Paide Hillar Hanssoo Basic School
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We are a basic school with 424 students and 40 teachers, 10 board members and supporting staff. Our school is in Paide which is a small town and called the heart of Estonia. Its population is approx. 8 000. We have new schoolhouse with modern equipment and IT-means. Approx. 15% of our students are SEN-students and 8% of our students are non-native. Our school considers important ability to speak foreign languages and ability to use IT-means and different online programmes. We value diversity and different ways to learn and teach. Our school is focused on preventing bullying and supporting students’ mental health. We strongly believe that students must have equal opportunities to succeed in life and making career choices.
Team members:
- Helena Saar
Position in Organization: headteacher
Master's degree in educational sciences. She has been a class teacher and now working as a headteacher she focuses more on developing our schoolteachers’ skills in regarding to ever changing educational world. She tries to find new schoolings and programmes to improve different skills needed in today’s school. She was part of the team Erasmus+ project which won the EITA (European Innovative Teaching Award) in 2021. - Liina Lehis
Position in Organization: teacher
Master's degree in educational science and has experience with SEN-students and non-native students. Liina has experience with several Erasmus projects. She is interested in studying and creating LMS-programmes which would benefit teachers and students in general. - Diana Valtin
Position in Organization: teacher
She has a master's degree in educational science and has experience with SEN-students, non-native and talented students. Diana has experience with several Erasmus projects. As a mother of two daughters, she would like her daughters in the future to have the same career opportunities as boys. - Kersti Kivisoo
Position in Organization: headmistress
MSc in Math and in IT. She has more than 20 years of experience in working as a math and IT teacher. Her goal is to provide high-quality education and to solve educational problems based on scientific studies. She would like teachers and students to have better access to IT-related knowledges and skills.
Why we are Participating in the Project
We would like to be leaders in ICT and methods, but we have noticed that it is mostly boys who take part in programming in Python, robotics and technology-related activities. We would like to raise awareness and popularity of STEM-education among girls. Our teachers would also benefit from this project by learning new IT-related teaching methods and programmes to use. Teachers and students learn better via practical experiments and solving challenges. Project gives an opportunity to upskill personal development, language learning, job training, computer literacy skills and mental health. Teachers and students are eager to participate in different projects. Our school development plan has set a goal for three years to develop IT-skills among students and teachers. It is also one of the aims in Erasmus+ accreditation which we achieved in 2023. Most of Estonian teachers are women and majority of them might still think and believe that men are better using IT-technology. We would like to raise awareness and change the stereotype.
Our Role in the Project
What is your organization contributing to the project? Which parts of the project is it contributing to? Please avoid project-speak. Explain your role to an external with no knowledge of the project. Our part of the project is to involve parents and specialists in Estonia and develop cooperation. In addition, we create educational materials (text material, videos, control tests) and translate our own and partner-created educational materials into Estonian. We create an LMS environment, organize seminars and internal training days in Estonia. In addition, there is cooperation with partners (project partners and the community).
