1. uu
NEWSPAPER OF VALGU BASIC SCHOOL
U hH
ENGLISH SPECIAL NR 1 DECEMBER 2009
About our village and school Some topics in
Mery Kodavere the outlet:
Valgu village is situated in West Estonia The manor, first mentioned in 1284, has
and it belongs to the Märjamaa Municipality belonged to the noble German families of
in Raplamaa county. In Valgu there live on- von Budberg, von Staal, von Uexküll and Comenius 2
ly about 300 people. There is a school and Pilar von Pilchau. The classical two-storey
kindergarten, a post office, library, a doc- main building, constructed around the year
tor’s office, a shop and a culture centre for 1820, was burnt down in 1905 during a Events 3
different activities such as folk dance, choir rebellion of Estonian peasants against
singing, acting and table tennis. German feudal lords.
School clothes 4
The manor was restored without the por-
ticos. Today the building houses a school. Form one 5
In the current school we have 59 students, Crossword 6
15 teachers and 9 other employees. In the
same building we also have a kindergarten
with 19 children. Our school life is really co-
lourful, we have different activities through-
out a year which make learning much more
interesting.
Village school in the 19th century
The first Valgu parish school
was founded in 1847. It was 1.5
km to the west of the present
HAPPY
schoolhouse. HOLIDAYS
AND A
In 1881 a small village school SUCCESSFUL
was established in Valgu. There
were six classes until 1941. NEW YEAR!
After that the school moved to Wishes the
Valgu manor house.
editorial team of
UHHUU
Valgu Basic School today
You can also have a look at our website:
http://www.valgupk.edu.ee/
Valgu manor in the 19th century
2. PAGE 2 WHAT HAPPENS
Comenius— friendship between countries
Kristel Põlluvee
four teachers. They were here a cou-
ple of days and I hope they enjoyed
it. They showed us slides about their
hometown and their country and gave
us some sweets - licorices.
At the beginning of the present school
year some of our teachers spent five
days in Austria. They were there five
days and during this time in Valgu we
had to work outside. Unfortunately
the weather was quite bad and we
worked only one day because the
weather was rainy.
As the final product we have to make
a movie during this school year. It
takes a long time, but I think we will
Writing Christmas cards per and could draw on it. A couple of like it because we have a quite scary
Last year our school joined a Co- times I did some crosswords and school - we have our own school
menius project called Be proud of talked to Agnes and Kristin. ghost. A previous student of Valgu
your region - sell it! There are four School, Evelin Sedrik, is helping us.
In Finland students from each coun-
schools from different countries - try saw our presentations and after At the end of this school year we are
Estonia, Finland, Turkey and Aust- that we got some presents. One day welcoming students and teachers
ria - taking part in it. At the begin- we went to a small trip by bus in Ku- from Turkey, Austria and Finland to
ning we made postcards to every opio and surroundings. There was a Valgu. We will gather for the final
school. All students were participat- lot of snow and the weather was meeting and watch our movies to-
ing. We asked each class to make quite cold. gether.
five cards and we were surprised Anyway, I like this project very much.
At the end of the last school year
that they made more than we
some Finns from our partner school
needed. Our partner schools also
were in Valgu: three students and
sent us more Christmas cards than
we expected. The Turkish school
even made Christmas cards for
every student and teacher.
In February 2009 we went to Finland
for three days. There were Kristel
and Agnes from form eight and Kris-
tin from form four with teachers Ms
Kodavere and Mrs Burmeister.
Every student stayed at some stu-
dent’s in Kuopio. I was at Ida’s.
Ida was in form six. We woke up at
8 o’clock. Then we got dressed and
had breakfast. After that we went to
school. On the first day Ida’s mother
brought us. Later we went on foot. It
was about 1 km away from Pirtti
school. Every class had their own
classroom and had most of their
lessons there. Most of the time I just
listened, sometimes I got some pa-
Presentation of the slide show
3. WHAT HAPPENS 3 PAGE
Events in our school
Mery Kodavere
Many different events take place du - At the beginning of November our
ring a school year in Valgu Basic school celebrates its birthday. This
School. First of all, when we come to year it was the 68th and we had some
school on the first of September, we guests from another school who
gather in the hall and have a festive danced and made music for us. They
ceremony. The oldest students, the did it really well.
ninth form, lead the first-formers to
their seats. The headteacher gives
them their first ABC books and later After that, the Advent week begins
everybody can congratulate the and before going home for winter
youngest school members. After the holidays we have a Christmas party
ceremony we meet our class teachers, at our school too.
get the books and go home.
The school year finishes with the last
Usually there is a sports day in every schoolbell for the form nine. On that
term – four times altogether. On these day our oldest students come to
days students have only a couple of school as they were in form one. Girls
Mrs Oisalu as a wizard
wear laces in the hair and boys
walk around in breeches. After
the final examinations there is a
ceremony in honour of
graduates who are given their
leaving certificates and a lot of
flowers.
Generally, I think it is great to
have such an active school
where children not only study,
but have fun too.
Christmas party
lessons and after that there are
various competitions outside the
school. There are competitions for
everyone: racing in different distances,
ballthrow, skiing and many others. In
winter boys even play hockey on the
pond.
In the month of October our student
government organizes a style week.
Then each day has a topic of distinct
clothing style: characters of fairy tales,
professions, different materials or
gender exchange putting on other
clothes. In the mornings, it is
interesting to come to school without
knowing how your schoolmates will
look like with another style.
