Gymnasio L.T. Chalkis Greece

Halki is located in the southeastern Aegean Sea and belongs to the island complex of the Dodecanese with about 500 permanent residents. It is located 5 miles west of the coast of Rhodes Island and it is characterized by Unesco as the Island of Peace and Friendship.

It has a rich history that dates back to prehistoric times, while the imposing castle of the Grand Master is preserved, since the occupation of the island by the Knights of St. John. The Old Settlement, together with the Castle have been designated as cultural landmarks by UNESCO.

The biodiversity of Halki is of particular interest due to the presence of rare and endemic plant species, which is why it joined the "Natura 2000" Network as a Special Protection Zone (SPA) with code GR 4210026.

The pure people of of Halki, are full of love and have hospitable feelings. They always are ready to welcome the visitors of the beautiful island. The school building that houses the pupils and students of the remote Chalki Dodecanese was built in 1915 with donations from the Halkiots Union Association of Tarpon Springs, in the United States. The architectural study of the building was made by the local contractor - architect Ioannis Fanarakis and his son. Initially, it operated as a Girls' School that hosted 200 pupils in its classrooms. At that time, in Halki there was also a boy’s school that had been built a few years earlier, at the beginning of the 20th century and housed 300 students.

Since then, the decline in the population that has migrated to America, Australia, Egypt, Greece and elsewhere has begun. Since the 1912 census, the island's population has fallen from 3,215 to 1,300 in 1922. The two schools have merged into a mixed four-class school and have been working uninterruptedly until today.

Nowadays the school consists of a Kindergarten with 8 pupils, an elementary school with 18 students and a high school with 20 students.

Our school has 12 teachers and offers both lower and upper general secondary education. The school does not have permanent teachers and most teachers work as substitute teachers for a year, which is a problem for the continuation of educational work. The students and their families feel isolated because they live on a very small island which may have a lot of visitors in the summer but it is very quiet the rest of the year. The families of the students are permanent inhabitants on the island who work in tourism industry for the season or as construction workers. Some families come from non Greek background but they have been living on the island for more than a decade. The students have average school performance and there is a lack of personal and social development. Approximately 50% of students are foreigners, belongs to the categories: "economic obstacles: (students with a low standard of living, low income, and "geographical obstacles" (students from remote, rural or hilly areas/villages).

The school organizes a lot of extracurricular activities to compensate for the lack of cultural life such as literature evenings, cinema, clubs for pupils, library, cultural trips etc. Many activities involve Parents/ Guardians association who are very active in all the events of the school. The school aims to cooperation outside the island with national and transnational schools and other organizations in order to overcome geographical obstacles.