Our school hosts about 350 pupils of ages ranging from 6 – 12 years. The primary schools in Greece offer education to their pupils on a six level scale. Therefore , we have six grades, attended by pupils according to their age.:
Grade1 ( Proti): pupils aged 6-7
Grade 2(Theftera): pupils aged 7-8
Grade 3 (triti) : pupils aged 8-9
Grade 4 (tetarti) : pupils aged 9-10
Grade 5 (pempti) : pupils aged 10-11
Grade 6 ( ekti) : pupils aged 11-12
Note: stress where bold
The Primary Education in Greece embraces also Nursery Schools which involve two grades, pre- nursery year and nursery year, with pupils from 4 to 6 years of age. Therefore, the state educational system in Greece at a primary level is as follows:
Each grade in the primary school operates classes up to 24 pupils per class (This is the legal upper limit per pupils per class). If, for example, there are 22 enrolments for say grade two, then one class will be operated for that grade with 22 pupils. However, if there are 28 enrolments for grade 4 for example, then two classes will be operated for that grade with 14 pupils each. Grades are usually separated in two classes per grade with each class hosting about 18 students on average. This is the case with our school as well. We have 6 grades with two classes operating at each grade. This is why schools like ours are called 12 post potentiality schools as they can employ at least 12 teachers.
Lessons start at 8.15 every morning and finish at 12.25 for the first two grades and either at 13.15 or 13.30 according to their daily programme for the upper grades. This is the typical end of the day. However, pupils can remain at school until 4 o’clock in a programme similar to the so called
extra curricula schools operating in the U.K. There, they prepare their assigned work for the next working day and apart from this they are taught English, Physical Education, Arts or Computers on a weekly basis. There is a break at 2 o’clock for lunch. The pupils’ stay at the all day school is optional. Although the extra curricula schools were initially desighned to have an educational orientation , this is not really the case, as there are instances where this is the one way solution for parents who cannot pick their children at 1.30 p.m. , when the morning shift of the school ends.
The staff of the school consist of teachers of Primary Education who teach the majority of subjects, like Language, Maths, Geography, Physics, Religious Education, Social and Civil Education. In other words there is no a Maths teacher or a Language teacher. There are teachers oriented at a specific educational field , and these are: The teacher of English, French, German or Italian, the teacher of Physical Education and the teacher of Music. English as a foreign language is tought to students from grade 3 and above , while a second foreign language is tought to grades 5 and 6 and students can choose either French, German or Italian.
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Athens Time