Hiiumaa Gümnaasium

The aim of our school is to educate active, well-organised European citizens who value the national and the European heritage. Besides academic progress Hiiumaa Gymnasium has focused on international projects, students´ exchange, sports, music, art and showdance to offer more activities for young people. In our school we have strong bases for learning foreign languages. A hobby group is considered as one selective subject course. During the years 2000 till 2016 (former Kärdla Ühisgümnaasium) we have participated in more than 21 different European projects. Youth exchanges foster the mobility of young people in Europe. They encourage initiative and creativity of youth, facilitate their active participation in project work, and thereby provide an intercultural learning experience. Youth exchanges and projects will allow them to have a greater understanding of the social, cultural and educational life in other countries, and therefore to suggest solutions for the future based on acquired knowledge and experience. They help to improve communication in a foreign language, teamwork and self-confidence. In our school we appreciate basic values and they are written in our agreement. Our aim is to record and preserve our national heritage, protect and promote the life and culture of the small islands and offer opportunities for young people to make new s and share their ideas with the other European youth. We have written projects and organized international language camps on our island with young people from Latvia, Lithuania, Sweden and Finland (). Our students have learned about national heritage, environment, culture of different countries and worked in collaboration with our local museum. Our students introduced our school, our island and Estonian educational system. From 2004 to 2015 we were involved in Youth in Action, Comenius and Erasmus+ projects altogether more than 22 different ones. Comenius projects have been also www.globalsolutions.eu () that involved 10 countries and “P.O.E.T.R.Y“, “Literature Live” with 9 countries. The project “Literature Live” has been awarded with a prestigious award The European Language Label (ELL). This award encourages new initiatives in the field of teaching and learning languages, the rewarding of new techniques in language teaching and spreading the knowledge of languages' existence, thereby promoting good practice. we had a project "Life is as project, be an entrepreneur, make it successful". we had a Erasmus+ project" Understaning and critical media literacy", 2019- 2022 Erasmus+ project " Music doesn´t need to know any languages". The ongoing projects are Erasmus+ project „Circular Economy-save Money and the Planet” and Nordplus project „Alice in Digi-land”. Our students and teachers have a long experience in International project work. We have hosted several project meetings and we are the coordinators for the last project. At school we have 7-8 teachers who take part in project work. When we had a project then we always found something interesting for all students and teachers who wanted to participate. Our teachers are creative, responsible and many of them have started their own projects and write applications themselves. People involved more directly in this project are also those who are responsible for the promotion of the school projects and have already a long experience in this area. They are fluent in English and have got very good computer skills associated with a deep knowledge of all cultural heritage issues. On the other hand they have experience managing Erasmus plus projects.