Secondary School of Gennadi Rodos
Gymnasio Gennadiou (Secondary School of Gennadi) is a public school at a rural area south of Rhodes island. It offers lower and upper general secondary education. The school has 25 teachers and 270 students, aged 12-18.
Although rural, the area has rapid tourism developed in recent years and has attracted many immigrants and Roma families who settle in the area in order to get a job in the hotel industry. As a result the school has learners from different social, financial and cultural backgrounds and has a percentage of 60% of learners coming from different nationalities.
Taking into account the special characteristics of the school, its priorities are
1. Improvement for all students in both school performance and social development. Its goals include improvement of academic performance, personal and professional development of students, intercultural education and career guidance in order to correspond to individual needs of all learners. There are special measures to improve competences and to follow technological developments of our era. Digital culture is integrated in all school strategies adjusting to rapid financial, cultural and technological changes of our time. The school lessons, activities and policies focus on both academic and personal and social skills.
2. The school aims at providing a happy school environment for all students, while supporting special talents. Although Greek national curriculum is very specific, the teachers always organise extra curricular activities that enrich school curriculum, encourage student motivation and follow different pedagogical approaches.
3. Close cooperation with families and community. The school considers that educational work cannot be improved if the status of the students’ families is not improved in a way. The school aims at close cooperation with parents and guardians and organises meetings of parents and students in order to support integration of all different groups. The school tries to focus on art, tradition, food customs and other cultural elements of each group in order to overcome language barriers and to promote a different way of communication among families that do not share the same language. Moreover, the school offers activities and events for the community in cooperation with parents and guardians association. These activities aim to respond to the absence of cultural and social life in the area. The school offers new learning experiences for students and their families such as reading club, first aid club, volunteer club, local magazine clubs, civic competence, digital skills.There are special measures for working with local associations for the promotion of products from local artists and craftsmen. By living around the less touristic areas of the island, there are a lot of cultural projects implemented by the school in order to register local tradition. Maybe the students work cannot be compared to scientific research, but it is the only way to study and register tangible and intangible heritage by locals. Moreover it connects new and old generations and gives new ideas for vocational training and economic growth in the area
4. The school is open to society and authorities. Besides families and local community, we work and learn together with everyone involved in student education (authorities, teachers, school advisors, parents/ guardians) in order to improve school climate. At our school we implement many pilot projects implemented by Directorate of Secondary Education in Dodecanese (public educational authority in the region) that aim to try out, evaluate and apply new educational policies and teaching approaches. There are special projects for immigrants, refugees and Roma students at school and there is an effort to support those students that are not native or not very well received by native students.
European projects to support European citizenship. The school aims at participating in Erasmus plus and other European projects in order to offer the chance to its students and teachers to learn more about other European countries. It is expected that through teacher and students mobilities, through shared work with peers from other countries and through cooperation amongst schools, European identity is reinforced. It is our school priority to be in contact, online and face to face with peers from other European schools and to establish new cooperations.
