Today at Poštová
Presently our school has 17 classes, 513 students, 40 teachers and 8 of non-pedagogical staff. You are invited to find more information about past and present achievements and a variety of other topics on this website. In each grade there is one class with extended teaching of Mathematics (these classes are for talented pupils and those who like Maths - pupils are accepted to such a class without having to prove their talent in a special entrance exam) and one class with extended teaching of English, and 2 standard classes. All students also specialize in their prospective professional interests by taking up to 3-7 optional courses out of our offer in the School Education Programme – all in addition to compulsory courses during the third and fourth years. We regularly offer seminars which can be created with a minimum interest of 12 students. First form students are offered the 2nd foreign language – German, French or Russian - to take up besides the 1st one, which is English. The unique “practice” course can be created when there is a minimum interest of 8 students. This school year we have offered optional courses in Applied Economy and Tourism Enterprise again. Students of these courses have achieved extraordinary results within Slovak and also international competitions recently. In the previous academic year at the international competition in Bucharest, Romania and before in Oslo, Norway, our team gained the 3rd place, which is the best result ever in this competition in the history of Slovakia. Selected elective courses become compulsory for the semester.
Our school carried out exchange trips with a partner school in Great Britain, and since 1990, have been organizing educational trips to British towns and cities. We have also started a partnership with a secondary school in Sweden, Lindesberg, and we will be carrying out exchange trips. To encourage German language learning, teaching exchanges with partner schools in Austria, and Basel, Switzerland, have been organized. Their regularity is limited due to rising costs. Additionally, students can improve their language skills locally by taking part in international youth meetings within the Socrates-Comenius Programme and the Youth Programme’s Copernicus Project. During last summer holidays in August, 8 students from our schol together with 2 teachers took part in a 1-week project of a Vysegrad foursome called Remember Europe in Hungary.
We have a long tradition of hosting foreign exchange students at our school, this school year we have been hosting 3 foreign students - from Brazil, Mexico and the USA. Many of our Slovak students study at secondary schools abroad, especially in the USA and in Great Britain. Some of our graduates even study at foreign universities.
In the previous school year 51 last form students – mostly from the class with extended teaching of English - passed Cambridge Exams/ City and Guilds Exams which serve as an official substitution for a "maturita" (school leaving examinations) foreign language exam.
Our school building was not originally built for educational purposes, so it has an atypical interior. Reconstruction of the building’s exterior and complete rebuilding of the roof and roof tiles were completed in 2001. We have new sanitary fittings in the school and the corridors have been monitored on camera.
We offer special classrooms for teaching Biology, Chemistry, Physics, and 3 smaller rooms for Information Technology. Physical education courses and sports activities take place in a medium-size gymnasium, an aerobic room with mirrored wall, a weight lifting room, and in the school courtyard with a layer of asphalt. In addition to the teachers’ lounge, there are departmental teacher rooms complete with computers and Internet access. Since 1997, students have had the opportunity to use the Internet in one of our information technology rooms. Poštová was one of the first participants of the computer-technology Infovek Project and we enjoy its accompanying advantages. There is WiFi connection accessible for all the students and the staff all around the school building and a snack bar and vending machine are provided for students to enable them to buy snacks and drinks during breaks.
We are proud to say that our Gymnázium Poštová, formerly nicknamed “šmeralka” ranks among the best schools not only in our town, but also nationwide. A non-profit-based organization INEKO measured the quality of secondary schools in Slovakia in the period of the last 4 years and in Košice region we are on 1st place and in Slovakia we have an excellent 3rd position. Our students have represented Slovakia and participated in various international school subject competitions and olympiads. Poštová students were chosen to represent Slovakia and Košice in the esteemed European project Scuolaxenia in Athens during the August 2004 Olympic Games. In the same year our school was also awarded a Košice Mayor´s Prize. Poštová students have successfully competed on all the populated continents. 24 of them have already had a Memorial Letter of St. Gorazd awarded by the Slovak Ministry of Education and our school headmaster Mr. Marián Ružička, RNDr., has received a Big Medal of St. Gorazd bestowed by the Slovak Ministry of Education for his lifelong pedagogical, educational and management work and for outstanding school achievements in regional, all-state and international knowledge competitions. A Small Medal of St. Gorazd was awarded to Ms. Drahomíra Pundová, RNDr., the deputy headmaster and Ms. Mária Sláviková, PaedDr.
During the school year 2012/13, 132 (out of which 84 were in sport) of our students were successful in regional graded and non-graded competitions. We took part in the nationwide rounds 28 times and 13 of our students represented Slovakia in Japan, Denmark, Hungary, Columbia, Ireland, Turkey and the USA, which is again a brilliant result.
Since 1990, our students and teachers have been organizing mathematics correspondence seminars called MALYNAR for primary school students. Many competing pupils later become students in our classes specializing in Mathematics. Poštová students organized the 11th annual competition called MAMUT for pupils of the 4th-6th primary school grades in the Košice region. Additionally, Poštová students talented in literature and writing essays have opportunity to show their creativity in the school periodical Homo Studiosus, which was founded more than 43 years ago. Last year, our school periodical was awarded a TV Markiza Prize for the 3rd place in the secondary category in the nationwide prestigeous journalistic competition called Štúrovo pero (Štúr´s Pen) - out of 87 secondary school periodicals. Publication of this periodical is only made possible by students' parents and school sponsors, to whom we are extremely grateful.
Poštová also organizes literature, geography and history excursions to broaden the students’ horizons, and these trips are very popular with students. We also organize swimming and ski training trips and wilderness training and environmental protection courses. Every year the Student Council works together with teachers to prepare the three most important school social events - the Initiation Party for first form students, the Valentine Ball and the Graduation Party for fourth form students.
Every year more than 97% of our graduates successfully pass university entrance exams – last school year 89. 19% in the university of their prior interest, which reflects the high quality of education that our teachers provide. Many of our graduates are accepted by several universities at the same time, enabling them to study at the university of their choice. 48 students went to study abroad (at Czech universities 39 of them, which is 32. 43% of our graduates). What we appreciate the most is the fact that the majority of our students not only start but also finish their university studies. The above-mentioned achievements show that our school successfully fulfills the main objective of a Gymnázium type of secondary school - thorough preparation of students for university study. Due to Poštová Gymnázium’s educationally competitive environment among students and thanks to high quality pedagogical standard among teachers we have been educating successful students.