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The celebration of giving a name of Silesian Piasts took place on 13th October
2004. The representatives of the town, delegations of partner schools from
Germany and Slovakia, pupils, teachers and school workers as well as invited
guests took part in it. The Room of Silesian Piasts, a special place devoted to
history of Piasts and Silesia, was open.
The celebration
was preceded by a two-day Scientific Session dedicated to Piasts and the history
of Silesia and by Piasts’ Run, in which 137 competitors took part.
Director’s Speech
Today we are
having the honour of giving a name to the school. It’s going to be the next step
in development of this young, as for conditions of education in Gliwice,
institution.
In this year we
are celebrating the 15th anniversary of finishing the first phase of
building of the school and issuing a decision about founding Primary School No.
35. Out of chronical duty, I will add that in 1990 Secondary School No. 7 was
set up and the school started functioning as Zespół Szkół Ogólnokształcących No.
4. On 1st September 1999 pupils of Gimnasium No. 7 took part in the
celebration starting the school new year for the first time and on 31st
August 2004 the primary school stopped functioning in a natural way.
The round 15th
annivarsary authorizes me not only to sum up and present achievements but also
makes me reflect: “Haven’t we abandoned the way we stepped on 15 years ago”,
“Have I as a Director been faithful to ideas I had believed then so deeply?”
Every day I am assessed by children, parents, as well as representatives of
municipal and provincial authorities. I am not a right person to make an
assessment. Don’t be afraid, I am not going to bore you with loads of data. Let
me mention a few of our achievements. As the most important I would point out:
·
Subjectivity in treating pupils.
In this school a pupil is the most important, we dedicate to him our knowledge,
energy, free time. There wouldn’t be any pupils without parents and we the
teachers wouldn’t be necessary without the pupils and the parents. We try to
remember about it in our work.
·
Offer of extra classes.
For fifteen years the school has been teeming with life not on five but on six
days a week. I will risk a statement that during the passed 15 years, with an
exception of holiday months, there wasn’t a Saturday without extra classes.
·
Results in subject contests.
For a few years our pupils in summaries concerning work with a talented pupil
have been listed on top places in the town and the province.Today at 5 p. m.
during an annual concert we will thank them, their teachers and parents for
that.
·
Achievements of School Sports Club “Muszkieter”.
Players of the fancing club, which has become self-dependent but is still
connected with school structures, have achieved the greatest of possible
successes. Let me mention gold medal in I World Youth Olimpics in Moscow, titles
of World or Europe Champions, plenty of medals of Championships of Poland.
15 years of
history of the school is not much comparing with 750 years of history of the
town. Maybe that’s why we referred to history applying for giving the school a
name. Therefore let me shortly present the history of Piasts because I don’t
have to justify the choice. We are dealing with descendants of Mieszko I and
Bolesław Chrobry, and the Piast dynasty were creators of Polish state.
Giving the school
a name is a proposal of establishing a standard of educational activities of the
institution. The teachers of Zespół Szkół Ogólnokształcących No. 4 in their
didactic and educational work indicate a need of creating a feeling of
self-identity of pupils, telling more about cultural heritage of the region and
contribution of the region in the history of the nation and the state.
Getting familiar
with the history of Piasts’ reign in Silesia will enable pupils to acquaint with
the difficult history of borderland of Poland, Czech and Germany. The Piasts’
struggle for independence, parting the Silesian Duchy into smaller and smaller
provinces, problems of national awareness, mutual influence of cultures are just
some issues and their analysis can give pupils the view of processes of
creating of a state. The representatives of the Silesian line did not eventually
manage to unite the country but undoubtedly they were the guards of dynastic
tradition. A term “Piasts” appeared for the first time (it is difficult to
believe it now) in Silesia in XVI century. It was a result of great attachment
to a legendary founder of dynasty in leglicko-brzeski circle of Piasts, which is
authenticated by a famous pictorial guide to the kings and Silesian princes in
the castle in Brzeg and paintings from the mausoleum of Piasts in Legnica.
Realization of
the program basics and in particular a section Regional Education – Cultural
Heritage in the Region gives the school specific tasks and contents:
·
Familiarizing with a closer environment and
specificity of our region,
·
Development of patriotic attitudes connected
with identity with regional culture,
·
Development of national identity in aspect of
regional identity,
·
Familiarizing the youth with monuments of
nature and architecture in the region,
·
Getting familiar with chosen elements of
history of the region and its most outstanding representatives.
The realization
of above activities will be more complete on example of life and activities of
Silesian Piasts. The worked out program will enable the usage of above subject
matter on most lessons, as well as extra classes, trips and the school
educational program.
The activities in
this area we have already performed are:
- Adaptation one
of classroom to the Room of Piasts – the school mini-museum,
- Choice of class
patrons,
- Organization of
the interschool scientfic session “ Silesian Piasts - descendants of Mieszko
and Chrobry”,
- Organization of
I Piast Run,
- Trips to the
Museum of Silesian Piasts in Brzeg,
- Organization of
the school contest “Silesian Piasts – patrons of our school”.
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