- Architecture & Structured Environment
The project attempts through a series of educational activities, specifically adapted to the educational needs and characteristics of adolescence, to lay the foundations for the understanding of the built environment as a complex dynamic ecosystem that is in a constant state of change and evolution. The main objective of the project is to introduce high school students to the aspects of the built and natural environment and the two-way relationship between the two. In parallel, children will be introduced to the basic concepts of architecture, such as space, shapes, materials, which will also be related to broader concepts such as ecology, sustainability and construction. At the same time, an understanding of the basic principles that govern it in all its scales will be an important asset, so that they will be able to avoid stereotypical perceptions that have been formed over time and do not correspond to contemporary reality.
- Art and Mathematics
Mathematics and art in general, although considered two separate fields of human activity, can nevertheless be combined to produce creations that are a remarkable mixture of impressive complexity and stunning beauty. An artist-painter, like a scientist-mathematician, uses lines, circles, triangles, abstract orbits with which to describe the ‘reality’ he is studying. Such an approach will be followed in this interdisciplinary programme, in the context of which secondary school students will deal with concepts of geometry used by painters from the Renaissance to the present day in order to create their paintings. They will come into contact with works by artists such as Leonardo da Vinci, Dürer, Kandinsky, Malevich, and Mondrian, among others, and will seek to realize that art and mathematics are in constant feedback while becoming familiar with mathematical concepts taught in junior high school. In this way, they will realize that Mathematics is everywhere, they will gain a deeper understanding of mathematical concepts, cultivate their aesthetic education and perception, and showcase their creativity by utilizing mathematical concepts to paint their own paintings.
- Bringing Nobel Prize Physics in the Classroom
FRONTIERS is a project funded by the European Union’s Erasmus+ programme and aims to address the challenges of cutting-edge research in physics in the classroom, bringing together researchers and educational institutions from all over Europe. The project involves schools from Greece, France, Ireland, Italy, France, Ireland and Portugal. Fundamental discoveries such as that of gravitational waves or the Higgs boson can be integrated into school practice in an understandable way. Students will be able to visit CERN or VIRGO virtually, analyse real experimental data and talk to the protagonists of the most modern discoveries in physics. FRONTIERS (www.frontiers-project.eu) is a European initiative that aims to explore how Nobel Prize level physics can be systematically introduced into school reality with educational activities taking place at European level, innovative educational materials and appropriate pedagogical tools. FRONTIERS is a consortium of research and educational institutions from Greece (Hellenic-Germanic Education, Institute of Accelerated Systems and Applications of the National Research Centre for Physics and Technology (NUEPA-EMP), Italy (European Gravitational Observatory – EGO and the VIRGO gravitational wave detection experiment), Ireland (Dublin City University), France (Paris Centre for Cosmological Physics) and Portugal (NUCLIO).
- Entrepreneurship Education Program: “Entrepreneurship for Kids”
Puzzles, imagination and mystery are key elements of the educational program “Entrepreneurship for Kids” which has as its main goal the introduction of children to the basic principles of entrepreneurship. Students become members of a company and learn through collaboration, proper time management, goal setting and presentation skills in technological media to plan, evaluate and redesign their product through an interactive approach to knowledge to solve realistic corporate problems. The program is delivered in collaboration with the Growth Mindset team executives (https://www.growthmindset.gr). The transition from a theoretical approach to business thinking to its practical application helps to develop critical thinking, reasoning and evaluation of the available alternatives to choose the most appropriate one. The activities of the programme are structured to lead to the implementation of an idea in a way that references realistic methods of operating start-up businesses. The aim on completion of the programme is for children to build their own business product and to be motivated to develop a “Growth Mindset”, where intelligence equates to a process of continuous effort and improvement through exposure to key pillars of entrepreneurship and soft skills required by the modern business world.
- Natural environment: Education – Awareness – Participation
At a time when environmental problems are becoming more and more threatening, the Education Organisation has to support tomorrow’s citizens so that they can protect the planet, our home. At the Kotronis Schools, environmental education is a matter of integrated education and culture. This project aims to raise the awareness of high school students on the concept of sustainable development while at the same time aiming at extending the ecological messages to the rest of society. In the framework of the project, an official cooperation with the environmental organization MEDASSET, which since 1988 has been active in the protection of the marine environment in the Mediterranean, is initiated. At the same time, we host environmental experts at the school, participate in competitions and implement experiential activities that take a multifaceted approach to the most powerful environmental concept, respect! At the Kotronis Schools we believe that nature and the environment, once associated with experience and observation, today need to be taught to new generations from the beginning.
