectorate, through exams? We are hired by the school head teacher directly.

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GREEK EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM

1. When do you start and finish your school year? Our schools start on 10th of September and end on the 15th of June. For the teachers is 1st of September until 21st of June. 2. How many weeks of school are there in a school year in your country? 35-36 weeks. 3. Do you have mid-term holidays? If yes, when? No. 4. What other holidays do you have and when? Christmas (2 weeks:) from 24.12. until 8.01. Easter (2 weeks) one before and one after Easter Sunday 5. When do you finish school? 15th of June. 6. How is your school year structured: in semesters or trimesters? Write the dates. Trimesters: September December, January-March, April-June 7. What is the structure of your schools: primary, secondary, high school/college, etc. (the compulsory education) and how many years for each? 2 years Kindergarten ( the 2nd compulsory) 6 years Primary (compulsory) 3 years Gymnasium ( secondary) (compulsory) 3 years Lyceum (secondary) 8. How many subjects do primary/secondary students have? Can you list them all, please, for each class? And how many classes of that subject they study every week? The subject are: GREEK LANGUAGE, MATHS, TECHNOLOGICAL EDUCATION, ENGLISH, GERMAN /FRENCH, ART, PHYSICAL EDUCATION, MUSIC In class 3&4 they have also HISTORY, RELIGION In class 5&6 they have also HISTORY, RELIGION, GEOGRAPHY, SOCIAL AND POLITICAL EDUCATION, PHYSICS

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9. Who teaches students in primary/secondary school? In primary school they have one class teacher and an English teacher, a physical education teacher, Music teacher, art craft teacher, ICT teacher, drama teacher. In class 5 and 6 they have second foreign language German or French. In secondary school they have a teacher for each subject and one of those teachers is also the form teacher, who is in charge with their class. 10. Do you give students marks regularly? If so, what type of marks? For example we have marks from 1 to 10. 1 is given very rarely now, teachers usually start from 3 nowadays. In class 1 and 2 they dont get grades. In 3 to 6 the scale is 1-10. In secondary 1-20. 11. Do all students pass the class every year? Even if they dont learn at all? Do you flunk students? In what situations? In primary it is very rear to repeat a class, only in serious cases. 12. How do you evaluate your students? Written, oral and tests

13. When do your students have exams and what type are they? What subjects do they study for the exams? We have no exams in primary. In secondary they have final exams every year in Mai. 14. What time do students start school in the morning? How many hours a day do the students stay in schools? Do you have lunch at school? School starts at 8:10 until 1 or 2. Some all-day-schools until 4. They have lunch at school but they bring their own food from home. 15. Do your primary/secondary students have homework to do? Every day? How long do you think it takes them to do their homework for the next day? Every student has homework every day. It could take from 1 hour to 4 hours in secondary. 16. Do your students have compulsory uniforms? No 17. How many students are there in a class? 20-25 Pupils. Maximum 25 Pupils. 18. Do your students buy their school supplies or everything is given by the city hall/school? They buy their school supplies, the books are given by the state.

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19. Are there extra-curricular activities and clubs in your schools? Environment, culture, drama and more. 20. How many hours a day/week do you (teachers) work? In Kindergarten from 8:00 12:00 or 11:45 16:00. 21. How are teachers hired in schools? Are you hired by the school head teacher directly or by the Inspectorate, through exams? We are hired from the ministry of education through state exams.

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POLISH EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM 1. When do you start and finish your school year? We usually start school around the 1st September ( if the 1st September is on Saturday we start school on 3rd etc). The end of school year is at the end of June, about 22nd. 2. How many weeks of school are there in a school year in your country? About 35 weeks 3. Do you have mid-term holidays? If yes, when? Well, they are called winter holidays and they are at the end of the first term. It is in January or February, it depends on a year because In Poland every province has the winter break in a different time. 4. What other holidays do you have and when?

July and August summer holidays The end of December Christmas break January or February winter holidays The end of April Easter break 1st November All Saints 11th November Polish Independence Day 1st May International Workers Day 3rd May May-3rd-Constitution Day 23rd June - Corpus Christi 5. When do you finish school? The last lessons end at 16.05. The younger students ( 6-9 years old) have two shifts in our school. They start at 8.00 in the morning or a little bit later. When they start in the morning, they finish till 12.25 but when they start later ( for example at 11.25 ) they finish till 16.05. But it is not a rule. It depends on the number of lessons they have in a particular day. Every class must have the particular number of hours a week, and they dont have the same number of lessons a day. Sometimes they have 6 lessons, sometimes 5, 4 etc.

