The main thing in the work of a language teacher is to cultivate love for the native language, for the national culture, of which Orthodoxy is an integral part. Only by being able to understand and feel the Word, a person grows spiritually. Teaching the Russian language should be based on the example of the best examples of fiction. So a young citizen of Russia will be able to immerse himself in the elements of his native language, hear the music of Russian speech. A thoughtful, serious reading of literary works will help children better understand themselves and those around them, and teach them a good attitude towards the world.

Anastasia Igorevna Dyakonova Teacher of Russian language, literature and Church Slavonic.
He has a higher philological and psychological-pedagogical education, the highest qualification category in the position of "teacher", pedagogical experience of 9 years.
Winner of the competition "Building the school of the future - 2013" in the nomination "Education and worldview".

“In the beginning was the Word,” says the Gospel of John. In many ways, through the word, through language and literature, children learn and cognize the world, open the way to God. World fiction is an invaluable treasure trove of texts that contain traces of the search of many generations, samples of worldviews, attempts to understand what a person is and how the world around him should be arranged. The teacher also helps to acquire the keys to this treasury and not to get lost in its labyrinths.

Irina Nikolaevna Kuranova
He has a higher pedagogical education, the highest qualification category in the position of "teacher", teaching experience of 31 years.

Olga Alexandrovna Ponomareva Teacher of Russian language and literature.
Higher pedagogical education, pedagogical experience 12 years, candidate of philological sciences.

An in-depth study of the Russian language, the use of interactive methods, the synthesis of the Russian language and literature is the key to success in preparing for the final exams.

Elena Vyacheslavovna Kharitonova Teacher of Russian language and literature.
He has a higher pedagogical education. Finalist of the municipal competition "Teacher of the Year - 2010", winner of the municipal competition "My Methodical Find" in 2013, 2014, 1017, has an award medal "For the sake of life on Earth" of the Charitable public movement "Kind people of the world" - 2010, OGE expert in Russian since 2010.

Teaching experience 24 years.

The upbringing of love and respect for the native language and literature, the formation of the concept of an ecological culture of speech is impossible without the upbringing of love for the native land, traditions and faith of one's people, without spirituality and morality, which should be an obligatory component of every lesson of the Russian language and literature.

Students from wealthy families are uncomfortable at the same desk with difficult teenagers

The issue of introducing compulsory lessons in religion is a matter of fierce controversy. Many believe that education should be secular, and to immerse in the Law of God, one should attend Sunday schools or send the child to an Orthodox educational institution.

More and more Orthodox schools are opening in the capital - about 30 in total. What these institutions are, how, what and who they teach in our time, the MK correspondent found out.

“We simply ran away from an Orthodox school to an ordinary district school,” says Olga, mother of a 6th grader. - Our whole family is deeply religious people, which is why we decided to send the child to an Orthodox educational institution. Perhaps we were unlucky, but it was simply impossible to get a normal education in our school. Among the students in the class there were a lot of difficult teenagers who literally disrupted the lessons, and the teachers in the main subjects were very weak, mathematicians were generally invited to lead the church watchman. Now we study in a regular school and attend Sunday school, in my opinion, this is better than sending the child to an Orthodox institution and being left without a normal secondary education.

At the moment, all Orthodox schools in Moscow are private educational institutions. If the school is accredited, then it must receive funding from the state. But for Orthodox schools, the old standards still apply. Despite the fact that in 2012 a new version of the Federal Law “On Education” came into effect, which guarantees budget funding for private preschool, primary and secondary educational institutions, Moscow officials are in no hurry to allocate additional subsidies to support Orthodox schools.

“Today, the amount of funding for Orthodox schools is minimal compared to state schools,” explains Father Dimitry Konyukhov, director of the Orthodox school in Biryulyovo. “Moreover, funds for repairs, utilities and the purchase of equipment are not allocated at all. At the same time, Orthodox schools fully comply with the state order, and funding should be allocated to the student, regardless of the organizational and legal form of the school in which he studies. Moreover, many children from low-income families, orphans and the disabled study in Orthodox schools. But in reality, it turns out that if the school does not have a specific benefactor, then its financial situation is extremely constrained.

At the moment, the Moscow Department of Education annually allocates about 123,000 rubles for each student in an ordinary public school, and about 60,000 rubles per student in an Orthodox educational institution. A number of Orthodox schools also receive part of the money from donations from parents, but in most cases these amounts are not large. In addition to the lack of funding, the work of the Orthodox school is also complicated by the special contingent of children studying in them. Almost half of the students in Orthodox schools are children whose education in ordinary schools is undesirable for various reasons. Orthodox schools have cooperation agreements with orphanages and juvenile shelters. You have to work with difficult children according to individual plans, they often disrupt lessons and prevent more successful students from learning.

“Indeed, there is a tendency to send children to Orthodox schools for whom education in public schools is undesirable for one reason or another,” explains Konyukhov. - The number of such children can sometimes reach half of the total number of students. In our schools, the class size is less - and there is an opportunity to study with such students according to individual plans, although ideally the goal is to bring them to the general level in order to successfully pass the final certification. Many Orthodox schools have cooperation agreements with orphanages and juvenile shelters. It is obvious that the level of training of such children is lower than that of children from complete families. According to Dimitry Konyukhov, despite various difficulties and problems, the level of teaching and preparation of students in Orthodox schools has been increasing in recent years.

“Orthodox schools strive not only to meet state standards, but also to be at the forefront of the pedagogical process,” Father Dimitry explains. “Schools are trying to hire high-quality experienced teachers, but due to lack of funding, they cannot always offer them a high level of wages. In terms of education, Orthodox schools differ in their approach to teaching a number of subjects. For example, in biology lessons, we remind children about the creation of the world by God, and show other points of view and concepts as hypotheses, which they are. Humanitarian disciplines are taught in more depth: history, literature. In our educational institution, along with Church Slavonic, Greek, and English, we have been studying Chinese in depth for several years. In addition, educational work is carried out with students in Orthodox schools. The goal is not just to fill children with knowledge, but to educate the human personality, which is immortal and indestructible. As a result of learning, children should ask themselves the main question: “Why do I live?” - and, of course, answer it, that is, students should think about the meaning of their lives.

However, not all Orthodox schools are so rosy. Some of these establishments are a real sharashkin office under the guise of Orthodoxy.

