1st Gymnasium of Heraklion

Our school, the 1st Junior High School of Heraklion, named ‘Kapetanakeio’, is
located in the center of the city. Built in 1938, on a part of the Venetian Fortification
of Heraklion, it’s the oldest and most historical school of the city. The building has
gone through several reconstructions – in fact, one has recently finished!
Almost 400 13-15-year-old students attend classes A’, B’ and C’ of the school. They
are taught a lot of different subjects, such as Ancient and Modern Greek, History,
Mathematics, Science, Religion and Physical Education, Music and Art and 3
different foreign languages as well : English, German and French. We are experienced
in local history projects. Foreign language teaching and learning is a top priority for
us. The number of teachers is changing. They are about 40 teachers, every year.
In addition, there are or there were football, basketball and volleyball school teams, a
photography club, a newspaper club, a theater and a music club, that organized
successfully performances and concerts at the end of the year, a reading club, and an
environmental club, focus on the Eco mobility in our city.
We have taken part in Comenius projects like the one called “Life” (Local Identities
Forming Europe), for the years 2013-2015, an Erasmus+ KA1 project (2016-18), we
were partner in two Erasmus+ KA2 projects (2018-2020), titled “Demokratie und ihre
Gefaehrdungen and “ Past is Art” . Our last one called “Puzzling Europe has just in
August finished. We were involved in an exchange program/ Schulpartnerschaft
(2016 and 2017) with the German school Albertus-Magnus Gymnasium in
Regensburg, in cooperation with the Greek Foundation in Munich “Palladion”. Our
school participated also in Criss_Horizon 2020 European program, dealing with
digital skills and educational scenarios.
It has been awarded some prizes in European or National contests (for example we
were awarded the “European Language Label” for the educational material in German
“Bekanntschaft mit der Minoischen Zivilisation”, in 2017.)
This state school receives students of great diversity from different social classes and
of different origin. Although the majority of immigrant students, they seem to be
well-integrated into the school community, there are cases in need of help. There are
also students with special needs. The school principal and the teachers try to strike a
balance between all these diversities and the lots of multicultural elements creative
work with their students in a spirit of tolerance respect and co-operation. Through
their participation in European projects we consider we could encourage not only the
above principles but also cultural diversity, sharing knowledge and common
European cultural values. Our students need to be in contact with other students in
order to develop, cultivate their skills, their personality and broaden their intellectual
horizons, enrich their experiences.
The extroversion with which learning, and student culture is addressed allows the
student community to be in constant contact with society not only at local but also
national and international level. The school encourages voluntary activity of students
and teachers as well as development of values and attitudes so that students can
participate as active citizens in society with a European development vision.