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6. How is your school year structured: in semesters or trimesters? Write the dates. We have two terms: the first term starts in September and it finishes at the beginning of February. And the second term is from February till the end of June ( till the end of the school year ). 7. What is the structure of your schools: primary, secondary, high school/college, etc. (the compulsory education) and how many years for each? Kindergartens ( from 3 to 6 year olds ) Primary Schools Generally we can say, that the primary school is divides into two stages: Stage I covers grades 1,2 and 3, and is called integrated teaching and stage II covers grades 4,5 and 6. Lower Primary Schools

They are called Gymnasium and they offer 3-years of full-time general lower secondary education for pupils who completed the reformed 6-year primary school. It is compulsory for all pupils. The gymnasium is targeted at pupils aged 13 to 16 and is considered the last stage (Stage 3) of general compulsory education. Secondary schools

The age of pupils in upper secondary education is between 16 and 18/19/20 years. It depends on the chosen school. Students have a great range of schools to choose from: basic vocational schools, pupils aged 16 to 18/19 general secondary schools, pupils aged 16 to 19 subject oriented secondary schools, pupils aged 16 to 19 vocational secondary schools, pupils aged 16 to 20

Post-secondary schools

Post-secondary schools admit graduates of general secondary schools based on a secondary school leaving certificate. Tha age of pupils is between 19 - 20/21.

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8. How many subjects do primary/secondary students have? Can you list them all, please, for each class? And how many classes of that subject they study every week? Classes 1-3 the first level of education Compulsory subjects

Number of hours per week during three years of teaching 1. Integrated Education 60* 2. RE./Ethic 6 3. Headmasters hours 3 Total 69 we have to remember to realize from these hours during three years at least: 190 hours of foreign language, 95 hours of music, art and IT, 290 hours of P.E. Classes 4-6 the second level of education Compulsory subjects Number of hours per week during three years of teaching 1. Polish 16 2. History 4 3. Foreign language 8 4. Math 12 5. Science 9 6. Music 2 7. Art 2 8. Technology 2 9. I.T. 2 10. P.E. 12 11. Hours with form teacher 3 12. R.E./Ethic 6 13. Headmasters hours 9 Total 87