“Orthodox schools in the capital are very different, for example, I came across an institution that was a natural sharaga under the guise of Orthodoxy,” says Svetlana Fefilaktova, who worked as a teacher of Russian and literature in one of the Orthodox schools in the south of Moscow. - By and large, our school resembled a correctional institution because of the large number of difficult students. With faith, the situation at the school was also strange, I know that many high school students of this institution preached the teachings of Krishna. Yes, and the priest who led the school, many accused of hypocrisy and pride. I was almost immediately asked to work at the school as the head teacher, although I did not have any experience in such activities. Fortunately, at the moment this school has been closed, but in general, parents need to be very careful in choosing an educational institution if they want to send their child to an Orthodox school.

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The conversation will focus on the problems of the Orthodox school. For many parishes, the question arises of creating such a school, for many priests it is not clear whether they should bless their parishioners to send their children to such schools or, as they are called, “gymnasiums” (although this name is completely conditional) or, on the contrary, dissuade them in every possible way a careless step, since many parents have already "burned themselves" at such schools.

Unfortunately, I am not very familiar with other gymnasiums, so we will talk about the experience of our school - the Orthodox comprehensive school of the St. Vladimir Educational Center. But I am sure that many of the problems we face are common.

The fact is that when creating the so-called Orthodox gymnasiums, we did not realize, and still do not fully realize, that we were involved in the creation of a completely new school (the system of school education), which has no analogies in the history of pedagogy. Therefore, these schools are created with such great difficulty, and therefore they disintegrate very quickly, because without realizing this and not starting to solve cardinal problems in a new way, nothing can be done - many old familiar forms simply do not work, and the school ceases to exist or ceases to be Orthodox. The novelty and unusualness of the Orthodox school lies in the fact that this school began to be thought of as a church school, that is, having as its basis those principles that are laid down in the life of the Church itself and specifically in the life of the parish. Therefore, those schools that have grown out of the parish exist inseparably with the parish - these schools are holding on, being strengthened; and those schools that arose apart from the parish, only with the involvement of a priest, so to speak, arose from an idea - these schools basically disintegrate or barely exist (I repeat that I do not know the life of other schools well enough, so I can be mistaken).

What seems to me fundamentally new in church school? It is the absence of barriers.

The school as a structure is built on several levels:

- administration,

— teachers,

- parents.

And certain barriers are being built between all levels, which, on the one hand, help the administration, teachers to manage students and parents and, if necessary, defend themselves very well from them, on the other hand, of course, they make the school a sphere of alienation, where the student is always in opposition to the teacher, the teacher to the administration, and in turn the administration is in opposition to all parents without exception. These barriers are the main disciplinary and pedagogical management tool of the school system. So, the Orthodox school, consciously or unconsciously, went to break down these barriers, since we are all - teachers, students, and parents - members of one Church (and for us - a single parish), and we all have the same Teacher - Christ. And for the Orthodox school, this has become a real joy and the main difficulty that many have not been able to overcome or even realize.

There was a parish that was formed and strengthened in the ever-memorable Brezhnev era under the spiritual guidance of Fr. Sergei Romanov. We, i.e., the parishioners - teachers and parents, carried out catechization as much as possible from home, we already had a Sunday school, an icon-painting children's circle, the children learned church singing, children's holidays and wonderful performances were arranged for Christmas and Easter. In the summer there was usually something like a children's camp. It was a very fertile time - a time when the fruits of this work were obvious - the parish rallied, the children surprisingly courageously carried their Christian cross in the conditions of that school and defended their faith. And of course, everyone could not even dream then that very soon there would be such huge opportunities for creating their own school with their own concept, with their own principles and ideals.

Such a time has come. The school was created, the concept was developed, the principles and ideals were proclaimed. The real experience of past years of working with children under conditions of persecution of Orthodoxy gave me confidence that everything would be even better, even more fruitful than before.

We have decided that our gymnasium will be guided by the following principles. To accept children from churched families or, as an exception, such children whose parents have firmly embarked on the path of churching. The principle of accepting all who wished was rejected at once - and I think that it was right, because this is a great danger of ruining a business that has not yet begun. Very many parents would like to place their children in a good place, give them a Christian upbringing and education, but they do not want to understand that Christianity cannot be practiced - Christianity must be lived. And the usual argument of such parents: “Well, it’s too late for us to change, there is no time to go to church, and God is in our souls. But in the Soviet school - it's bad there: swearing, fighting, theft, debauchery, etc., but we want our children to study the Law of God and grow up to be good people.

Children are really very receptive at first to the Word of God, to Divine services, to prayer. But if they hear at school about how to live according to the commandments, how important it is to live one life with the Church, with Christ, but at home, in their family reality, they see that parents simply do not attach any importance to spiritual life, or even just live openly pagan and can even laugh at the shrine, then sooner or later the child begins to live a double life, to be hypocritical, and such an “Orthodox upbringing” can end in hypocrisy and blasphemy for the child, and for the Orthodox school - collapse, which happens in many cases .

It seemed to us that we foresaw this very important moment and everything should go in the right direction.

It was decided that the Orthodox gymnasium is the common cause of the parish-parents-children. This is a kind of building-dispensation, similar to how parish and family spiritual life is arranged. This is a very important principle for us. He is fundamental. The Apostle Peter in his first epistle says: “... you, like living stones, build a spiritual house out of yourselves” (). Therefore, the school must live the common life of the parish and the family, and itself become like the parish and the family. To do this, teachers, parents and children must work spiritually, live a common spiritual life. Pray together, partake of the sacraments together. And this really broke down the terrible barricade that the Soviet school erected between teachers and students, parents and school. It seemed to us (and this is true in reality) that liturgical communion would be the most fruitful moment of our reconciliation and cooperation. Moreover, usually in Orthodox schools, the class size is very small, about 10 people, which should make communication between the teacher and students friendly and family.

A curriculum was developed, which included, in addition to the basic components, of course, the Law of God, several foreign languages, several ancient languages, church singing, church sewing and other so-called gymnasium subjects. Here we can say that, of course, the main idea of ​​​​creating an Orthodox school was the desire to protect our children from the really corrupting situation that exists in public schools. But of course, the euphoria in which the school was created turned our heads and we swung at something, perhaps beyond our strength, and most importantly, for our children, who were completely unprepared for such an intense curriculum. Now it seems to me that, perhaps, it is not even necessary to study ancient languages ​​in a modern school, when children speak Russian clumsily, but that is another question.

It turned out that euphoria manifested itself not only in this.

The concept has been developed, the principles have been proclaimed. Parents took their children from public schools and brought them to our gymnasium.

