About Us

Krootuse Põhikool is a small rural school surrounded by beautiful nature in Põlvamaa, South Estonia.

Krootuse Põhikool is an old school, founded in 1767. We are a basic school, with the children in Years 1-9 (aged 7-15). At the moment there are 74 students and 13 teachers, a speech therapist, a support teacher and seven members of support personnel. Many of our teachers have been awarded the Teacher of the Year in Põlvamaa. Also, our students have been highly successful in different competitions.

Krootuse Põhikool is a sustainable, high-quality primary education school, where a person-centered, collaborative and secure learning environment develops students' learning motivation and enables them to acquire diverse knowledge.

The goal is a learner-centered school that can be achieved by supporting each student's development and creating a suitable learning environment.

Our values are student individuality, student friendliness, healthiness, proximity to nature and cooperation.

The school values each pupil, takes students' needs and interests into account when planning studies and extra-curricular activities. The school employs qualified, resilient, cheerful, student-supportive and loving teachers.

All pupils have equal opportunities to acquire knowledge. We pay attention to the individuality of each student, make teaching work, and apply support systems if necessary. The school offers students various opportunities for self-realization through extracurricular activities. Teachers successfully instruct students to take part in different subject competitions.

Our school belongs to the network of health promoting schools. We value healthy lifestyle and create suitable conditions. The school canteen offers healthy food, pupils can eat fruit and vegetables during the day.

Krootuse Põhikool has participated in several international projects. In 2018 we received funding from the European Social Fund for two projects. The aim of these projects was to train school’s staff in Estonia and Sweden. We also have participated in two Erasmus+ projects: KA201 “Share Play” 2014-2016, which included students and teachers from eight European schools and KA101 project “Team involvement in teaching SEN students on an example of European schools”, which enables two or three of our teachers to do a job shadowing activity in two countries.

The school, although small in number, has kept alive and continued many long traditions. Since 1987, every September the Karaski-Krootuse race is taking place. The students run from the old school house in Karaski to the current one in Krootuse. Also alumni and some of the teachers join in.

A creative writing contest in honour of local writer Richard Roht has been organised for more than 20 years.

Beginning from 2006 the award “Veerandi Tegija” (The Student of the Term) for the outstanding results in competitions and representing the school has been given to the best student at the end of each term.

The project “Öölugemine” (Night reading) lasted for ten years. Children spent one night at school and met one Estonian children’s writer. The event continued with literature quizzes and games. During the project many beloved and famous writers visited the school.