9. Who teaches students in primary/secondary school? (For example in Romania In primary school, class 1 and 2 they have one class teacher and the religious education teacher and in class 3 and 4 they also have a foreign language teacher and a physical education teacher. In secondary school they have a teacher for each subject and one of those teachers is also the form teacher, who is in charge with their class) Primary Grades 1,2,3 have one teacher for integrated teaching, the religious education teacher, the English teacher and physical education teacher
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Grades 4,5,6 - they have a teacher for each subject and one of those teachers is also the form teacher. In secondary schools it is the same. 10. Do you give students marks regularly? If so, what type of marks? For example we have marks from 1 to 10. 1 is given very rarely now, teachers usually start from 3 nowadays. All of the students in Primary have marks. In the first stage ( grade 1,2,3 ) they have letters A( very good) B (good) C ( not good ) In the second stage ( grade 4,5,6 ) they have marks from 1 to 6. 1 is the weakest mark and 6 is very good ( its especially for the students who knows more than they were taught at school ). We give the marks regularly for different skills ( reading, writing, grammar etc.), for homework or for the tests. 11. Do all students pass the class every year? Even if they dont learn at all? Do you flunk students? In what situations? Well, sometimes it happens but really very rarely. If the student doesnt do well in the tests, or he doesnt do his/her homework, and he/she has got poor marks ( 1 or 2 ), he/she, doesnt pass to the other class. But during the holidays he/she has a chance to have a test of the whole school year and if he/she does well, he passes to the next class. 12. How do you evaluate your students? We have a class book in which we must give students 2/3/4 marks per semester (depends on the number of hours they study that subject per week) and then, at the end of the semester we make the average mark. For example if a student has a 7, a 9 and an 8, the average is 8 for the first semester. The same thing happens in the second semester, lets say the average is 9, and at the end of the year a student has a final mark, which is 8, 50. These final marks are used to establish the order of the students in a class at the end of the year and the prizes they take. In Poland we also have a class book in which we give students the marks. They should have at least 2/3 marks per semester. But at the end of the semester we dont give the average mark but the semester mark depends on the teacher. We should take into consideration many aspects while giving the final mark ( doing homework, missing classes, tests, work during the lesson etc. ) 13. When do your students have exams and what type are they? What subjects do they study for the exams? During the school year they have many tests from different subjects. According to the exams, they have three important exams for them :
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1st is after grade 6 in primary ( its an integrated written test Maths, History, Polish and Science) 2nd exam is after grade 3 in the lower secondary school ( it consists of three written exams : Maths and Science, Polish and English ) 3rd exam is after the last class of secondary school, its called matura exam .Frankly speaking, it is not obligatory for Polish secondary school students to take Matura exams, however students wishing to apply for higher education courses are required to hold Polish Matura. It consists of three obligatory parts : Polish, Math, language chosen by the student. They are able to choose more subjects ( geography, History, Religious Education, Bilogy, Chemistry, IT, physics and astronomy, knowledge of dance, History of Art, History of music, Language of an ethnic group, ). In the current system, the final results are expressed in percentage. It is required to score at least 30% from 3 compulsory exams (Polish language, Modern language and Mathematics) to pass Matura. Additional subjects don't have influence on passing Matura. 14. What time do students start school in the morning? How many hours a day do the students stay in schools? Do you have lunch at school? The students usually start school at 8.00 but there are some classes which start a little bit later, for example at 8.45 or 9.45. The younger kids also start lessons at 11.25 because according to grades 1,2 and 3 they have two shifts : morning and afternoon. Students have from 4 to 7 lessons a day. It depends on the schedule. We have the same lesson plan every week. 15. Do your primary/secondary students have homework to do? Every day? How long do you think it takes them to do their homework for the next day? Our students usually have homework to do for the next day. It takes them about 2 hours a day to do however it depends on the student. We shouldnt give the homework for the holidays. 16. Do your students have compulsory uniforms? No, we dont have the uniforms. However, some time ago there were compulsory uniformes in our school. But generally in Poland, students have the uniforms at schools. It depends on school. 17. How many students are there in a class?
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There are about 20-28 students in a class. 18. Do your students buy their school supplies or everything is given by the city hall/school? Our students have to buy everything by themselves. Sometimes they use the books after their siblings or they try to buy the books which were used by other students earlier ( they are cheaper ). 19. Are there extra-curricular activities and clubs in your schools? Yes, there are many extra activities for the students. They can choose among the clubs: English Theatre classes Science Choir PE Math Polish Art History What is more, grade 6 has extra Math and Polish lessons which are a kind of revision for the exam. 20. How many hours a day/week do you (teachers) work? All full-time teachers work 40 hours per week. It means that they spend at least 18 hours but no more than 26 hours in front of the blackboard with the students and 2 additional hours with students who need our support or want to widen their knowledge. The rest of hours are devoted for preparing lessons, checking students tests, homework and other activities connected with our work. We do not need to spend all 40 hours at work, only compulsory duties. 21. How are teachers hired in schools? Are you hired by the school head teacher directly or by the Inspectorate, through exams? We are directly hired by the school headmaster. At the moment the candidate has to prepare own CV and an application letter. Then the candidate takes part in an interview and waits for the decision. At the moment this is the headmasters choice based on teachers qualification, experience, the teachers status and the interview.

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SPANISH EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM 1. When do you start and finish your school year? In primary, pupils start 9th September and finish 22nd June. But teachers start the school year 1st September and finish 30th June.

2. How many weeks of school are there in a school year in your country? 38 weeks.

3. Do you have mid-term holidays? If yes, when? We have about several long weekends along the school year, you know, for national and local festivals and religious festivities: IN THE FIRST TERM o we celebrate the 12th October,

o 1st November, o 3 days in the first week of December (Constitution Day the 6th Dec, and a religious festivity on the 8th Dec, so we have a long weekend of five days) IN THE SECOND TERM o We have a long weekend of four days on the 28th of February. For the Andalusian Day this is regional celebration. IN THE THIRD TERM o 1st May o In May we have a long weekend of five days for El Rocio, local festivity.

