Russian-speaking Edinburgh
Education and Support Centre

Russian-speaking Edinburgh Education and Support Centre was founded in April 2004 by a group of parents with a kind support from Mrs Jenny Carr of Scotland Russia Forum.

The "founding mothers" of Russian-speaking Edinburgh were Mrs Julia Kuksina - the first Chair of Russian-speaking Edinburgh, Mrs Irina Ginns, Mrs Julia Mikhnyak and Mrs Olga Demyanova, who formed the first management committee and launched the Charity under the existing constitution. We grateful for their initiative for founding Russian-speaking Edinburgh; and also appreciate the effort of the first teachers - Mrs Julia Kuksina, Mrs Nadezhda Foss, Mrs Alexandra Toumantseva, Mrs Irina Ginns, Mrs Evgenia Matyunina, who stared the classes with just a dozen of pupils.

Two classes for lower and upper primary children and the parent club were launched in June 2004. Very soon a playgroup for the pre-school children was started as well. Two-hour classes took place at Salvation Army premises in Edinburgh.

Russian-speaking Edinburgh was registered as the Scottish Charity organisation in October 2004 by the group of parents. The management committee and the  Constitution was approved by the general members' meeting.

Since 2005 Russian-speaking Edinburgh has been certified as the training centre for Russian language SQA exams preparation and testing. Every year since 2006 our pupils have been taking the SQA exams based on the hosting Drummond Community High school and always achieved the top grades. Therefore, Russian-speaking Edinburgh covers from from to 5% to 10% of the SQA exams in Russian in Scotland every year.

Russian-speaking Edinburgh school moved to Drummond Community High School premises in 2006 granted by the City of Edinburgh Council . Since that time Russian-speaking Edinburgh started the tradition of Russian Children Christmas parties in December.

In 2007 two more classes were started to provide more balance level in each class and keep the class size low - the school intake has reached 50 pupils.  Our pupils regularly win awards at international and British national Russian language competitions.

Since 2008 the core curriculum has been expanded up to 4 hours per week from 11 to 3 pm. Among newly added subjects were history of Russian speaking peoples, Russian literature, Drama, Art and Crafts. Family learning element  has been added by providing opportunity for non-Russian speaking parents to learn Russian at the same time as their children.

In 2009 a new class of Russian as a second language (vs more advanced core Russian classes) was set up for primarily English speaking children. Google based (Google Apps) Virtual Learning environment enhanced the weekly classes with supplementary distance learning element, which has attracted more learners beyond Edinburgh area.

In 2010 Russian-speaking Edinburgh school has reached  the size of 100 pupils.