Because no one can protect what they do not know!
- Educational Robotics
Educational Robotics is an innovative educational program based on the educational method S.T.E.M. (Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics) and offers multiple benefits in the educational process. It combines the basic principles of science, technology, engineering and mathematics to create robotic structures. Students’ construction projects “come to life” after being programmed with specific commands related to specific programming languages, via computer or tablet, giving children the satisfaction of applying computing to fully functional and integrated creations by enhancing their critical thinking.
Educational Robotics is a powerful and flexible learning instruction that promotes self-esteem, self-confidence, creativity and teamwork among participants.
- Informatics & New Technologies
The use of New Technologies and the integration of the STEM philosophy into the everyday life of the school aims to give our students all the tools to understand and delve into the new terms that the digital age has introduced into our language. Our students have the opportunity to certify their computer skills with diplomas (Diploma in IT Skills) recognised by the State and of international validity. The teaching of Computer Science is done in a cutting edge laboratory, while training in new technologies through innovative educational programs (such as Code Writing and Robotics with basic concepts of commands, algorithms and motions) provides our students with a broader view of technology and prepares them through the acquired Digital Skills for the digital world in which they will live.
In the Junior High School, the teaching of Computer Science has a clear laboratory orientation and aims at cultivating learning skills and learning programming languages that lead to the familiarization of students with the basic tools of computer science and their various applications. This encourages an interactive computer-student relationship and fosters students’ autonomous development. The educational activities designed by the Department of Computer Science and New Technologies for students have a spiral approach and seek to be of graduated difficulty, aiming at the combined development of technical, cognitive and social skills in order to solve problems both through the curriculum and from social life. Also at this level is the formal certification of basic IT Skills through official recognition bodies.
- Theatre Workshop
The Theatrical Workshop seeks to bring our students through active educational techniques in experiential contact with ancient drama and our cultural heritage. Through their participation, students embark on an exciting journey into ancient drama through a contemporary perspective, which seeks to creatively and experientially engage them in the contemporary presentation of ancient drama. The method used is student-centred and group collaborative, with an emphasis on the collectivé invention of the performance process. The thematic programme is structured on the basis of the characteristics of the age group of junior high school students.
- Journalism Club
Through the Journalism Group, students will learn about new forms of journalism and the relationship of technologies to it. They will come into contact with media people and professional journalists with expertise in their field. They will learn how to “set up” a newspaper page and through the creation of their own digital edition, students will get exclusive interviews and act as real reporters with a code of ethics. The group’s goal and vision is for our students, tomorrow’s citizens of modern society, to learn to think freely, freely, originally and to work collectively. To familiarize themselves with basic concepts and knowledge, so that they can judge correctly, control online and printed content, as well as information circulated on the internet, social media and the media. Children will understand the above terms and how they are incorporated into news content and will be asked to create their own content in order to use the above knowledge within their own production. Moving therefore from theory to practice, our students in the role of a journalist, publish their articles on the Journalism Blog on our school’s website , thus gaining satisfaction for their effort and confidence for their next projects.
- Clubs
They are part of the Basic Curriculum and as an institution contribute to the development of the students’ particular abilities and aptitudes. Our students have the opportunity to choose the activity they wish from a variety of subject areas such as Photography, Visual Arts, Modern Dance, Orchestra etc. The originality of the Clubs, apart from the possibility for students to choose the subject matter that really interests them and to develop their inclinations and talents, also lies in the coexistence of students from different classes in small groups.
- Physical Science
Through Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Technology and Geography, students cultivate their critical thinking, creativity and learn to recognise the relationship between science, technological developments and quality of life. At the same time, they understand and deepen their understanding of the curriculum and prepare themselves for the requirements of high school. The experiential approach combined with the inquiry method is applied in their teaching. The laboratory-based teaching of these courses, which is carried out in the school’s state-of-the-art laboratories, ensures an experiential and experimental approach to the subject matter, while the linking of the different teaching subjects helps students to understand scientific concepts in order to enhance their interest and motivation to learn.