4. What other holidays do you have and when? We have about two and a half weeks on Christmas, one week on Easter

5. When do you finish school? Pupils finish 22nd June and teachers 30th June.

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6. How is your school year structured: in semesters or trimesters? Write the dates. In trimesters. o The first trimester is from the beginning of the school year until Christmas. So from September to December. o The second trimester goes from Christmas until Easter. o And the third trimester goes from Easter to the end of the school year. 7. What is the structure of your schools: primary, secondary, high school/college, etc. (the compulsory education) and how many years for each? NURSERY SCHOOL 3 years - (from 0 to 3 year olds). They are not compulsory and you have to pay for them, although some of them are free. INFANT AND PRIMARY SCHOOLS. For children aged from 3 to 11 years old. In the same school there is: o INFANT EDUCATION 3 years - the 3 year olds, the 4-year-olds, and the 5year olds. Although it is not compulsory, 100% of children attend to school. o PRIMARY EDUCATION with six years of primary, from year 1 (the 6 year olds) until year 6 (the 11 year olds). This is compulsory. SECONDARY SCHOOLS. In these schools there are two stages: o COMPULSORY SECONDARY EDUCATION. Its in four levels or years. From year 1 (12 year olds) to year 4 (16 year olds). o NOT COMPULSORY SECONDARY EDUCATION. With two levels UNIVERSITY

8. How many subjects do primary/secondary students have? Can you list them all, please, for each class? And how many classes of that subject they study every week? In primary, for all the grades 1 to 6. The six grades have the same subjects, the number of hours for each subject is not the same for all the grades, but they are very similar. SPANISH LANGUAGE MATHS SOCIAL AND NATURAL SCIENCES ENGLISH 5 hours a day 4 hours a day 4 hours a week 3 hours a week
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MUSIC ART AND CRAFTS PHISICAL EDUCATION RELIGION(optional) hour a day of RECESS - BREAK

1 hour a week 15 hours a week 3 hours a week 1 hour a week 25 hours a week 225 hours a week

TOTAL

25 hours a week

Secondary school, they have more subjects and they

9. Who teaches students in primary/secondary school? (For example in Romania In primary school, class 1 and 2 they have one class teacher and the religious education teacher and in class 3 and 4 they also have a foreign language teacher and a physical education teacher. In secondary school they have a teacher for each subject and one of those teachers is also the form teacher, who is in charge with their class) In primary, all the classes have the class teacher (for Spanish language, math, sciences and art and crafts), the English teacher, the physical education teacher, the music teacher and the religion teacher. In secondary, there is a teacher for each subject

10. Do you give students marks regularly? If so, what type of marks? For example we have marks from 1 to 10. 1 is given very rarely now, teachers usually start from 3 nowadays. We give students marks 3 times a school year, at the end of each term. We give the following marks: o SOBRESALIENTE for marks 9 and 10 (= excellent) o NOTABLE for marks 7-8 (very good) o BIEN for marks 6-7 (good) o SUFICIENTE for 5-6 o INSUFICIENTE for 3-4
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11. Do all students pass the class every year? Even if they dont learn at all? Do you flunk students? In what situations? In primary a student only can repeat course once during the six years that he is in the primary school.

12. How do you evaluate your students? We make the average at the end of the trimester. But we also take into account the other aspects such as the attitudes, the abilities, the work day by day in class, not only the marks of the exams. These final marks are not used to establish the order of the students in a class and we dont give prizes for that. The average mark (exams plus other aspects that the teacher observes in class) is uploaded to the internet on a page of the administration at the end of each trimester. Then these marks are printed out and given to the family in an interview that the teacher has with each family.

13. When do your students have exams and what type are they? What subjects do they study for the exams? Pupils usually have an exam after each unit in each subject, in language, in English, in math, in sciences, in music. But this is up to the teacher, I mean the teacher decides how many exams and when. I usually set an exam after each unit, this is about an exam a month. Nowadays there isn't any kind of exam that students have to pass in order to get another level of education. There is an exam in year 4 (9-year-olds) in every school, but the marks obtained by pupils, in this exam are only used to determine the quality of the school, not to evaluate the pupils.

14. What time do students start school in the morning? How many hours a day do the students stay in schools? Do you have lunch at school? IN PRIMARY: o Pupils start at 9.00 o They stay 5 hours a day. From 9.00 to 14.00 o Some pupils have lunch at school at 14.00, they go home after lunch.