The first year was, of course, amazing for everyone. With God's help, everything turned out as we dreamed - teachers have an amazing enthusiasm, children have a desire to learn, parents have a willingness to devote all their free time to the gymnasium. There was such a feeling that the Lord is very close and replenishes everything, arranges everything. In general, of course, everything was done, as often happens with us, in haste - to have time to arrange everything as soon as possible, since it is not known what will happen tomorrow. Good people came to work - Orthodox, but not teachers, subject specialists - but without school experience. All this was imperceptible at first - the joy of a new business was too great, too much euphoria. Then it very painfully responds to the entire educational process. We buried the Soviet school too quickly, joyfully shook its ashes off our feet and completely failed to notice the colossal positive and educational and methodological, and administrative, and even educational experience that it possessed.

It seemed to us (and it continues to seem so to many): we are all Orthodox - everything will be fine with us - we will win. But the reality turned out to be somewhat different. First of all, discipline. After some time, it turned out that our Orthodox children do not know how to behave at all. Moreover, when you find yourself with our friends in a museum, on an excursion, in a public place, they behave not only badly, but in such a way that they stand out with their wild behavior compared to non-Orthodox children. The same is true in the classroom - it became possible that in an ordinary public school it was completely unacceptable. Children do not pay attention to the teacher, do not greet the elders, walk around the class during the lesson, etc. Teachers who did not work at school are not able to establish discipline during the lesson. Moreover, all teachers were terribly afraid of such unpopular "Soviet methods" as "2", writing in a diary, calling parents, etc.

Discipline was further undermined by the fact that our Orthodox parents, when they wanted to, they brought the child, when they didn’t want to, they left them at home or, even better, went to church instead of lessons - in their opinion, this is more important, and things like that.

At first we did not understand what was the matter, why this was happening - a completely opposite effect. But if we pay attention to ourselves, everything will become clear. It turned out that the principle of nepotism was perceived not in the sense of special responsibility and spiritual kinship, but in the sense of familiar permissiveness, and was perceived this way mainly on the part of parents. In general, I will now touch on a very important problem that concerns the current state of parish life in our Church and which determines very, very many problems in our so-called church revival. The Soviet era made a very strong upheaval in the consciousness of the Church, and the communist formulation that the Church exists to “dispose of religious needs” has firmly entered the consciousness of Soviet and post-Soviet people. Let's take a look, check ourselves - why do we go to Church, why do we partake, pray, confess? What is spiritual life for us? And if we are honest, then in most cases it will turn out that we go only for ourselves, that is, to receive from the Church, to take, to carry away, to arrange our life. And more often than not, we don't really care about those who pray next to us, because prayer is also our own business. We came to the Church to receive, the Church must give us. Everything is very simple - for us, this is how spiritual life usually develops. And so everything exists for us: the community, which should take care of us, and the confessor, who is obliged to feed us, and the gymnasium, which should solve all our family problems. But in fact, the opposite is true - we must go to the Church in order to give ourselves to God and our neighbors, it is the parish that needs us, we are the “living stones”, without which the building of the Church cannot be built. This is a very big problem that everyone needs to solve. This is our common very low church level - spiritual consumerism, which, above all other problems, hinders the spiritual construction of our Church. Here is a common picture that one has to observe in the temple. A family comes to the temple with children and immediately tries to move away from the children. Children run around the temple, interfere with everyone, push, and the parents reverently froze in prayer, they don’t see or hear anything - they don’t care that others cannot pray because of their children. They do not care - they came to receive, and they will take "their own". And the children who had fun during the service, pushed, ran out, did not pray at all, thoughtlessly take communion, take communion often - it is believed that from this the children will grow up to be real Christians. Then these children come to Orthodox gymnasiums and behave the way they behave in church, because the gymnasium (this is our principle!) is a continuation of church life. And parents are perplexed why claims are made against them - after all, we are all our own, why no one wants to understand their problems, they, with all their hearts, decided to shift their problems onto the fragile shoulders of the newly formed Orthodox gymnasium, which still has to pay at least something for work for teachers.

Children perceive school as a place where they were placed to get rid of all problems, including studying. Children and, of course, parents have to overcome the strange “Orthodox” principle that the main thing for a child is to read Church Slavonic and know the voices, and what is more, “from the evil one”. And when you have to be expelled for poor progress, parents and children are indignant: “How? Are we going to have to go to this "terrible public school"? Where will we die, where will our children be abused?” - such is the speculation. In fact, in a public school, many of our children would have shown themselves much better than in an Orthodox school, more responsibly and disciplined.

We encountered an even more dangerous situation in the lessons of the Law of God. To our surprise and alarm, we began to discover a strong cooling and indifference of our children to doctrinal subjects and prayer. Prayer before a lesson, before a meal began to turn into a blasphemous patter. At the lessons on the Law of God - the absence of the fear of God, the children began to show off in front of each other fearlessness and blasphemy, that is, again, a completely opposite effect. And these are children from church families. This is a very dangerous phenomenon that occurs in many Orthodox schools. It turned out that in our concepts and principles we forgot about very important things. We thought that the spiritual life of our children takes shape at home and in church. Our job is to guide them in the Law of God, to give them knowledge of Sacred history and spiritual laws. But our children began to perceive these spiritual disciplines without applying any spiritual labor, outwardly, on an intellectual level, bypassing the soul and heart (10 years ago, many would have paid for such classes with loss of work, expulsion from college and school, or maybe and prison). And now it's too easy. And the spiritual wealth that we have thanks to the blood of the martyrs and the feat of the saints, our children receive with amazing ease and irresponsibility. They can explain in detail the order of worship, interpret the Creed, talk a lot on gospel topics, but in real life they are completely different, they live differently. It turns out some kind of gap between church prayer, communion and what really fills their lives. It turns out again that when they studied in public schools, they had to really answer for their Christianity, to fight for it. In an environment far from the church and often hostile, children showed themselves to be Christians, and in an Orthodox school, among such children, on the one hand, they feel like a “chosen herd”, they are exalted, and, on the other hand, they show off in front of each other. another lack of reverence and fearlessness. I want to make a reservation, do not think that the most wicked and disorderly children have gathered in the Orthodox gymnasium, who only do what they violate discipline and blaspheme. I am now talking about those sprouts, about those “flowers of evil” that unexpectedly for us began to suddenly appear, about those tendencies that can manifest themselves if they are not immediately seen and not eradicated. What to do in such a situation? It turned out that we have deprived children of a very important area of ​​life - mental.

