Tartu Veeriku School
The 17. Primary School of Tartu was founded on the 1. of September in 1987 as a bilingual school where 528 students started studying, 93 of them had Russian as their first language. In the beginning, there were 29 teachers. The first headmaster of the school was Valentina Ritsing and her substitute was Reet Pärn.
September 1., 1992 brought a big change – the students who had Russian as their first language left for the Puškin Gymnasium. With Russian influence leaving the school, the study language stayed as only Estonian. The school was renamed Tartu Veeriku Kool. The number of students decreased to 524.
Since 2004. the school has been run by headmaster Ruth Ahven and deputy Carmen Luts. The reorganization of Tartu’s school web has caused the number of students to increase: 2013. – 424 students, 2016. – 619 students. This has also increased the number of teachers. A lot of new classrooms that have been renovated to support modern studying have been taken into use.
From 1994, there have been English biased classes. Since the autumn of 2010, all the first graders learn English by playing, singing and crafting. Starting from the third grade, English is taught in level groups that vary in difficulty. Studying the second foreign language starts from the fourth grade and beginning with the seventh grade, it is possible to learn German, but the student’s parent or guardian has to pay for it.
In grades 7.-9., mathematics is also taught in different level groups. We try to support the students interest in the environment and nature with excursions and projects. From 2007 to 2015, e-Kool has been used as the study web, but from 2015 we have been using Studium. Since 2008. we have been a part of the group of health improving schools. In 2011 our school achieved the first place in the University of Tartu’s Centre of Ethics’ competition. In 2014, we earned the title ’Good school as bullying free school of 2014’. Our school is also the winner of Samsung Digipööre 2015.
We try to keep balance between the use of digital things and developing students creativity, self-expression and communication skills. We move from subject central learning to subject matter, integrating subjects and supporting them reach general competence. For the first classes we give verbal ratings for the learning results proceeding the school programme requirement.
All of our school graduates continue learning in different gymnasiums or vocational training centres.
Students have accomplished first places in regional Physics, Science, Chemics and mother tounge competitions, History quizzes, on different sport competitions and creativity competitions. Our school and Estonian country have successfully represented the republical and International Physics and Science competition.
A well-functioning school system has to support their individuality. There are no class course repeaters and the number of school duty deniers are taken to a minimum. The percentage of educational success has stayed cheerfully high for 5 years - 52-58%. High attention is paid to hobbies, what supports completing the programme and it gives the students different chances for self-fullfilment. The most popular ones are robotics, handicrafts, folk dance, choral singing, acting, hall hockey and acrobatics. In school you can engage in basketball, volleyball, soccer and participate in athletics. Chess competitions are also popular. The school newspaper gives out a newspaper „Ninatark“ once a semester. Most of our hobbies get directed by our teachers. It is a priceless value, because outside lesson work, doing something together creates bonds, which are rarely reached in lessons. For the school, it is important that teamwork with home bares the same value. We follow school values when we make school traditions. Public ceremonies, subject weeks, meetings and other cooperative events (hiking days in autumn, celebrating Father's day with fathers and grandfathers, Citizen's day meeting, the Christmas play, the Republic anniversary meeting, the spring concert made for Mother's day and so on.) create a family feeling. Primary school students don't only gain good knowledge from Veeriku School but also the experience of leading and taking responsibility. Tartu Veeriku School is child friendly and here, you will get a comprehensive preparation for future life in every way.