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15. Do your primary/secondary students have homework to do? Every day? How long do you think it takes them to do their homework for the next day? Yes, they have homework every day. In primary it takes them about one hour. In secondary they have more homework.

16. Do your students have compulsory uniforms? In the private school it is compulsory. In the public (state) schools it is not compulsory, its optional. Each public school decides if they have uniform or not, but even if the school decides to have uniform, this is not compulsory for the pupils.

17. How many students are there in a class? The ratio is 25 students.

18. Do your students buy their school supplies or everything is given by the city hall/school? The school gives the books, well actually, it is the regional administration that gives the books. The families have to buy the activity books and all the school supplies.

19. Are there extra-curricular activities and clubs in your schools? Yes, there are. There are extra-curricular activities in our schools. The families have to pay the chosen activities. This extra-curricular activities are given for monitors, not for the teachers of the school.

20. How many hours a day/week do you (teachers) work? 25 hours a week with the student. 5 hours a week without students to prepare work and organize the school.

21. How are teachers hired in schools? Are you hired by the school head teacher directly or by the Inspectorate, through exams?
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We have to pass an exam (a competitive examination) to teach in a state or public school. In private schools is the head teacher directly who hires the teachers.

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TURKISH EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM 1. When do you start and finish your school year? We start on the third week of September and finish on third week of June. 2. How many weeks of school are there in a school year in your country? There are 26 weeks in a school year. 3. Do you have mid-term holidays? If yes, when? Yes we have. There is a two-week holiday in February. 4. What other holidays do you have and when? We have national holidays: October 29 Republic Day April 23 National Sovereignty and Childrens Day May 1 Labor Day May 19 Youth and Sports Day August 30 Victory Day

We also have religious holidays (their dates change every year) Ramadan Feast Sacrifice Feast

5. When do you finish school? We finish at the end of June 6. How is your school year structured: in semesters or trimesters? Write the dates. In semesters. First term is between the third week of September and the last week of January. Second term is between the third week of February and the third week of June. 7. What is the structure of your schools: primary, secondary, high school/college, etc. (the compulsory education) and how many years for each? There is a non-stop education primary and secondary school it is also compulsory. 5 years primary and 3 years secondary, 8 years in total.

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8. How many subjects do primary/secondary students have? Can you list them all, please, for each class? And how many classes of that subject they study every week? 1st, 2nd and 3rd grades: MONDAY Social Sciences Turkish Turkish Maths Music Free Activities TUESDAY Social Sciences Turkish Turkish Maths Free Activities P. E. WEDNESDAY Turkish Turkish Maths Art Music Computer Edu. THURSDAY Social Sciences Turkish Turkish Maths Art Free Activities FRIDAY Social Sciences Turkish Turkish Free Activities Computer Edu. P.E.

4th and 5th Grades: MONDAY Music Maths Maths Turkish Turkish Free Activities TUESDAY Science & Tech. Science & Tech. Turkish Turkish P.E. P.E. WEDNESDAY Social Sciences Social Sciences Maths English English Computer E. THURSDAY Science & Tech. Social Sciences Traffic English Turkish Art FRIDAY Maths Turkish Religious E. Religious E. Computer E. Free Activities

6th, 7th and 8th Grades: MONDAY Turkish Turkish Maths Maths TUESDAY P.E. P.E. Science & Tech. Science & Tech. WEDNESDAY Religious E. Religious E. Turkish Turkish THURSDAY Civic E. Turkish Tech. & Design Tech. & Design FRIDAY Music Art History History
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English English

English English

Media Literacy Social Club

Maths Maths

Science & Tech. Science & Tech.