Sports day
4. PAGE 4 COMENIUS
School clothes
Lisettt-Marleen Tänav
There is no school uniform at Valgu
school. It is good because, in my opi-
nion, school uniforms are very ugly.
We like to choose our clothes by
ourselves. The only rule on dressing
we have says that it cannot be body
revealing. Clothes have to be clean
and decent too, it is understandable.
Our school students like comfortable
clothes with simple style, such as
jeans and T-shirts. At the festive
events, we need to be formally dres-
sed. Teachers are usually dressed
formally every day.
How is the situation with clothing in
our partner schools? To find it out, I
asked some questions to the students
of our partner schools in Austria
(Patrick) and Turkey (Selin and
Seyma).
Students in our Turkish partnerschool
I found out that, generally, in Austria there is no obligation
to wear special kinds of clothes at school, it means that in
HAK/HAS Oberpullendorf there are no rules on clothing
either. In Turkey, the students have to wear an uniform
at school. Most of them do not like it. The Turkish Minis-
try of Education says it is necessary, but Selin and
Seyma question if it is really beneficial. They believe that
we should be free to decide, it means free to wear what-
ever we want and it does not matter how we look. Al-
though both girls wear the school uniform every day,
they are actually against it.
Patrick personally thinks that a school uniform is useful
to show that all pupils are connected to each other and
Students in Valgu school
there is a sense of a united school community.
Another immense advantage could be that
through wearing a school uniform, all pupils are
equal and so there is no visible difference
between the rich and poor. It makes students
feel more disciplined, too. Selin’s opinion is also
that if you have to wear a uniform, you do not
have to think about what to wear next day, so
you spend a little bit less time on your appear-
ance.
The graduation ball in our Austrian partnerschool
5. FORM ONE 5 PAGE
Interview with form one
Märt Lõhmus
I did this interview for the English become firefighters, Rando and What is your favourite book?
lesson. When I questioned the stu- Sander Silm would like to become Most of the boys in form one like car
dents, they had attended school for soldiers. Markus wants to become a magazines. Only Markus likes the
seven weeks. I made the question- forester, Kristjan a policeman, Kaidi ABC book, Kristjan the book about
ing list and Mrs Riismaa asked them. a doctor and Arti a truck driver. tractors and Arti’s favourites are
colouring books.
It was educative for me too because
I found out their names. This year's What subject don’t you like?
class was bigger than the one of the Most of the students in form one do Do you have any pets?
previous year. Last year there were not like art and music. Kadi, Kaidi,
Kristjan and Rainer do not like art; Kadi and Rainer have rabbits. All the
Mehis, Valter and Andres, this year
Arti, Kristjan and Rainer do not like others have dogs.
there are two girls Kadi and Kaidi
and seven boys: Arti, Kristjan, music. Markus and Rando do not
Sander Silm, Markus, Rando, like natural science.
What is your favourite colour?
Sander Tänav and Rainer. The aver-
The most popular colour is black and
age age of form one is seven.
What is your hobby? the most unpopular colours are blue
Football is the most popular hobby in and brown. Sander Silm’s, Rainer’s
What is your favourite subject?
form one. Arti’s and Markus’s hobby and Kristjan’s favourite colour is
The most common favourite subject
is dodgeball. Arti’s , Kristjan’s, black. Rando’s and Sander Tänav’s
in form one is PE. PE is Arti’s,
Rando’s and Sander Silm’s hobby is favourite colour is white. Markus
Kristjan’s, Sander Silm’s and Kaidi’s
football. Kaidi’s hobby is orienteering prefers brown, Kadi yellow and Arti
favourite subject. Kadi’s favourite
and Sander Silm’s bike tricks. blue.
subject is music, Markus’s is
computers, Rainer’s is Estonian,
Rando’s is mathematics and Sander What is your favorite food in the
Tänav’s is art. Do you feel well at school?
school canteen?
All the students feel well at school.
Arti’s, Kaidi’s and Rainer’s favourite
Who would you like to become? food in the school canteen is pasta
Rainer and Sander Tänav want to with minced meat.
Rando likes diffe-
rent soups and
Kadi likes fish soup.
Kristjan, Markus
and Sander Silm
think that desserts
are the best food in
the school canteen.
What is your
favourite sport?
The most popular
sport in form one is
football. Sander
Silm likes volleyball
and running, Sander
Tänav likes formula
one.
Form one with their class teacher Mrs Oisalu
6. PAGE 6 CROSSWORD/ EDITORIAL
CROSSWORD You can find the answers on our webpage under ‘töötajad’→ ‘õpetajad’
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1. Who is our English teacher? 9. Who is our Music teacher?
2. Who is our Art teacher? 10. What kind of school do we have?
3. Who is our History teacher? 11. Who is our kindergarten teacher?
4. Who is our Physics teacher? 12. What colour is the second stripe on the
5. Who is our Biology teacher? Estonian flag?
6. Who is our PE teacher? 13. Who is the class teacher of form two?
7. Who is our Estonian teacher? 14. Who is the class teacher of form one?
8. Who is our Mathematics teacher? 15. What is the animal on our coat of arms?
Solution: The official name of our school. 16. Who is our school secretary?
EDITORS
Kristel Põlluvee, Agnes Sõlg, Lisett-Marleen Tänav, Märt Lõhmus, instructor Mery Kodavere
