About us

How we work

Why is Gymnasium Duhovka exceptional? 

The eight-year Gymnasium Duhovka is a first Czech gymnasium applying an educational method of Marie Montessori, which respects children in their nature, supports their curiosity and develops their skills and talents.
 

• prepared learning environment

We offer enough chances for team work as well as expressing student’s thoughts and emotions. We exploit various possibilities of applying their talents and skills (team work, project and integrated education, free time activities, school club, field exercises, language internships, international projects). Students work in a pleasant environment prepared for independent research and exploration (access to the library, internet, and Montessori materials). The environment is adapted to students’ educational needs as well as the need for relaxation, and spending their free time.
 

• respect

We approach students as our partners, we listen to them and allow them to participate in creating of the physical and social environment of our school (students create the class rules together with their teachers, they express themselves on the school matters, they participate in the self-government and in organizing of the school events). 
 

• creative activities

We support creative activities not only within physical education, music and art, but also as a part of language studies and work on projects. We use the principles of dramatization and the development of artistic self-expression history lessons.
 

•  teaching of foreign languages

We use so-called roles playing – simulating of the real-life situations. Foreign languages penetrate all school activities naturally thanks to foreign native speakers and students from bilingual families.
 

• individual work

There is time assigned to individual work within classes. Students search and process information, perform experiments, work with laboratory instruments. We lead them to express and defend their opinions and attitudes, to discuss and work critically with information sources.
 

• intellectual activity and manual work

In Montessori pedagogy, students’ relationship to school as a place is very important. They participate actively in creating the school environment and they experience feelings of ownership, responsibility and belonging. In class, they prepare and realize scientific experiments, explore rules of nature, create technical and art objects. Apart from afternoon clubs and optional subjects, we also offer workshops.
 

• interdisciplinary approach

Our subjects and areas of study often overlap. Our curriculum connects information, develops critical thinking and thinking in context. Our students work on many science projects (e.g. Water, Energies), humanities projects (e.g. Place, Antiquity), and microeconomics educational projects (e.g. Christmas Academy, Open House Days etc.) For sekunda and tercie, science classes are merged.
 

• tree phases of the education process

In the first phase, the teacher uses interesting activities, stories and materials to capture student interest and motivate them so that they become interested to study the topic on their own and in more depth. In this phase, the teacher shares terminology and key knowledge that will serve as a basis for further work. At the end of this phase, students choose specific topics. In the second phase, students explore the topic on their own, research and evaluate information, and discover principles related to the topic. During this period, the teacher acts as an observer and a guide. When working independently, students learn cooperation, coordination, teamwork, distribution of roles and responsibility for the given task. During the third and last phase, students introduce the results of their work, they demonstrate their understanding of the given topic. They choose how they wish to present their project to their classmates, or possibly to the public and they have a great opportunity to express their creativity and self-expression.
 

• microeconomics projects

We emphasize the importance of developing economic independence and teach the subjects Financial Literacy Education and Education for Life. Students are introduced to basic economic concepts, the function of money, financial products, financial management etc. Students create a budget, order material, calculate prices of individual items for sale, sell refreshments and products, calculate their profit, and keep an account book of small economic projects. Students are aware of the value of money and they learn how to dispose of earned money. They decide how large an amount to keep for future investments, how much to contribute to something (e.g. above standard class equipment or a school trip), and how much they donate to a charity organization of their choice.
 

• choise

We understand choice as one of the key points in Montessori pedagogy. We believe that the fact that students can actively choose activities in class develops their motivation and responsibility for their own education. Typically, students can choose what activity they want to work on and in what form they would like to present the outcome.
 

• mixed age groups

Mixed age groups are an important element of Montessori pedagogy. At our high school, we integrate sekunda and tercie students for geography, history, PE and science; tercie and kvarta students for an optional subject; kvinta and sexta students for esthetics and optional subjects. Students across the years often meet when working on projects or on field trips.
 

• farm work

We feel that a connection between the students’ lives and manual work in a garden or on a farm should be typical of a Montessori school. As our school is located in a city, we organize work trips to a farm (primarily for younger students) and we are planning to use the courtyard and create some structures there.