Ljijana Klingor, Principal

Matija Gubec- the only IB curriculum primary school in Croatia

...She's got a smile that it seems to me
Reminds me of the childhood memories
Where everything
Was as fresh and the bright blue sky...

Luckily, Guns ‘N Roses never go out of the fashion and although I enjoyed their song "Sweet child of mine" as a teenager, I was never lucky enough to listen it in the school hallways. Well, in Matija Gubec Primay School in the Zagreb neighborhood of Knežija, the kids don't have a school bell to signal the end of class. Between classes they get to listen to their favorite songs booming from the sound system and one of the kids is chosen to be a DJ for the day! When I entered the school to interview with the school Principal Ljiljana Klingor, she claimed:

"Music is therapeutic and educational and we don't interfere in their choice of music-from pop and rock to Christmas songs and ethnic songs as the foreign students can bring music from their own countries."

Matija Gubec is the only IB curriculum primary school in Croatia and is the recipient of the Best Primary School Award by the City of Zagreb. When was the school established and what is specific about it?

The school was founded in 1995 and the person behind its establishment is the former principal, Mirjana Pivac, who put extraordinary efforts to organize the teaching staff, a young and enthusiastic team of educated people, willing to learn and develop themselves from day to day. As you can imagine, at that time, it was quite a challenge to find a local teaching staff who were able to teach such challenging academic programs in English language. Our beginning was slow but as Zagreb became a metropolis, with many foreign diplomats, professionals and athletes coming to Croatia, the school grew and developed. In the year 2002, the first International school in Croatia is opened at this location and local authorities recognized the necessity of the education program of this kind and renovated the school, adding new facilities and classrooms. The school operates in accordance with the regulations from Geneva, following the program of International Baccalaureate (IBO) program, which is the most extensive international schooling program, accepted in almost a hundred countries worldwide. Classes are organized according to this program, for pupils from grades 6, 7 and 8 (MYP 1, 2, 3).

How many nationalities do you have in the school?

At this moment there are around 25. Sometimes it is so hard to answer that question. If you, for example, have a student who was born in Austria, has grown up in Madagascar, whose mother is Croatian and father is South African, what nationality would you classify him or her as? (laugh). We enjoy our differences and live happily together as foreigners, Croatians (from the Croatian classrooms), expat kids, Croatians who have spent extended parts of their childhood abroad and have returned recently - everyone! The number of nationalities changes from month to month. Our capacities are very limited and we have to save a certain number of seats but in the IB program the advantage of enrollment is provided to foreign children or the children whose parents were working abroad, as a diplomats or as the professionals and their kids were transferred back in the home country although they attended schools abroad. We have the kids whose one parent is a professional sportsman-because of the nature of their parents' job; they spend 20% of the school year abroad and the rest of the school year here. It is a very multicultural environment and we are extremely happy about that.

The limited number of pupils is your advantage, at the certain level, particularly as the academic work is quite intense in smaller classrooms?

That's the aspect we tend to struggle with at the moment. Because of the wide interest in the school, we are, to a certain level, afraid that we won't be able to keep these sizes of the classrooms for long period of time. The philosophy of the IB standard is not to provide the certificate to one school forever, you have to earn it and the parameters to retain it as the IB Geneva certificate criteria are very strong. We are very proud that not only we managed to retain the certificate but we have also earned the recommendation from the international evaluation committee that is paying us regular visits. There were quite a few IB schools in Europe recently who lost the certificate and, because of that, the compliments we are getting from the committee is even more appreciated. Our education staff is not afraid of professional development, they are young and ready to learn on a daily basis and attend the training seminars in Croatia and abroad on a regular basis.

Do you organize any events that help bring the parents and kids together and allow the families of kids attending the school to get to know each other?

Of course, we are trying to be the best representatives of Croatia at a practical level and try to promote Croatian culture, tradition, music and to simply play good hosts. If you have lived abroad previously and your child is currently happy, you become happy as well. It is not only the educational aspect; it is the school of life as well. We are particularly proud on our annual event called UN day when all our pupils represent their countries, their local food, traditional costumes, tourist landmarks, and music. We learn about foreign cultures and traditions and we present Croatia with the help of Croatian Tourist Board and show them the best of our country. For example, we have taken the pre-school class to the Croatian class, have told them the story of the Crotian tie (Kravata-Croatian word for tie/cravat) and have tought all of them how to make a knot. We organize annual Christmas dinners for teachers and parents, and at least once a year, a school trip when we take the parents and kids together to some place in Croatia that is extremely interesting yet unknown - which makes the explorations much more exciting.

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