A Jaunt Around Pleskovo. Экскурсия по школе на английскомя языке

A Jaunt Around Pleskovo

Written by Daniel Chugaev

Pleskovo Comprehensive Orthodox Christian Boarding School

Teacher: Irina Nickishina

Point 1

Welcome to Pleskovo Comprehensive Orthodox Christian Boarding School! Thank you for your visit! I’m your guide and I’m glad to tell you more about our school.

Pleskovo Boarding School, is located in Podolsky District of Moscow Region in Pleskovo village, which is approximately 35 kilometers away from Moscow.

Now we are standing just a few meters away from the first guard post. There are three of them surrounding the school. Due to some students live here the whole school year, the school needs to have a good security service.

In the distance you can see several cottages. Teachers and their families, whose houses are far away from Pleskovo, live there.

Right next to the guard post there are courts for playing tennis. When the weather is good, students enjoy playing here. At Pleskovo Boarding School students have a wide choice of sports to do. I will tell you more about them as soon as we get to the sports center.

Point 2

Pleskovo is the village with rich and amazing history. The name of Pleskovo is tightly connected with the names of the Sheremetevs family. They owned the manor since 1870 up to 1917. During the Soviet times the historical building had been nearly ruined.

However in 1997, with the help of one Ukrainian businessman and philanthropist, The Comprehensive Orthodox Christian Boarding School was established. The famous Sheremetevs buildings were reconstructed and redecorated. One of the Sheremetevs mansions now is used as a residence for honorable guests.

The school exists for the talented children from all Russia and Ukraine. In order to accomplish the school aims a unique complex of educational, recreational and health facilities was built including a church, a modern school, a gym, courts and a swimming pool.

Point 3

We we are standing at a crossroads of Pleskovo. On the right there are living campus buildings for high school students and main educational buildings. If you go straight you will reach the pond, where older students like to spend their evenings. I didn’t tell you that, ok? It’s some kind of a secret. Anyway, let’s move on. On the left there’s the main campus building, where the heart of our school and all kinds of different interesting places are located.

Point 4

Now we are standing at the entrance of, so-called, the appendix of the main building. On the floors three through five there is the hostel for classes one through seven, teachers and other people who work at school.

On the first two floors there are the library, different kinds of studios and workshops. Our school offers wide variety of different extra curriculum activities such as: music and choir classes, art studio, acting courses, animating and video studio, icon painting and workshops, where students can do embroidery, sewing, wooden carving, wood painting.

Point 5

Here is the computer class with an access to the Internet. Here are also the classrooms for the elementary school. We will even try to look at what little kids are doing, don’t we?

Point 6

Now we are in the center of the main campus building. We’ve just passed the infirmary and the board with the photos of different events that took place at our school. Here is the assembly hall, where students and teachers gather and our theater troupe plays. Now let’s go upstairs.

Point 7

This is the canteen, where students enjoy their delicious meals. Every day every students has breakfast, brunch, lunch and dinner.

We’ve finally reached the heart of our school, which is the church, named in honor of Saint Sergey Radonezhsky. The dome and the walls of the church were beautifully pained by the students of Moscow Saint Tihkon Institute. Here you can see the place where the church choir sings. You also can see many icons on the walls. Most of them were given to the school as a gift from monasteries in Russia, however there are a few from other countries such as Greece. I want to introduce you Father Elia, the priest of the church, who wants to talk with you.

Point 8

Behind the main campus building there is the sports center with swimming pool, sauna and huge main gym and a couple of auxiliary gyms. At Pleskovo the students can enjoy different sports such as: swimming, skiing, athletics, tennis, basketball, soccer and ice-hockey. Currently, the center is closed for visitors. I hope you will have a chance to visit it next time.

Right over there you can see the ice-skating rink. In winter students play hockey and enjoy going ice-skating here. In summer it’s used for playing soccer.

Point 9

These are two living campus buildings for classes eight through eleven. On every floor there are five room with an average of three people in every room. In a couple of minutes as we enter the building you will have a chance to see a random room.

Point 10

We’ve just been in the building for girls. This building is for boys. I guess that would be interesting for you to know that students clean the territory around these living and educational campus buildings by themselves. It’s pretty convenient for students to live here because two educational buildings for classes five through eleven are just a few meters away.

Point 11

So-called, Forum is the hall, that was built back in 2002 under the supervision of Natalia Georgievna Gorelova, the previous principal of the school. Forum connects these two school buildings into one unified unique educational facility. Now we will go inside. Please take your coats off when we will enter the building.

Point 12

Now we are standing in the middle of Forum. Students and teachers gather here every Monday for an assembly and prayer. Besides that, other different events take place here.

Currently there are about 220 students at Pleskovo Comprehensive Orthodox Christian Boarding School. Our purpose is education, tutoring, cultivating, naturing the souls of persons, learning them living and working. Our students lead a very active educational and social life. We take part in different competitions, Olympiads and performances. We glorify the name of Pleskovo and it is already known far from the border of Moscow region.

We’d be happy to see again here! Thank you very much for your visit!