We are trying to teach children to realize themselves in the intellectual field - this is study, languages, circles, etc. They perceive this to the best of their abilities: someone is better, someone is worse; in the spiritual realm - the Law of God, prayer, temple; children are not yet capable of spiritual life to the extent we expect them to be. Spiritual life is the work of their maturity and our spiritual maturity is the measure of the age of Christ. And the stepping stone to spiritual life is a correctly arranged life of the soul. Right mental disposition will lead to a stable, sober and sacrificial spiritual life. Children need real common, interesting things in which they could prove themselves, at least for the time being just like real people who will not betray a comrade, help a friend, forgive insults; things that will teach them to be friends and value each other. These, of course, are pilgrimages and trips - those in which children will have to overcome something; it could be a school theatre; in our gymnasium, we began to publish the magazine "Gymnasist", and, what is also very important, is the participation of children in church services. In our parish church, Saturday is the day when children sing on the kliros in the church, children read, prepare services, and ring the bell tower. They feel their responsibility for the temple and the service and pray for real.

There will probably be a lot more problems and surprises, I touched on a few.

It seems to me that for the Church the creation of its own Orthodox school is the most important problem after the problem of creating parish life. And those parishes that are going to create such schools are taking on a very heavy cross. Now in Russia there are only about 60 Orthodox schools, very different in terms of level, and there is no tendency for them to grow. This is indeed a very difficult matter and, of course, it is bitter and insulting that our bishops practically do not care about us, that the Council of Bishops, which considered questions of education, limited itself only to the problems of theological schools. Nobody deals with Orthodox schools, except for state educational institutions - we are much more closely connected with them and dependent on them both materially and legally, and the Department of Religious Education has not even established links between Orthodox schools in Moscow. Financially, we are poor. Therefore, those parishes that think about the future of the Church, which, in spite of everything, create a school and not a shop in their parish premises, they truly serve the Church and build it. This is a feat now - to save our children. And the creation of our church school is not a private matter, but a church-wide one.

Our rating-study of Moscow Orthodox schools. Each of them has its own face, which is not reflected in dry figures and tables, so today we will try to make a kind of portrait gallery of schools participating in the rating. We will talk about those schools, information about which the editors had at the time of delivery of the issue.

St. Vladimir General Education Orthodox School

The foundation of the future school was laid back in Soviet times by priest Sergiy Romanov, who rallied the parish around him and organized classes for children and adults. Since Sunday schools were actually banned then, the authorities tried to interfere with Father Sergius by transferring him from parish to parish. In 1991, when religious education was allowed by the Law on Freedom of Religion, a kindergarten and a gymnasium appeared in the parish.

Initially, the school was conceived as a classical gymnasium based on the traditions of Orthodox Russia, and as a result, according to Archpriest Alexy Uminsky, “a new type of school appeared, which grew not so much from the usual understanding of the school, but from the understanding of the Church.” Today, St. Vladimir's School defines its tasks simply: to give students a good general education in combination with religious and moral spiritual education. And judging by the fact that schoolchildren become prize-winners and winners of Olympiads and pass the exam with high scores, she is quite successful in this.

Upon admission, parents of future students are interviewed: it is very important for the school management that teachers and parents have common views on the fundamental issues of education and upbringing. Subject to availability, children are accepted in all classes except the 11th.
There are currently 133 children in the school.

Laura Katanskaya, Deputy Director for Academic Affairs of the St. Vladimir General Education Orthodox School: “The main principle of our teachers is: “Seek the truth with your child.” Teachers of the school try to implement an individual approach and reveal the creative potential of each child. This is possible thanks to both serious work during school hours and the work of circles at the highest level.”

School "Nika"

"Nika" was founded in 1995, and today it is one of the largest private schools in Moscow: together with students of the preschool department, 560 children study here. In the ranking of schools in the South-Western district, "Nika" takes the second place. The school is an experimental platform for the Institute of Content and Teaching Methods of the Russian Academy of Education.

Foreign languages ​​- English (from the 1st grade), German, Spanish and French - are taught here at the level of a special school. Last year, for many years of cooperation with Cambridge ESOL (a department of the University of Cambridge), Nika received the status of an official center for preparing for Cambridge exams. The school positions itself as Orthodox-oriented, and although there is no information about this on its website, it has a confessor - Schema-Archimandrite Eli (Nozdrin), the Basics of Orthodoxy are taught at the school, in the senior classes there are Pastoral hours, conversations about Orthodoxy.

Since "Nika" is a full-time school, children can be in it from 8 to 20 o'clock, in the afternoon there are numerous clubs and studios. The school has a kindergarten and a preparatory department.

Irina Rubleva, director of the Nika school:“Over the past 16 years, we have grown from 40 students to 560. Last year, for example, we had a competition for admission: 20 children per place. This indicates that there is an interest in the quality education of children, and we, apparently, satisfy the requests of parents. We can say that we have a missionary school: let children come to it, who, perhaps, are not yet ready for an Orthodox school. According to our data, 98 percent of parents are not opposed to their sons and daughters being introduced to Orthodox culture from an early age.”

Classical gymnasium at the Greek-Latin cabinet of Yu. A. Shichalin

The gymnasium was opened in 1993 at the Greco-Latin cabinet named after. Shichalin with the aim of reviving the model of pre-revolutionary classical gymnasium education in Russia. As befits a traditional gymnasium, from the very beginning it was conceived as Orthodox, but officially received this status in 2000. There are no confessional barriers to admission to the gymnasium, but all classes are required to study the Law of God, including the study of the Church Slavonic language and the history of the Church.

The basis of education is three blocks of subjects: ancient and new languages ​​(English, German, French and modern Greek, Latin, ancient Greek and Church Slavonic), mathematical and natural sciences, the Law of God. Among the teachers are doctors and candidates of philological, historical, biological, physical, mathematical and philosophical sciences from the Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow State University and other universities. Every year a school scientific conference is held, performances are staged.

Today, 154 children study at the gymnasium.

Elena Shichalina, director of the gymnasium at the Greek-Latin office:“Of course, we set educational goals as the basis: to give children a fundamental sound education, including the compulsory study of ancient languages ​​- ancient Greek and Latin. And we try to continue this line. Over the past ten years, changes have taken place in society, in our opinion, for the better. Previously, we had to explain to parents that a classical gymnasium presupposes an Orthodox worldview; Now the composition of the school students is practically homogeneous: we have children from churched families - from different parishes, but very many children and parents attend our church.”

Orthodox classical gymnasium "Radonezh"

Radonezh is one of the oldest Orthodox educational institutions in Moscow, founded in 1990 by the Orthodox brotherhood Radonezh. In 2009, the gymnasium was accredited with a higher status - Education Center.

