Secondary School

Kadrina Secondary School offers three study lines which put emphasis on certain branches of science according to the student’s interests.

The three study lines are:

1. Humanities-Social (shortened as HUSO)
2. Natural Sciences (shortened as LOTE)
3. Real Sciences & Technology (shortened as RETE)

The final decision is made during the summer before 10th grade, but can be changed only once before the end of the first trimester, which ends on November 30th/31st/December 1st, if the original choice really does not fit the student.

Even though the study lines focus on certain fields, the student is not binded to anything and has free choice of future.

In addition to their study line the students can also choose some elective subjects, for example a third foreign language (Latin, Finnish, German, Italian, French), state defence, police studies, philosophy, religious education, additional PE etc.

Each student must write a research paper during the secondary school years or do a practical creative work.

To finish secondary school, the students take three compulsory National Exams (Estonian, Maths and English) and pass school exams depending on their study line.

Humanities-Social

HUSO-students are more prone to

• various languages, literature, history, geography and other so-called soft subjects
• attending cultural events and capturing (recording) them
• being more interested in the welfare of our community
• travelling and meeting people from other cultures
• becoming a media guru, a linguist, a diplomat, a philosopher, an archaeologist, an art critic, a politologist, a semiotic….

Specific classes:

• Estonian and Literature (3 courses)
• Special English (3 courses)
• Foreign languages B2 (3+3 courses)
• History (2 courses)
• Geography (1 course)
• Art (1 course)

The Humanitarian-Social, or HUSO, branch is for students who are interested in languages, history, literature, culture and our society.

HUSO students have extra lessons in history, geography, literature and they have the chance to learn two additional languages which they can choose from Finnish, French and German.

HUSOs have a lot of guests who are writers, actors, translators or otherwise involved with culture. They have also had guests from Finland, who have helped them learn finnish, for example they had a kinesthetic Finnish lesson where they learned clothes, body parts and prepositions of place by playing games.

HUSO students often watch movies related to the topics they learn. Sometimes the teachers cooperate with the Literary Club and there are cozy movies in the library with tea. The films HUSOs have watched include Lennart Meri’s films about the finno-ugric people, historic movies about Great Britain and America and movies that are made based on the works of writers they have learned.

HUSOs go on a lot of interesting cultural trips. They have visited several mansions in Kadrina rural municipality and been to the birthplaces of famous Estonian writers. Their trips are usually cultural and historical.

Every year 10th grade HUSO students who learn Finnish have the chance to take part in a student exchange with our Finnish friend-schools. At first, the Estonian students visit Finland and later, the Finnish students will visit Estonia.

HUSO students are the first ones to be asked whenever there’s an exchange program as they are more prone to such activities compared to the other two study lines.

Estonian & Finnish students from 2014 at the medieval Rakvere castle

The Estonian HUSOs and Finnish students from 2015

HUSO and LOTE students visiting the birthplace of the famous Estonian C. R. Jakobson

For work practice, which all high school students have to do, HUSOs cleaned the surroundings of Neeruti manor

HUSOs have also helped with creating a book about Kadrina and it’s history by helping collect information. They also helped with arranging a conference “Me – the keeper and carrier of my homeplace’s cultural traditions” in April 2014 by giving short lectures, making interviews and performing plays.

Natural Sciences

LOTE-students are more prone to

• biology, physics, chemistry, geography…
• being interested in nature and environmental protection, the natural processes and phenomenons
• analyzing, doing experiments, doing researches, going on expeditions and field trips
• becoming a natural scientist, forestry scientist, material scientist, gene technologist, doctor…

Specific classes:

• Extra physics (2 courses)
• Extra chemistry (2 courses)
• Extra biology (1 course)
• Extra geography (1 course)
• CAD drawing (1 course)
• Professional English (2 courses)
• Environmental projects (1 course)
• “Science, Technology and Society” (3 courses)

The aim of Natural Sciences study line is to provide the students with a diverse education, which grants the students opportunity to further study in other branches of science, in addition to natural sciences.

LOTE students can plan and carry out tests, observations and to participate in the study tours (nature, companies, universities, etc.), professional practice and environmental projects (noise research, hometown examination of the body of water, the Baltic Sea Project, etc.). A characteristic of this study line is the large amount of experiments. LOTE Students can choose to make their own research on LOTE related topics, which is quite common among LOTE students.

“Science, Technology and Society” is a LOTE-only course, in which the students study a certain topic for 2-5 lessons. They are given a scenario and guidelines for experiment, which they have to conduct and later analyse the results and share the information with others. Some of the topics have been making a homemade toothpaste, hand cream, perfume; testing different health devices; finding shortcomings in hometown and solutions to them.

Participating in the Baltic Sea Project has become a tradition for LOTE students. Kadrina Secondary School has been involved with it since 1989. This involves reporting the condition of Baltic Sea regularly.

LOTE students have to choose between the professional English of HUSO or RETE. LOTE students can choose wide mathematics similarly to RETE.

Collecting information for the Baltic Sea Project

Listening to informative text about the map

Real sciences & Technology

RETE-students are more prone to

• mathematics, physics, chemistry, computer studies, ….
• being interested in the welfare of our country, engineering, IT and economics
• travelling, taking the role of a leader, improving the economics of the country
• becoming an engineer, IT-specialist, finance or economics analytic

Specific classes:

• Wide mathematics (12 + 3 courses)
• Drawing (1 course)
• Professional English Language (2 courses)
• CAD drawing (4 courses)
• Strength of materials and technical drawing (1 course)
• Logistics + Marketing and Sales Basics + Organizational culture and management (1 course)
• Logic (half course)
• Architectural design (half course)

Real sciences & Technology direction for technical goal is to bring young people to acquire higher education, which contributes to improving the competitiveness of local and international labor markets. This direction gives young people the knowledge, willingness and courage to make important choices and decisions in the future.

Real-technical direction of learning motivates and encourages young people to study in fields that require deeper knowledge and skills in the sciences. Secondary school graduates have a good starting position when continuing their studies in various colleges for engineering, IT, business and other disciplines.

• The knowledge which is given in the technical and engineering courses is conveyed by the Kadrina Secondary school alumni who are working on leading positions in Estonian companies.
• Practices take place in Kadrina’s largest enterprises (Aru Grupp, HeTi Family LLC, Flexa Eesti AS), which use modern technologies and equipment. Trainees will receive an overview of the operations and management of processes, become familiar with the technologies and equipment and the need for safety technology.

Example of an AutoCAD drawing