9. Who teaches students in primary/secondary school? 10. In primary classes, 1st to 3rd grade they have one class teacher; 4th and 5th grades also have physical education, English, music and religious education teacher. In secondary school they have a teacher for each subject and one those teachers is also the form teacher, who is in charge with its class. 11. Do you give students marks regularly? If so, what type of marks? For example we have marks from 1 to 10. 1 is given very rarely now, teachers usually start from 3 nowadays. We give the students marks regularly. We give them points 1- 100 then at the end of the term we turn the points into marks from 1 to 5. Five is the highest mark. 12. Do all students pass the class every year? Even if they dont learn at all? Do you flunk students? In what situations? All students pass the class every year even if they do not learn at all. We cant flunk students in secondary but in primary school we can flunk them. If they cant read or write. 13. How do you evaluate your students? We make three written exams, two verbal notes and two performance works per semester. Exams, verbal notes and performance works are pointed from 1 to 100. Then we make an average mark (1-5) at the end of semester, second semester we do the same evaluation system. At the end of the year, the average of two semesters form a final mark. At the end of each semester, we give the students school reports and a certificate of success for the students who have high degrees at lessons. However, in primary school, 1st 2nd and 3rd classes are not evaluated with exams, we evaluate them with performance works. 14. When do your students have exams and what type are they? What subjects do they study for the exams? In each semester, students have three written exams approximately an exam per five weeks. 70% is from the current subjects, 30% is from the former subjects. 15. What time do students start school in the morning? How many hours a day do the students stay in schools? Do you have lunch at school?

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They start the school at nine oclock; there is a lunch break between 12:30 and 13:30 p.m. The school finishes at 15:10 p.m. the students have 4 hours until lunch time, 2 hours after lunch time. Most students live near the school area, so they go home to have lunch. But some of them come from villages and they have lunch at school. 16. Do your primary/secondary students have homework to do? Every day? How long do you think it takes them to do their homework for the next day? Yes, they have homework everyday, and it takes them two or three hours to do their homework. 17. Do your students have compulsory uniforms? Yes, all the students in Turkey have to wear a school uniform except from university students. Also the teachers have to wear formal clothes. 18. How many students are there in a class? There are about 25 students in a class. 19. Do your students buy their school supplies or everything is given by the city hall/school? Only the books are supplied by the Ministry of Education, the uniform and other school material are bought by parents. 20. Are there extra-curricular activities and clubs in your schools? Yes there are one-hour clubs per week like chess club, English club, etc. 21. How many hours a day/week do you (teachers) work? We work 30 hours a week. 22. How are teachers hired in schools? Are you hired by the school head teacher directly or by the Inspectorate, through exams? After the university, teacher candidates must take an exam if they pass the exam the teachers are hired by the government to the school, which they choose according to their exam results.

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ITALIAN EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM 22. When do you start and finish your school year? We usually start towards the middle of September and we finish towards the middle of June. 23. How many school weeks are there in a school year in your country? There are about 33 school weeks. 24. Do you have mid-term holidays? If so, when? No, we dont. We only have Christmas and Easter holidays. The Christmas holidays last about 15 days whereas the Easter ones last about 5 days. 25. What other holidays do you have and when? We have: 1 November All Saints Day 8 December The Immaculate Conception Shrove Tuesday 25 April Liberation Day 1 May Labour Day 2 June To celebrate the birth of the Italian Republic in 1946 26. When do you break up for summer? On 10th June 2011 27. How is your school year structured: in semesters or trimesters? Write the dates. 13/09/2010 31/01/2011 1/02/2011 11/06/2011 28. What is the structure of your schools: primary, secondary, high school/college, etc. (compulsory education) and how many years for each one? Education in Italy is compulsory from 6-15/16 years of age, and is divided into five stages: kindergarten (scuola dellinfanzia) from 3 to 5 years (not compulsory);
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primary school (scuola elementare or primaria) from 6 to 10; Lower secondary school or middle school (scuola secondaria di primo grado or scuola media) from 11 to 13;

Upper secondary school or high school (scuola secondaria di secondo grado or scuola superiore) from 14 to 18;

university (universit) from 19.

29. How many subjects do primary/secondary students have? Can you list them all, please, for each class? And how many classes of that subject do they study every week? In primary school we have: Italian English 6-8 hours 1 hour (first year) 2 hours (second year) 3 hours (last three years) Mathematics Sciences History Geography Social Studies Physical Education Music Art and craft activities 6-7 hours 2 hours 2 hours 2 hours 1 hour 1-2 hours 1-2 hours 1-2 hours