The educational program is based on a combination of the advantages of pre-revolutionary classical education, modern high-quality natural science education and spiritual and moral education based on the principles of Christian anthropology. In the gymnasium they study English (from the 1st grade according to the special school program), German (from the 5th), Latin (from the 6th to the 10th grade). Much attention is paid to church disciplines: the Law of God is taught from the 1st to the 11th grade, and from the 5th grade it is a serious subject in which they receive grades and pass tests. Liturgy, Church Slavonic, Church history are also studied. There are special courses on ancient Russian literature and Russian literature of the 18th century; on the history of ancient civilizations of the Middle East, on the history of Ancient Greece, the Roman Empire, Byzantium, Latin, rhetoric, logic, philosophy.

Back in 1991, teachers and students of the gymnasium founded a tented prayer and labor camp at the monastery of the Holy Vvedenskaya Optina Hermitage, which now annually gathers more than a hundred gymnasium students for the summer holidays. In addition, there is a tourist club in the gymnasium, gymnasium students traditionally make long trips and pilgrimages both in Russia and to other countries: Bulgaria, Ukraine, Finland, Armenia, Latvia, and so on.

There are 200 students in the gymnasium.

Mikhail Tishkov, director of the Orthodox classical gymnasium "Radonezh":“The mission of the school is to form a consistent picture of the world among children from Orthodox families and, through the subject content of education, to give an opportunity to discover for themselves the hidden plane of being, in which God reveals Himself as the Creator of this world and calls each of us to work together.”

Orthodox Center for Continuing Education in the name of St. Seraphim of Sarov

The school was founded in 1991. At first, these were Orthodox classes at school No. 984 of the Saburovo MZhK. In 1992, the school became known as the "Saburovo Orthodox Gymnasium in the name of St. Seraphim of Sarov", in 2008 it received an increased accreditation status of the Education Center.

The school is a socially oriented institution and actively uses forms of inclusive education in its work, therefore, the advantage when entering here is for children from large families (almost half of these are currently studying here), for children of parishioners of Sunday school and churches, the disabled (with the preservation of intelligence).

The only Orthodox school where, from the 5th grade, separate education of boys and girls is conducted.

During the holidays, school students are engaged in archaeological excavations, practice in biology and history on Solovki.

The number of students and pupils of the kindergarten is 311.

Tatyana Leshcheva, director of the Orthodox Center for Lifelong Education in the name of St. Seraphim of Sarov:“Somehow we accepted one child in a wheelchair, then other children with disabilities came to us. We are very happy about this, because it is not enough to talk about morality, mercy - mercy should be in deeds. By the way, children with disabilities are an example of fortitude and an ardent desire to learn. I would like to have such students in every class so that the educational process is really truthful and open. Cases of expulsion are rare: you can endure due to weakness. We help such children, but we fight laziness.”

Orthodox St. Peter's School

The history of the St. Peter's Orthodox School began in 1982, when several Orthodox families tried to gather their children within the walls of the 91st school in Moscow. The students of this Orthodox class and some of the teachers then moved to the Traditional Gymnasium, established in 1992 (as St. Peter's School was called until 2010). For the first six years, the gymnasium did not have its own premises. In 1998, the gymnasium moved to a building specially built for it on the banks of the Yauza River.

The school has a record graduation rate for a non-state educational institution: an average of 30 eleventh-graders leave it every year. Former students, growing up and having families, bring their children here. All this indicates a high degree of trust in the school and a strong parish. Also, St. Peter's School can rightfully take first place in terms of the number of children from large families - 95 percent. All this does not prevent the school from maintaining a high educational standard: students win the All-Russian Olympiads, a significant part of graduates go to universities, and the average USE score in 2011 was 67.34.
The school has an agreement on cooperation and joint activities with the Orthodox St. Tikhon Humanitarian University, whose teachers work in the gymnasium and which enrolls some of the graduates.

Priest Andrei Posternak, director of the Orthodox St. Peter's School:“Our school is one of the largest Orthodox schools in Moscow (and maybe in Russia) in terms of the number of students - 366 people. Almost all the children in our school are from large families. Our students twice a week participate in the liturgy, which is performed in the school's house church. The school has a large school-wide choir, in which children of the senior and middle classes sing.

Orthodox classical gymnasium in the name of the Icon of the Mother of God "The Sign" in Khovrin

In the gymnasium in the name of the Icon of the Mother of God "The Sign" in Khovrin, founded in 1993, 120 students study today.

In the gymnasium, much attention is paid to the humanities, as well as foreign languages: students study English in depth, there is an opportunity to learn Serbian, modern Greek or German as a second foreign language (with the opportunity to pass an exam for a certificate). Church disciplines are seriously studied: the Law of God, Catechism, Holy Scripture, the foundations of Divine service, the history of the Church, basic theology.

The school has three choirs (an ensemble of folk Greek songs, the Znamensky Cossack choir, the children's choir "Svirel").

Gifted children study for free.

Igor Buzin, director of the Znamenie gymnasium:“In our school, which has been operating since 1993, both for the founders and for all professional teachers, and, of course, for me (I teach Russian language and literature), education has always been a task of paramount importance. In fact, if the goal of a school is not quality education, then it is anything but a school. We immediately formed as a professional, serious, and completely thorough school, and not just as some kind of “educational environment” in which children need to plunge in order not to “spoil”. As time passes, we are convinced of the fairness of the approach: it is impossible to separate and oppose these two processes.”

School in the name of John the Theologian

The school opened 20 years ago. Today it is the only Orthodox comprehensive school in the Western District.

The law of God is studied from the 1st to the 11th grade, in addition to the school principal (Archpriest Sergey Makhonin), all the teachers of the law, the deputy director for educational work, teachers of music, physics and computer science are priests.

Traditionally, schoolchildren make pilgrimages to Murom, Ryazan, the Holy Mountains, to St. Petersburg shrines, shrines of Moscow, to monasteries: Optina Pustyn, St. Diveevsky, St. John the Theologian, St. Assumption Vyshinsky, etc. spend time at a school camp in the village of Emmanuilovka, Ryazan region, near the Holy Dormition Vyshinsky Monastery. In this camp, children receive spiritual food, learn monastic obedience, compete in various sports, go hiking, learn to survive in forest conditions and acquire many life skills.

