Our country is a republic. Our president is Mr. Danilo Türk. After declaring independence in Slovenia a lot has changed. First we got our own parliament and government. Slovenia has developed in many ways. We also joined the European Union and NATO. Our flag is: white – sky, blue – sea, red – the ground and the blood of those who gave lives for our country. Three equal horizontal bands of white (top), blue, and red, with the Slovenian seal (a shield with the image of Triglav, Slovenia's highest peak, in white against a blue background at the center; beneath it are two wavy blue lines depicting seas and rivers, and above it are three six-pointed stars arranged in an inverted triangle, which are taken from the coat of arms of the Counts of Celje, the great Slovene dynastic house of the late 14th and early 15th centuries); the seal is located in the upper hoist side of the flag centered in the white and blue bands.
Our national holiday is on 25th June – The Statehood day to commemorate the country's declaration of independence from Yugoslavia in 1991.
FOOD
The dishes depend on the region. We traditionally eat a lot of potatoes, cabbage, and meat. Our national sweet is “potica cake”. Our Christmas dish is Potica cake. At Christmas we pay more attention to all the family coming together, spending time together, having a nice warm evening. We have no special traditional dish, but we usually make quite a variety of biscuits and we have a better dinner.
We like pasta, winner schnitzel, pancakes, pizza.
We like polka. The dances and costumes depend on the region. The old traditional dances were connected with the work people carried out at different occasions (they were mainly farmers). http://www.kud-tinerozanc.si/multimedija/glasba/mp3/koroski_02.mp3 - this is link to the music of a traditional dance at a wedding.
The most famous places of interest in our country are Ljubljana – the capital, The Postojna Cave, Lake Bled, Lake Bohinj, ptuj and its castle.
The most popular sports in our country are football, handball and skiing. Skiing used to be our national sport and the sport we were extremely proud of when our competitors were very successful. These days we can’t say that we really have a national sport.
SCHOOL
Our children can go to kindregarten at the age of 1 – it’s not obligatory.
Obligatory education starts at the age of 6 and lasts for 9 years.
Then the children can take 2, 3 or four year schools. 2 and 3-year are vocational schools. After a four year school we can study at different universities.
Our school was the first newly built school in independent Slovenia, it was built in 1992 – it’s 17 years old. It’s beautiful, quite big and it is always nice and clean. We try to decorate it with the things we do by ourselves. One of the characteristics of our school are corridors and corners which makes you feel that you are in a maze sometimes (until you get used to it).
OUR SCHOOL
Our school day starts at 8.15 and ends at 12.35. We sometimes have the so called 0.-period, it starts at 7.25, and sometimes we stay at school until 13.25. The older students sometimes have classes until 14.30. Our lessons last for 45 minutes, we have a 5 minute break between them and a 20 minute break after the 2nd lesson (9.50 – 10.10), when we have a snack. There is another 20 minute break before the 7th lesson, we can have lunch then. Slovene, Maths, Geography, History (the younger pupils have …), Physical Education, Music, English, Home Domestics (Cookery +…), Technology, Art, Physics, Chemistry, Biology. And in classes 7 - 9 a broad variety of subjects of interest (each pupil takes at least 2). There is a teacher and a kindergarten teacher for some time in class 1. In classes 2 and 3 there is one teacher. In class 4 we have a different teacher for English, in class 5 for English, Music and sometimes PE, from class 6 on we have a different teacher for each subject.
At school we wear usual clothes, we don’t have uniforms. There are no special rules about clothes at our school. Well, actually, one rule says “You have to be properly dressed for school.”
At the end of each class we visit a different part of our country. We also go to a camp: a summer camp for 6 days in class 4 (we go to the seside), a winter camp (we go skiing) and another camp which is not defined by a season in class 8. We call these camps (but we actually don’t camp, we stay in holiday homes) “school in nature”.
We play many different sports (very popular in our town is handball), a lot of us play a musical instrument. We have an ice skating ring in winter and we ice-skate a lot.
We have 3 one-week holidays and one 2 months-holiday. The so called “potato holiday” (the expressions is from the old times when there were many farmers and at this time was the season of picking potatoes) – around 1st November (31st October, 1st November are national holidays); Christmas holiday – from 25th December to 2nd January (25th and 26th December, 1st, 2nd January are national holidays).. The “1st May holiday” – the week around the 1st May (27th April, 1st, 2nd May are also national holidays). And the best of all – the summer holidays from 25th June (also a national holiday) to 31st August. In our town there is a second hand fare; there is also a fare of St. Joseph (19th March) and the Fare of St. Elisabeth (she is the patron of our town) – 17th November.