Lower secondary school provides further education on the subjects studied at primary school, with the addition of Technology and Natural Sciences 30. Who teaches students in primary/secondary school? In primary school in every class there are usually two class teachers, the religious education teacher and the foreign language teacher.
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In secondary school there is a teacher for each subject. 31. Do you give students marks regularly? If so, what type of marks? In primary school we have marks from 4 to 10. 32. Do all students pass the class every year? Even if they dont learn at all? Do you fail students? In what situations? In primary school we fail students only if they dont learn at all. 33. How do you evaluate your students? In primary school we have a personal class book of our subjects and we write marks for each semester. At the end of the first semester we work out the average mark. The same thing happens in the second semester, but this mark is also the final mark. 34. When do your students have exams and what type are they? What subjects do they study for the exams? Until 2004, pupils had to pass an exam to attend Scuola secondaria di primo grado (Lower secondary school), which included writing an essay in Italian, a written Maths test, and an oral test on the other subjects. This exam has now been abolished and pupils can now enter Scuola secondaria di Primo Grado directly. 35. What time do students start school in the morning? How many hours a day do the students stay in schools? Do you have lunch at school? In Italy there are a lot of different school organization. In our primary school our pupils do 36 hours per week. They start school at 8.10 and finish at 16.10 (they have an 8-hour day). They have lunch at school. On Fridays they start school at 8.10 and finish at 12.30. However, pupils can stay at school till 16.10. In this case they have to pay a fee. 36. Do your primary/secondary students have homework to do? Every day? How long do you think it takes them to do their homework for the next day? Pupils at primary school have only something to read or study during the week (it takes 1 or 2 hours). At the weekend they usually have some homework too (it takes 3 or 4 hours). At secondary school they have homework on subjects to study everyday (it takes about 4 or 5 hours). 37. Do your students have compulsory uniforms? Not in our school. Schools can decide whether to have one or not.
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38. How many students are there in a class? They are about 22/23 pupils per class. Primary school classes cannot have more than 28 pupils per class. 39. Do your students buy their school supplies or is everything given by the city hall/school? The government pays only for the books in primary school. 40. Are there extra-curricular activities and clubs in your schools? No. 41. How many hours a day/week do you (teachers) work? Teachers work 22 hours a week with pupils and 2 hours without pupils. 42. How are teachers hired in schools? Are you hired by the school head teacher directly or by the Inspectorate, through exams? Teachers are hired by the local education authority.

This is an example of timetable of pupils in the fifth class of primary school. MONDAY 8.10-9.10 9.10-10.10 10.30-11.30 11.30-12.30 12.30-14.10 14.10-15.10 15.10-16.10
HISTORY HISTORY ITALIAN ITALIAN LUNCH MATHS MATHS

TUESDAY
MATHS MATHS RELIGION RELIGION LUNCH GEOGRAPHY GEOGRAPHY

WEDNESDAY
ITALIAN ITALIAN MUSIC ENGLISH LUNCH SCIENCE SCIENCE

THURSDAY
ITALIAN ITALIAN
ART/ENGLISH* ART/ENGLISH*

FRIDAY
PHISICAL EDUCATION MATHS ITALIAN ITALIAN / / /

LUNCH MATHS MATHS

* The class is divided into 2 groups and they do 1 art class with a teacher and 1 English class with another teacher
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BRITISH EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM

1. When do you start and finish your school year? Around September 4th to July 20th. 2. How many weeks of school are there in a school year in your country? 39 weeks. 3. Do you have mid-term holidays? If yes, when? 1 week at the end of October, 1 week in mid to end of February, 1 week at the end of May/beginning of June (as well as 2 weeks at Christmas and Easter, and 6 weeks for summer) 4. What other holidays do you have and when? A few bank holidays 2 days at Easter if our end of Spring term holiday doesnt coincide with Easter. 1 2 days in May depending on when the half term holiday is. 5. When do you finish school? 3rd week in July. If this is an age question then at age 16 at the moment, but this has now been raised to 18 for pupils who are not 16 within the next 2 years. 6. How is your school year structured: in semesters or trimesters? Write the dates. 6 terms. For school year 2011 to 2012:- 5th Sept to 21st October, 31st October to 16th December, 3rd January to 10th February, 20th February to 31st March, 16th April to June 1st, 11th June to 20th July. 7. What is the structure of your schools: primary, secondary, high school/college, etc. (the compulsory education) and how many years for each? Primary school age 4 to 11, secondary school age 11 to 16 (18), College 16 to 18 (but many pupils decide to stay on in the sixth form of their secondary school) 8. How many subjects do primary/secondary students have? Can you list them all, please, for each class? And how many classes of that subject they study every week? Primary - Literacy (5 lessons), numeracy(5 lessons), science (2 lessons), ICT (1 lesson), PE (2 lessons), RE (1 lesson), Phse (1), geography(1), history(1), art(1), design and technology(1), music(1). Age 7 to 11 also have French for 1 lesson.