Maria Makhonina, Deputy Director of the School named after John the Theologian:“Now the experience of Orthodox schools is in demand in society, because moral education, which the state school refused, has always been present in them. It can be said that the Orthodox school forms an ideological core, which in itself protects the soul of the child, contributing to the manifestation of the image of God in him. We cannot say that the requirements for all students are the same, because there is a Providence of God for every child. Initially, every child is talented, he has his own abilities, and the task of the school is to reveal these abilities, so that at the same time he feels as comfortable as possible in an Orthodox school.”

Gymnasium "Hellas" in the name of Saints Cyril and Methodius

The gymnasium opened in 1996. In 2009, she passed an attestation, received the official status of a gymnasium (after which the number of students doubled) and was named after Saints Cyril and Methodius. By its name, the gymnasium, as its founders emphasize, demonstrates a connection not only with ancient culture, on which modern European civilization grew, but also with Eastern Christian Byzantine culture, which determined the further development of the educational institution as an Orthodox one. The main paradigm of the education of the gymnasium: Non scholae, sed vitae discimuus ("Learning not for school, but for life").

Gymnasium students annually participate in olympiads and design and research competitions, successfully pass the Cambridge language exams (results - from 80 to 100 points). The gymnasium has contacts with the Russian State Higher School of Economics, Moscow State Pedagogical University, as well as with the University of Nicosia and the Lyceum of Ap. Mark (Cyprus).

The gymnasium has the status of a "UNESCO Associated School", and one of the goals of this large-scale international project is the study and preservation of cultural heritage, primarily Orthodox shrines - churches and monasteries.

Gymnasium students have the opportunity to receive professional education in the following specialties: a category B car driver (the school has two auditoriums specially equipped with modern technical means of teaching), a church choir singer, a reader (within the subject of the CSL).

The gymnasium has its own five-story building and a large area with a football field, a sports ground and a children's fairy-tale town. School transport delivers children to their homes.

Elizabethan Gymnasium

The Elizabethan Gymnasium at the Marfo-Mariinsky Convent of Mercy (former name - NOU "Secondary Orthodox Educational School in the Name of St. Blessed Prince Alexander Nevsky") next year will be 20 years old. A few years ago, the school was accredited to the higher status of a gymnasium.

Teaching is conducted according to the general state program with in-depth study of mathematics, history, literature and English. English is taught according to the program of a special school, exchanges are regularly carried out with the best educational centers in the UK, teachers are invited to the gymnasium - native speakers (graduates and trainees from the British cities of Oxford and Bristol). Teaching is conducted in Russian and English. Of the additional subjects - English literature and poetry in English.

From the 5th grade, a second European language is introduced, from the 6th grade, all gymnasium students study Church Slavonic and Latin.

Every week, every Wednesday, the confessor of the gymnasium, Archpriest Artemy Vladimirov, celebrates Matins and Divine Liturgy. Students take an active part in the service: confess and take communion, help at the altar, read, sing on the kliros. The curriculum includes such doctrinal disciplines as the Law of God, the lessons of piety, the Church Slavonic language.

Dimitrievskaya school

One of the “youngest” Orthodox schools in Moscow was opened in 2003 on the initiative of parents of Orthodox families, members of the local Orthodox organization “Sisterhood in the Name of the Blessed Tsarevich Dimitri” and parishioners of the hospital church of the Blessed Tsarevich Dimitri at the First City Hospital in Moscow. Many of the initiators became the founders of the school.

Children from parishes study at the school, as well as pupils from two Orthodox orphanages (boys from St. Sophia and girls from St. Demetrius). Schoolchildren take part in charity events: they visit patients of the First City Hospital, make toys for children from the orphanage, hold charity fairs and auctions in favor of sick children.

In addition to traditional subjects, here you can study astrophysics in English, economics, and regional studies.

The Dimitrievskaya school has its own music department, where after the end of the lessons there are musical classes in piano, violin, cello, flute, block flute, clarinet.

Priest Alexander Lavrukhin, director of the Dimitrievskaya school:“The school is somewhat similar to the standard parochial school. And this gives rise to certain problems, since there is a large parish in which there are a lot of children, and parents, of course, believe that children should go to school when they come, but not everyone understands that education is the defining core in it. Yes, we strive to educate a person who will perceive his life as a service to God and the Church. But isn’t it obvious that within the walls of the school, the child’s main ministry is studying, and if he studies poorly and industriously, then he does not fulfill his calling at the moment and in the future he is unlikely to be able to grow up as a truly devoted person to the Church? Very different children study with us: quite a lot - more than 30 children - from orphanages, about 120 - from large families, where there are many hardships in life; nevertheless, we set high educational standards for all our students, motivate them to study and never give marks higher than they deserve.”

Orthodox classical gymnasium "Sofia", Klin

The Orthodox classical gymnasium "Sofia" was opened in 2000 as a confessional general educational institution.

In the gymnasium, they study the Russian language and literature in depth, the senior classes of the social and humanitarian profile. Children in the gymnasium are full-time, in each class there is not only a class teacher, but also an Orthodox teacher. In the afternoon, individual classes are held with teachers, a theater group, a choral singing group, an art studio, a dance group, computer science, a football section, a chess group, the Clever and Clever Club, and a scientific and technical modeling group work. A scientific society is working in Sofia - the “School of Researchers “Gimnazist””, which actively cooperates with Moscow State University, Moscow Aviation Institute, RSSU and the Timiryazev Academy, even at the gymnasium, conferences “Sciences feed young men” and Kulibino weeks of science and technology (for elementary schools).

A lot of attention in the gymnasium is paid to social service and educational activities: gymnasium students regularly visit veterans from the House of Veterans, children from orphanages and the Harmony Center, where performances are shown and concerts are held.

Natalya Bordilovskaya, director of the gymnasium "Sofia":“All the years of its existence, our gymnasium has been living as a school-family with moral principles traditional for Orthodox Russia. The older generation (priests, teachers, parents, employees) takes care of the good education of children, their good upbringing, gradually creates the spiritual foundation of the individual. In the gymnasium there is an opportunity for every student to reveal their abilities, to try themselves in business. “Learn by doing” is the motto of teachers and gymnasium students.

Orthodox gymnasium in the name of St. Sergius of Radonezh, Sergiev Posad

The gymnasium was founded in 1998, the founders were the Holy Trinity Sergius Lavra, the Moscow Theological Academy and the administration of the Sergiev Posad district. Prior to that, starting in 1992, the gymnasium unofficially existed under the guise of a family community. Recently passed accreditation, which approved the increased status of the gymnasium of the educational institution.