Our school marks go from 1 tp 5. We all love a 5!
We have mark books. Each class has its own mark book. There is one page for each pupil in it and there are little boxes for marks at different subjects. We also have e-mark books, so our parents can have a look at how we are doing at school.
Some of us get pocket money, some not. We can’t spend money at school. We don’t have breakfast at school (except class 1), we have a snack at 9.50, it is not free, our parents pay for it, but the school supports those with less income, so they don’t have to pay. We can also have lunch at school, parents pay for it as well.
Sometimes we leave our textbooks at school, sometimes we take them home to study. In lower classes we mostly leave them at school.
In class we have a green board and also a white one sometimes. So, we don’t understand our English teacher, who always says: “Come to the blackboard, please.” J
We take part in competitions. We take part in handball and football championship, some of us do judo and compete, we take part in athletics competitions, we also take part in competitions in music. Our school choir is very successful in a school choir competition that takes place every year. We also take part in different subjects competitions – English, Maths, Chemistry, Slovene, History…
TRAVELLING ABROAD
We know all the capitals, we know that all the countries are beautiful; we know that the Spanish were Football European Champions, we love Spanish language (RBD taught us it is beautiful), we know that Turkey has a wonderful coast, we like Italian pasta, we admire Portuguese football, we know that Bulgaria is quite close to our country. We don’t know much about Islam, we will learn at History. But we have some pupils from Islamic countries and we know that they don’t eat pork and that there was a month when they didn’t eat during the day. We know that women are covered sometimes. Why? We really are interested in Islam.
POPULAR NAMES
The most popular names in our country are: Jože, Marija, Franc – with older people. Peter, Andrej, Marko, Špela, Gašpe– with children.
FAMOUS ARTISTS
Painting: Ivana kobilica, Jože Tisnikar (he was from our town), Karel Pečko (he is from our town).
Music: Hugo Wolf (he was from our town) – a composer.
Contemporary musicians – Siddharta (rock group), Vlado Kreslin, Zoran Predin (singers, authors, poets), Avseniki (a famous folk music group).
Architecture: Jože Plečnik.
Literature: Ivan Cankar, Prežihov Voranc, France Prešeren (a famous poet).
RELIGION
Most of the people are Catholics. The Evangelical Church, which has its roots in the Reformation, is most widely spread in the eastern part of Slovenia. Around 38 other religious communities, spiritual groups, societies and associations are also registered.
Our national holiday is on 25th June – The Statehood day to commemorate the country's declaration of independence from Yugoslavia in 1991.
FOOD
The dishes depend on the region. We traditionally eat a lot of potatoes, cabbage, and meat. Our national sweet is “potica cake”. Our Christmas dish is Potica cake. At Christmas we pay more attention to all the family coming together, spending time together, having a nice warm evening. We have no special traditional dish, but we usually make quite a variety of biscuits and we have a better dinner.
We like pasta, winner schnitzel, pancakes, pizza.
We like polka. The dances and costumes depend on the region. The old traditional dances were connected with the work people carried out at different occasions (they were mainly farmers). http://www.kud-tinerozanc.si/multimedija/glasba/mp3/koroski_02.mp3 - this is link to the music of a traditional dance at a wedding.
The most famous places of interest in our country are Ljubljana – the capital, The Postojna Cave, Lake Bled, Lake Bohinj, ptuj and its castle.
The most popular sports in our country are football, handball and skiing. Skiing used to be our national sport and the sport we were extremely proud of when our competitors were very successful. These days we can’t say that we really have a national sport.
SCHOOL
Our children can go to kindregarten at the age of 1 – it’s not obligatory.
Obligatory education starts at the age of 6 and lasts for 9 years.
Then the children can take 2, 3 or four year schools. 2 and 3-year are vocational schools. After a four year school we can study at different universities.
Our school was the first newly built school in independent Slovenia, it was built in 1992 – it’s 17 years old. It’s beautiful, quite big and it is always nice and clean. We try to decorate it with the things we do by ourselves. One of the characteristics of our school are corridors and corners which makes you feel that you are in a maze sometimes (until you get used to it).