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Secondary do all the above plus they do drama as a separate subject, and the separate sciences (biology, chemistry, physics). It depends on the school to what other subjects they teach as technology subjects are usually split into textiles, food, metalwork, woodwork, etc. The curriculum changes after the first 3 years at secondary as they can choose which subjects to continue although they have to have a science, English and maths, and a language at some level. They could choose economics, politics, law, sociology, etc, depending on what each school offers. 9. Who teaches students in primary/secondary school? In primary school the class teacher teaches all subjects to their class. In secondary school they have specialist teachers for each subject. 10. Do you give students marks regularly? We give levels every half term (every 6 weeks). The only other marks they would get would be for spelling or mental maths tests. Work is marked daily against the success criteria given to the children and comments made on how to improve their work/what their next step in learning is. 11. Do all students pass the class every year? Even if they dont learn at all? Do you flunk students? In what situations? Our pupils move up to the next year group purely on age not ability. 12. How do you evaluate your students? We have a class book in which we must give students 2/3/4 marks per semester (depends on the number of hours they study that subject per week) and then, at the end of the semester we make the average mark. For example if a student has a 7, a 9 and an 8, the average is 8 for the first semester. The same thing happens in the second semester, lets say the average is 9, and at the end of the year a student has a final mark, which is 8, 50. These final marks are used to establish the order of the students in a class at the end of the year and the prizes they take. Is there a marking system in your schools? No. We use a type of skills tracking system called APP (assessing pupil progress). Their work is assessed against expected criteria for each level and a level/grade given. We highlight the grids to show what each child has achieved so we can see what level they are on and what they need to work on next to improve/gain the next level. It would be easy to rank children by ability this way (and we do for class groupings), but its the amount of progress made that is seen as really important, rather than who has the very highest level. The levels are entered into a system called target tracker so we can compare data in different ways, and identify target groups.

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13. When do your students have exams and what type are they? What subjects do they study for the exams? We have end of key stage exams in Years 2 (age 7) and 6 (age 11) in writing, reading and maths. Years 3, 4 and 5 also do exams in writing, reading and maths. 14. What time do students start school in the morning? How many hours a day do the students stay in schools? Do you have lunch at school? We start at 8:40am and go home at 3:10pm. Lunch is between 12:10 and 1:10pm. 15. Do your primary/secondary students have homework to do? Every day? How long do you think it takes them to do their homework for the next day? Up to age 11 children get homework once a week, although they are expected to read at least 3 times a week. They get spellings to learn and 1 piece of literacy and maths homework. It depends on the age to how long it should take. From age 4 to 7 it would be about half an hour for each bit. From ages 7 to 11 it would be up to one hour. Secondary pupils (age 11 and above) get about 2 or 3 hours of homework a night, but this can depend on which school you attend. All secondary school pupils would have at least one piece of homework each night. 16. Do your students have compulsory uniforms? Uniform is not actually compulsory for ages 4 to 11, but most wear it. compulsory at secondary school. 17. How many students are there in a class? This can vary up to 30 in KS1 (ages 4 to 7). Classes can be more than 30 in key stage 2 (7 to 11) but its not common in our school. Our classes vary between 25 and 30. 18. Do your students buy their school supplies or everything is given by the city hall/school? Everything is supplied from the school budget. 19. Are there extra-curricular activities and clubs in your schools? Yes 20. How many hours a day/week do you (teachers) work? 5 hours a day at school (Im not including lunch hour). Probably averaging another 2 hours a night at home for most teachers so around 35 hours. 21. How are teachers hired in schools? Are you hired by the school head teacher directly or by the Inspectorate, through exams? It is

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If its an ordinary class teacher position or a middle management position then the Head teacher can interview and appoint. If its for a leadership position then the interview panel has to include members of the local education authority.

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'What's outside your window?' is a Comenius project involving 8 schools from European countries. Each partner school will explore the 'great outdoors', encouraging pupils to be more active, whilst being involved in intercultural dialogue about their environment and culture. Activities will include such things as describing the view from their window, comparing typical plants and creatures, investigating pollution, sharing traditional myths and legends, orienteering games and gardening.

This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This publication reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.

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