Three foreign languages ​​are studied at the gymnasium, there is an opportunity to additionally study the history of philosophical thought, the Law of God, and Orthodox local history. There are special courses and electives in biology, mathematics, history. There are seventeen circles: an art studio, a choir studio, a needlework circle, a theater studio, an Orthodox cinema club, sexton courses, a biological circle "Young Naturalist", chess, and so on.

Gymnasium students regularly win prizes in city and regional olympiads and competitions, over the past five years they have invariably been laureates of the Moscow International Forum "Gifted Children".

In the near future, it is planned to create an Orthodox educational complex on the basis of the gymnasium, including: an Orthodox boarding school, a city Orthodox gymnasium, an Orthodox kindergarten, a youth center, children's sports and recreation camps, and an educational and methodological center.

Nina Ilyina, deputy director for teaching and educational work of the Orthodox gymnasium named after St. Sergius of Radonezh: “A feature of the educational process of our gymnasium is the combination of an in-depth approach to teaching the humanities with a serious attitude to the subjects of the mathematical and natural science cycle.”

ANO TsO "Znak"

Founded 20 years ago by a group of like-minded parents and teachers, the Znak school was created in the image of a "big family". Over time, the structure of the school changed, the number of students increased, but until now, each class is headed by educators - the “second dad” and the “second mom”, and their status and authority are very high.

Now it is a whole educational complex, consisting of a kindergarten, a school, early development groups, circles and sections, as well as the Vstrecha family club. Teachers have developed and applied the concept of education based on the principles of Christian anthropology.

The school has the opportunity to study several European languages ​​​​and get a Cambridge certificate.

Here they believe that in the professional work of subject teachers and correctional teachers there can be no unsuccessful ones: if a child has a safe intellect, then it is necessary to find out the cause of poor progress and help eliminate it.

Protsenko Elena Yurievna, director: We are a missionary-catechetical type school, an open Orthodox school. We take not only churched children, but also those who have not yet come to the Church. And we apparently our task is to show that such a road exists. And we have a positive experience - coming to us, children and their parents are baptized.

Irina KOSALS

Brief description of some of the most famous Orthodox schools and gymnasiums in Moscow.

Orthodox Classical Gymnasium "Radonezh"

STORY. The oldest of the Orthodox gymnasiums in Moscow (opened in 1990), while from the very beginning it was not a parish, but an open school. There were 10 editions. Now it occupies the building of a former kindergarten in Yasenevo.

CHILDREN. They accept children only from churched families. The recommendation of a family confessor is desirable, but not required. Parents of all applicants are interviewed by the confessor of the gymnasium. Children are admitted to senior classes with a probationary period of at least two months: it is necessary to figure out whether the child will pull the local academic load. Now there are about 210 students in the school, there are all classes, mostly two classes in parallel.

Home church in the name of St. Apostle and Evangelist John the Theologian

CHURCH. Since 1993, a house church has been opened at the gymnasium in the name of St. Apostle and Evangelist John the Theologian. In all classes, the Law of God is taught once a week. Every day - a school-wide prayer before classes, whether to pray before each lesson - depends on the class curator. On Mondays - a prayer service for St. Sergius. Starting from the 4th grade, there is a liturgical practice twice a year: children sing, read and serve in the church, and everyone confesses and takes communion.

EDUCATION. Competition for admission to the 1st class 1.5-2 people per place. Humanitarian orientation of education, in-depth study of languages, including ancient ones, with an emphasis on comparative grammatical analysis.

Acceptance. Almost 100%: Moscow State University (mainly philological and historical departments), PSTBI, Medical Academy, Pedagogical University, Moscow Architectural Institute and other universities.

Director and confessor of the gymnasium Fr. Aleksey Sysoev: “If parents sincerely live with God, then they can see that just as they did not conceive and “blind” this child, they cannot fully educate him and fully introduce him into this life. They must find their modest but worthy niche here. If they make a mistake, they will either be tyrants and then the child will be crippled, or the child will be let go too much and he will grow up to be a voluptuary or even a criminal. We need to take a strict religious stand here. There is a proverb: a child is a guest in the family. In the same way, the school must find the right proportions of relationships and understand how much it dares to see a person.

Center for Continuing Education in the name of St. Seraphim of Sarov

(gymnasium "Saburovo")

STORY. It opened 12 years ago in the form of several Orthodox classes on the basis of a public school, then the building of the former kindergarten was transferred to the school, and now its own school building is being built. In addition to the school, the structure of the center includes an Orthodox kindergarten, a leisure center, a Sunday school and a branch of a music school.

Easter in "Saburovo"

CHILDREN. Priority for admission is given to children from nearby parishes, however, children from families who are just starting to become church members are also accepted into the school. Before admission, an interview is held first with the family, and then with the child. Parents have the opportunity to attend Sunday school, and homework according to the Law of God is given not only to the child. Now there are 270 children in the school, there are all classes - from 1st to 11th.

CHURCH. There is no church of its own yet, but a church in the name of St. Joseph Volotsky. At the school itself, an akathist to St. Seraphim of Sarov (duty classes), prayers before and after each lesson. Once a week, a water-blessed prayer service is served. Spiritual disciplines in the program: The Law of God (1 hour per week), spiritual singing and Church Slavonic are added in elementary school. Confessor - Fr. Alexander Ivannikov (serves in the Moscow region, rector of the church under construction in the name of St. Joseph Volotsky).

EDUCATION. Competition 3 people per place in class 1. Senior classes specialized (humanitarian, mathematical, natural sciences). Many graduates entered seminaries and the Orthodox St. Tikhon Theological Institute (PSTI).

Director of the gymnasium T. I. Leshcheva: “In matters of education, we attach great importance to obedience. Inability or unwillingness to obey in the future will lead to anarchy, and one who has reached a commanding position, but does not know obedience, will not be able to be a kind and skillful leader for others. The virtue of obedience most of all helps to reveal the creative abilities of a person.

Traditional gymnasium

STORY. The gymnasium has officially existed since 1992, although already in the late 80s, the parishioners of the Nikolo-Kuznetsk Church actually created an Orthodox class in an ordinary secular school. The first release was in 1993. The gymnasium began its life in the premises of the music school. Chopin, but now it is located in a building specially built in 1998 in the center of Moscow.

Church of St. Nicholas in Kuznetsy

CHILDREN. Children are accepted only from churched families, with priority given to parishioners of the Nikolo-Kuznetsk and St. Demetrius churches. Upon admission, a written recommendation is required from the confessor or the parents of the child (for babies who have not yet gone to confession). Now there are 393 students in the gymnasium, all classes (two in parallel). School uniform has been introduced since 2000.

