Paldiski Ühisgümnaasium is a municipal school in Lääne-Harju region, Estonia. The school is
located in Paldiski, which was a closed military town in the Soviet Union inhabited mainly by
Soviet soldiers and their family members who mainly spoke Russian. Paldiski Ühisgümnaasium
offers both compulsory basic education from grades 1-9 and general secondary education from
grades 10-12. Paldiski Ühisgümnaasium is focused around the idea that all children have the
right to receive education at a nearby school and the principles of inclusive schooling are
implemented. This means that all children in our region have access to basic education,
regardless of their special educational needs or cultural background.
We have the experience of teaching multicultural classrooms and integrating children from a
different cultural background since the opening of the first Estonian basic education school in
Paldiski in 1994, where many families of non-Estonian descent decided to put their children into
an Estonian school so they could acquire the national language. In a way, Paldiski
Ühisgümnaasium has always been an institution where children from different cultural
backgrounds study together regardless of the difference. Throughout the years we have
developed different strategies to support our students’ Estonian language development while
attending classes with native language speakers and also receiving extra language classes
provided by our K2 teachers, if necessary. Around 40% of students are from non-Estonian
descent.
The total number of students is 230, of which 27 are Ukrainian war refugees and 2 are migrants,
who receive personalized learning. Our staff consists of around 45 members.

Website: https://paldgym.edu.ee/