OUR SCHOOL
Our school day starts at 8.15 and ends at 12.35. We sometimes have the so called 0.-period, it starts at 7.25, and sometimes we stay at school until 13.25. The older students sometimes have classes until 14.30. Our lessons last for 45 minutes, we have a 5 minute break between them and a 20 minute break after the 2nd lesson (9.50 – 10.10), when we have a snack. There is another 20 minute break before the 7th lesson, we can have lunch then. Slovene, Maths, Geography, History (the younger pupils have …), Physical Education, Music, English, Home Domestics (Cookery +…), Technology, Art, Physics, Chemistry, Biology. And in classes 7 - 9 a broad variety of subjects of interest (each pupil takes at least 2). There is a teacher and a kindergarten teacher for some time in class 1. In classes 2 and 3 there is one teacher. In class 4 we have a different teacher for English, in class 5 for English, Music and sometimes PE, from class 6 on we have a different teacher for each subject.
At school we wear usual clothes, we don’t have uniforms. There are no special rules about clothes at our school. Well, actually, one rule says “You have to be properly dressed for school.”
At the end of each class we visit a different part of our country. We also go to a camp: a summer camp for 6 days in class 4 (we go to the seside), a winter camp (we go skiing) and another camp which is not defined by a season in class 8. We call these camps (but we actually don’t camp, we stay in holiday homes) “school in nature”.
We play many different sports (very popular in our town is handball), a lot of us play a musical instrument. We have an ice skating ring in winter and we ice-skate a lot.
We have 3 one-week holidays and one 2 months-holiday. The so called “potato holiday” (the expressions is from the old times when there were many farmers and at this time was the season of picking potatoes) – around 1st November (31st October, 1st November are national holidays); Christmas holiday – from 25th December to 2nd January (25th and 26th December, 1st, 2nd January are national holidays).. The “1st May holiday” – the week around the 1st May (27th April, 1st, 2nd May are also national holidays). And the best of all – the summer holidays from 25th June (also a national holiday) to 31st August. In our town there is a second hand fare; there is also a fare of St. Joseph (19th March) and the Fare of St. Elisabeth (she is the patron of our town) – 17th November.
Our school marks go from 1 tp 5. We all love a 5!
We have mark books. Each class has its own mark book. There is one page for each pupil in it and there are little boxes for marks at different subjects. We also have e-mark books, so our parents can have a look at how we are doing at school.
Some of us get pocket money, some not. We can’t spend money at school. We don’t have breakfast at school (except class 1), we have a snack at 9.50, it is not free, our parents pay for it, but the school supports those with less income, so they don’t have to pay. We can also have lunch at school, parents pay for it as well.
Sometimes we leave our textbooks at school, sometimes we take them home to study. In lower classes we mostly leave them at school.
In class we have a green board and also a white one sometimes. So, we don’t understand our English teacher, who always says: “Come to the blackboard, please.” J
We take part in competitions. We take part in handball and football championship, some of us do judo and compete, we take part in athletics competitions, we also take part in competitions in music. Our school choir is very successful in a school choir competition that takes place every year. We also take part in different subjects competitions – English, Maths, Chemistry, Slovene, History…
TRAVELLING ABROAD
We know all the capitals, we know that all the countries are beautiful; we know that the Spanish were Football European Champions, we love Spanish language (RBD taught us it is beautiful), we know that Turkey has a wonderful coast, we like Italian pasta, we admire Portuguese football, we know that Bulgaria is quite close to our country. We don’t know much about Islam, we will learn at History. But we have some pupils from Islamic countries and we know that they don’t eat pork and that there was a month when they didn’t eat during the day. We know that women are covered sometimes. Why? We really are interested in Islam.
POPULAR NAMES
The most popular names in our country are: Jože, Marija, Franc – with older people. Peter, Andrej, Marko, Špela, Gašpe– with children.
FAMOUS ARTISTS
Painting: Ivana kobilica, Jože Tisnikar (he was from our town), Karel Pečko (he is from our town).
Music: Hugo Wolf (he was from our town) – a composer.
Contemporary musicians – Siddharta (rock group), Vlado Kreslin, Zoran Predin (singers, authors, poets), Avseniki (a famous folk music group).
Architecture: Jože Plečnik.
Literature: Ivan Cankar, Prežihov Voranc, France Prešeren (a famous poet).
RELIGION
Most of the people are Catholics. The Evangelical Church, which has its roots in the Reformation, is most widely spread in the eastern part of Slovenia. Around 38 other religious communities, spiritual groups, societies and associations are also registered.
