Start of the new school year

We wish all pupils, students, teachers, principals, and all other staff in education a successful 2024/25 school year.

The new school year brings the opportunity to expand knowledge and make new connections. The staff of the Slovenian School Museum would like to help you provide inclusive and quality education. Therefore, we have prepared a rich educational programme for the new school year, which explores the school past in an interesting and experiential way.

We see the museum as a place of encounter, socialisation, and dialogue, and we are working to make it a meeting place and an open and creative information centre for exploring the school’s past, on the basis of which we also seek answers to the challenges of the future.

We invite you to explore the history of education in our society in the school year 2024/25!

To get started, we invite you to explore when school started in the past.

When did the school start in the past?

In the 1870s, the school year began in the early days of November or mid-October and ended at the end of August the following year. Gradually, the start date was moved to mid-September, and it ended at the end of July. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, the school year was still adapting to the life of the majority peasant population. Children had time to attend school especially when there was no major farm work to be done. 

1 September, the first day of school

The 1 September became the first day of school in many schools after 1885, and in some places after World War I. The new school year usually began with a solemn Holy Mass, during which the pupils sang, and with an invocation to the Holy Spirit for a happy start to the school year.

After World War II, a special reception for the first-year pupils was introduced at the beginning of the school year, with a feast (salami, pastries, cake) and a short cultural and entertainment programme. From the second half of the 19th century onwards, special attention was also paid to the (new) schoolboy’s or schoolgirl’s clothing when they entered school.

On the first day of school, today’s first graders are also given a special welcome at school.

Source: Taken from the article of curator Marjetka Balkovec Debevec, “From the first school day to anniversaries of secondary school graduation: festivals and celebrations in the schools”.

The photo shows pupils of the 5th grade of Dragatuš Primary School, 1937 (SŠM archives).