Osnovna šola Dobje (Dobje Elementary school), which also includes a preschool, is a small countryside school located in the middle of Kozjansko region near Celje in Slovenia. The school was renovated in June 1999.
Our town
Dobje is a small town near Celje and is the smallest municipality in Slovenia. It has a population of around 1,000 people. Its size is 17.5 km2. There are some public buildings: a municipal administration, a post office, our school and kindergarten, a fire station, a hunting lodge, a cultural center, a parish church, a shop, and a restaurant.
The school
Our school is a modern equipped public institution with professionally qualified employees. The school provides preschool and basic (primary) education for learners aged from 1 to 15 years. There are around 200 learners and 40 staff members, including teachers.
Besides qualitative learning materials, all the employees make significant efforts to maintain good relationships and build on quality communication among all – students, parents, themselves, and external partners.
Strong areas of our school
We are interested in developing future and critical-thinking competencies for learners from the age of 3 to 15. Furthermore, strong areas of our organization are culture, continuation of tradition, taking care of our health, movement, sports, gardening, beekeeping, use of specific ICT tools in everyday life, coding, early years language acquisition, ecology, and entrepreneurship. Our school is the first Microsoft primary school in Slovenia and has been awarded with the national Innovative Teaching Award – Priznanje Blaža Kumerdeja – for promoting new teaching and learning practices.
Learners with learning disabilities and talented learners
We put special emphasis on supporting children with learning disabilities and disorders and talented and gifted learners at the same time. We offer after-class activities to work with the learners who are willing to do some extra work.
Preschool
Besides day-care, there are also free-of-charge additional activities in preschool education such as swimming, skiing, rollerblading, hiking, singing traditional songs and dancing, early English language acquisition and coding, etc. We constantly work with police officers, firefighters, 3rd generation county residents, and librarians. All of them enrich our lives.
Culture
There has been a diverse and high-quality cultural life at our school for more than 10 years. Different cultural activities have been delivered during every school year – music, folklore activities, dance, art and photography, literature, protection of cultural heritage – which involve a large number of learners and teachers. Most of the programs have been developed and implemented mainly within elective subjects and extracurricular activities; cultural events have been organized regularly; learners take part in cultural festivals and competitions; activities of other cultural associations and groups have been delivered on our school’s premises.
International collaboration
We are constantly involved into several eTwinning projects, and Erasmus + projects (KA1 and KA2) and are looking forward to new opportunities of working internationally
Sports
There is more than one lesson of PE per day delivered at our school. We believe that regular activity helps our learners to live better and healthier lives. Moreover, all learners from the 1st to the 3rd grade are taught how to swim, rollerblade and ski within the PE lessons.
“Green school”
Our school strives to the elements of the sustainable development. Within the elective subject of modern agriculture learners are taught about the importance of self-sufficiency, home-grown food and ecological gardening. Near the school there is an apiary, an orchard, a vegetable and herb garden, which are taken care of by our students and teachers. Our goal is to build an outdoor classroom and to spend even more time outside during the lessons.
ICT
For more than 10 years our teachers have been using Office 365 in everyday teaching. They have been using an online notebook as an equivalent accessory in the classroom and started to perform innovative ways of teaching. Moreover, The tools help learners to set the goals by themselves, to plan their knowledge, to gather proofs, and to evaluate their knowledge at the end of the process (to self-assess). At the sane time the tools help the teacher to deliver foramtive assessment.
The teacher becomes only a moderator and the learner a co-creator of the learning process.
WE USE ICT TOOLS…
- to motivate,
- to develop creativity,
- to encourage critical thinking,
- to recognise, present and encourage learners’ talents,
- to encourage learners’ autonomy,
- to solve problems,
- to encourage decision making process,
- to take responsibility for knowledge,
- to participate in projects easily.
To create a platform – used by learners and teachers.
How to reach us?
Travel by car…
You do need a vignette when using a highway. You can purchase it at the first gas station when you cross the boarder or online.
Travel by train…
You can come to Slovenia by train from many European cities, and regular lines also connect different parts of the country. Check the timetable.
Tavel by plane…
The international airport of Ljubljana Jože Pučnik (LJU), the capital of Slovenia. The airport is located near the village of Brnik, 24 km northwest of Ljubljana, 85 km from Celje and 110 km from Dobje. The easiest way to go to/from the airport by public transport is to travel to Ljubljana first and then to Celje or Dobje. If you use private shuttles you can go directly.