Strencu Secondary School, Valkas region

Strenči is one of the four small towns in Valka District. It is situated along the motor road Riga – Valmiera – Valka, a little bit more than two hours drive from Riga. The town lies on the right bank of the river Gauja, one of the biggest river in Latvia.

The town of Strenci started to develop at the beginning of the 20^th century. Originally, it was a small hamlet inhabited mostly by raftsmen. In 1998 the first Raftsmen Festival was celebrated and it will become a tradition in the future. It is held on the third Saturday in May.

The construction of a psychoneurologic hospital also contributed to the development of the town. Strenči was granted the town rights in 1928, so in 1998 the town celebrated its 70^th anniversary.

The infrastructure of the town is developing rapidly. At present, most of the population is employed in health care, the wood industry and different services. Strenči sees it future in the areas of tourism and services.

There is a kinder garden and music school.

The inhabitants of the town, like the whole district, are especially proud of their new school building. In 1992 the old wooden school building burnt down and only ashes were left. There were a hopes and dreams of the inhabitants for a new and modern school to be built. The dreams come true in 1998, when the main part of the new school building was put into operation.

Now the school has wide and light classrooms, it has a big library, a modern computer class with access to Internet, a sports hall and fitness center, a comfortable dormitory for senior students, a café and dining room with a great variety of meals.

Although we had a new building since 1998, in 1999 the school celebrated it’s 90^th anniversary.

Today there are 31 teachers and 344 students. Our students come from nearby and more distant surrounding areas.

Since 1999 it has regained a status a secondary school as the number of students increases from year to year.

We provide our students successful learning environment as well as a wide choice of extra curriculum activities. The students can join such interest groups:

• Choir for basic and secondary school
• Singing ensemble
• Folk dance group
• Modern and sports dance group
• Computer studies
• Drama society
• U-SHU fighting
• Aerobics
• Sewing hobby group
• Student’s newspaper “Infobums”
• Floristic
• Basketball, volleyball and floor-ball teams.

The student - run self government takes an achieve part in organizing and planing the school’s and student’s life.