In secondary school, the educational design of science aims at the acquisition of abstract thinking, a qualitative approach to the interpretation of phenomena (interpretative dimension) and familiarisation with scientific methodology, gradually introducing students to quantitative relationships and mathematical formalism. In this way, the aim is to transform students’ mental models – structures – to make them more compatible with scientific ones, mainly by causing changes in their way of thinking without being mere cognitive and superficial additions.
- Physical Education & Sports
The balanced and harmonious development of mind and body is a basic principle of our School. Sport is an integral part of school life and is supported by qualified teachers of physical education and coaching, as well as by the corresponding excellent material and technical infrastructure that we have in our Schools. Our programme leads to the systematic learning of the technique of a multitude of team and individual sports. Moreover, our students are given the opportunity to put their skills into practice through participation in internal championships and inter-school competitions and thus experience the joy of their efforts.
Physical Education includes Football, Basketball, Swimming, Handball, Volleyball, Dance, walks and exercise in nature as well as muscle strengthening programmes, aiming to optimise the students’ physical and motor fitness.
- Foreign Languages
The main axis of the teaching techniques studied in foreign language learning is the promotion of the concepts of literacy, multilingualism and multiculturalism, in order for students to understand that a foreign language is not only useful for communication between people with different ways of thinking and speaking, but also for the reception and management of information from different fields of knowledge.
English is the basic foreign language of the junior high school and is taught with additional teaching hours from the schedule set by the Ministry of Education. Students are divided into Competency Levels in order to ensure homogeneity of the group and to organise the preparation for certification diplomas effectively according to each student’s personal pace. In this context, students are prepared for the examinations to obtain certified language diplomas, and English-speaking teachers are involved in the teaching process. The Mock Test also gives students the opportunity to test their skills under real exam conditions.
The second foreign language – French or German – is also taught intensively with additional teaching hours and the aim of obtaining certified language diplomas. Similarly, in the second foreign language, too, a mock test is carried out. Modern textbooks and innovative pedagogical methods are used in teaching, including rich supervisory material and the use of New Technologies.
- Math
Mathematical thinking is of primary importance at the Junior High School and is taught in a way that highlights Mathematics as the primary expression of human reasoning, as an analytical and compositional skill, as a basis for the study of other sciences and as a tool for solving problems of everyday life. Mathematics comprises two (2) branches: a. Algebra and b. Geometry. With textbooks curated by the Mathematics Department of the Schools, they are taught in all classes in parallel but in separate lessons. Through their teaching, the organization of the student’s way of thinking is systematically and methodically achieved, an element necessary for his general cultivation and for dealing with problems, and not only in the context of the course. The aim is to free students from the fear of mathematics, to familiarise them with all forms and levels of mathematical reasoning and to develop a solid knowledge base, necessary to continue with good performance in the demanding level of mathematics in high school.
- European & International Programs
The main objective of the Department is to prepare the students of the Modern Kotronis Schools for their decisive role as active and conscious citizens of tomorrow, in order to be successful in a global environment, as it is shaped nowadays. Our desire is to broaden the horizons of the students and to adapt to the demands of the modern Internationalist society. With this in mind, the Department of International & European Programmes encourages the participation of our school’s students in a variety of European and international programmes with the aim of:
- broadening the human experience through student and teacher travels to other countries
- the practice of students and teachers in a variety of scientific fields
- broadening the visual representations, knowledge and skills that students acquire through informal learning during contact and communication in new cultural contexts
- strengthening cultural and linguistic identity in the context of a multicultural society
- developing students’ ability to work in teams and to use their knowledge and skills to achieve collective goals
- the learning of foreign languages and the cultivation of cultural and social skills that take students out of the microworld of the school setting.
The Department’s activities include :
- Cultural activities with educational partners from abroad to promote customs and traditions.
- Research activities.
- Organising and participating in conferences.
- Establishing a stable network of communication with research centres, institutes, educational institutions and organisations.
- Student-teacher exchange programmes.
- Taking collective initiatives and decisions on social issues.