CHURCH. Home church in the name of St. Peter, Metropolitan of Krutitsy. Gymnasium liturgies are held once a week, attendance is optional, but desirable. Gymnasium director Fr. Andrei Posternak: “We demand from the disciples that they lead a good church life. But one cannot force one to take communion or go to church; that would be blasphemy, violence against a person's free will. Rigid accounting here would be a kind of profanity, a formalization of church life, which took place, for example, in Russia at the beginning of the 20th century, when people knew the catechism well, but were completely non-church in spirit. An example of this are many of our revolutionaries who graduated from theological schools. We must try to make sure that the children go to the lessons of the Law of God with joy, so that they pray sincerely, from the bottom of their hearts.”

The Law of God in all classes - 1 hour per week. Every day is a common prayer before the start of classes. The confessor of the gymnasium is the rector of the Nikolo-Kuznetsk Church, the rector of the PSTBI, Fr. Vladimir Vorobyov.

EDUCATION. Competition in the gymnasium - 2 people per place. There is no specialization, but physics and mathematics are taught at a high level. For especially successful students in these disciplines, even a special scholarship has been established. Almost all graduates continued their studies at universities. About 23% of all graduates entered Moscow State University, about 22% - to PSTBI.

Gymnasium director Fr. Andrei Posternak: “Orthodox schools have changed and are now facing the same problems that ordinary schools face. This is connected both with the onslaught from outside and with the fact that Orthodox schools have passed the heroic stage of their development, when children from very strong church families came, when these schools were kept on a religious impulse. Enthusiasm wears off quickly. And schools are moving into a new state, when the professionalism of personnel and the spiritual renewal of the school are required.”

St. Vladimir General Education Orthodox School

STORY. The school was founded on the initiative of the parishioners of St. Vladimir in the Old Gardens in 1991. For about seven years, it has had all classes - from 1st to 11th. It is located in the premises that once belonged to the Ivanovo Monastery. The senior and junior schools have separate buildings connected by a common courtyard.

CHILDREN. The school was created for the children of parishioners, but, according to its spiritual father, Fr. Alexei Uminsky, "long ago outgrew the parish." Only churched children are accepted (a written recommendation from the confessor of the family is needed, an interview is also conducted with the confessor of the school). 125 students, one class per parallel.

Church of St. book. Vladimir in the Old Gardens

CHURCH. There is no house church, but the school is located a stone's throw from the church of St. Vladimir in Starye Sady. The day at school begins with a common prayer, in high school - a prayer before each lesson. From the charter: “The leadership of the gymnasium does not specifically monitor whether all the students attend the temple. But on those days when the holiday coincides with the school day, all gymnasium students, teachers, if possible, parents - confess and take communion in the church of St. Vladimir".

Twice a year, during Christmas and Great Lent, all children go to confession with the confessor of the gymnasium. From the 1st to the 11th grades the Law of God is taught (1 hour per week, in the 10th and 11th grades - 2 hours per week).

EDUCATION. Those wishing to enter the first grade are usually 2-3 times more than there are places in the school. There is no specialization. Admissions Director of the St. Vladimir School Marina Leonidovna Kondyurin in universities is close to 100%: Moscow State University, Moscow Aviation Institute, Pedagogical University, Patrice Lumumba University, MPEI and other Moscow universities.

School director M. L. Kondyurina: “Any manifestation of a child’s life - relationships with friends, parents, teachers, attitude to school, to study - all this is a manifestation of his spiritual dispensation. Naturally, any deviation of a child from a normal, Christian spiritual life is reflected in everything - in studies, in relations with comrades. We have few children, and they are all in sight. Any irregularities - rivalry, envy, jealousy, greed, vanity - are visible and require our reaction. All these irregularities, again, are from the realm of sin, an incorrect dispensation. If we have an Orthodox school, how can we pass this by?”

Classical gymnasium at the Greek-Latin cabinet

STORY. This gymnasium was not created as a parochial school. In the early 1990s, courses of ancient languages ​​were organized by the scientific and educational organization "Greco-Latin Cabinet", from where children were recruited to a classical gymnasium in 1993. The first release was in 1999. Initially, children from the fifth grade were admitted to the gymnasium, there was no primary education.

The elementary school was established in 1999. At first, the gymnasium operated at the Spasskaya Church of the Zaikonospassky Monastery, where the Slavic-Greek-Latin Academy was once located, and now it occupies the building of a former kindergarten not far from the Novodevichy Convent.

CHILDREN. Now there are 131 students here, there are all classes (one class per parallel). They accept not only church children, but also those whose parents want to join the Orthodox faith. Director of the gymnasium E. F. Shichalina: “There are children who were baptized while studying at our school.”

Of all the schools we visited, this is the only one where girls are allowed to wear trousers.

Bishop's service in the house church

CHURCH. The house church in the name of the Three Hierarchs, assigned to the church of the prophet Elijah (Ordinary), was consecrated in 2000. Participation in worship for children is optional. Mandatory presence at common prayer services at the beginning or end of the teaching. They pray before and after the meal, as well as at the beginning and after the lesson of the Law of God.

As for the task of upbringing in the faith, the director of the school E.F. Shichalina formulates it as follows: “We set the task of churching, accustoming children to the temple. As for education, faith, in my opinion, is not brought up, faith is sent by the Lord. I would say this: we have a school that is developing in the direction of an Orthodox school.”

For the study of the Law of God, 1 hour per week is allocated for all 11 years. From the 1st to the 5th grades, schoolchildren are required to attend classes of the Orthodox everyday choir, and optionally, they can practice church singing in Greek.

EDUCATION. Competition 2-3 people per place. The school is built on the model of a pre-revolutionary classical gymnasium: the teaching of ancient languages ​​(Latin and Ancient Greek) in a large volume plus strong mathematics. Teaching new languages: English or French as a first language, at the choice of the student. Second language: French, German or English. All graduates entered universities: Moscow State University (Physics, Biology, Mechanics and Mathematics, Geography, History, Philology and Economics), Russian State University for the Humanities, MGIMO, Moscow Architectural Institute and other universities.

Director of the gymnasium E. F. Shichalina: “To discuss with children the phenomena and problems of modern life, we often use ancient texts. There is much wisdom in ancient texts written in Latin and Greek. In the fables of Aesop, for example, in the conversations of Socrates. Everything that Socrates discussed turns out to be very relevant in our life.