Riga State Gymnasium No.1 ( lv, Rīgas Valsts 1. ģimnāzija), the oldest school in the

Baltic states The Baltic states, et, Balti riigid or the Baltic countries is a geopolitical term, which currently is used to group three countries: Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. All three countries are members of NATO, the European Union, the Eurozone ...

, offers secondary education (grades 7 to 12) in

Riga Riga (; lv, Rīga , liv, Rīgõ) is the capital and largest city of Latvia and is home to 605,802 inhabitants which is a third of Latvia's population. The city lies on the Gulf of Riga at the mouth of the Daugava river where it meets the ...

, the capital of

Latvia Latvia ( or ; lv, Latvija ; ltg, Latveja; liv, Leţmō), officially the Republic of Latvia ( lv, Latvijas Republika, links=no, ltg, Latvejas Republika, links=no, liv, Leţmō Vabāmō, links=no), is a country in the Baltic region of ...

. The school traces its origins to school of Riga Cathedral, which was founded in 1211, a decade after the foundation of Riga itself. Its name and language of instruction have changed several times during its history. Latvian became the main language of instruction in 1919. Today, the gymnasium is known for its strong programs in the

natural science Natural science is one of the branches of science concerned with the description, understanding and prediction of natural phenomena, based on empirical evidence from observation and experimentation. Mechanisms such as peer review and repeatab ...

mathematics Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in modern mathematics ...

and

computer science Computer science is the study of computation, automation, and information. Computer science spans theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, information theory, and automation) to Applied science, practical discipli ...

. Students wishing to enroll at the school take an admissions test in mathematics. Its admissions rate, with as many as nine candidates competing for each position, is one of the lowest in the country. Since 1997 the school enrolls 30 to 40 people in its

International Baccalaureate The International Baccalaureate (IB), formerly known as the International Baccalaureate Organization (IBO), is a nonprofit foundation headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, and founded in 1968. It offers four educational programmes: the IB D ...

Diploma Programme each year, where instruction is offered in English. It was the first school in the

to offer the IBO Diploma Programme. Each year a number of 12th grade students finish the DSD (Das Deutsches Sprachdiplom) programme by taking an exam along with the regular school leaving exams. Passing the exam enables them to pursue their higher education in German speaking countries. Riga State Gymnasium No.1 is consistently ranked first among the schools in Latvia. Its students' average results on school leaving (state) exams are the highest in the country. Riga State Gymnasium No.1 is also the best school in Latvia based on its students' achievements at various domestic and international academic competitions. Many of the graduates continue their education at highly ranked universities abroad, particularly in the UK, the Netherlands, Denmark, Germany, Austria, Switzerland and the USA. The percentage of these students is very high among the ones who graduate from the IBO Diploma Programme.

Notable alumni

* Agnis Andžāns – Latvian mathematician * Ingus Baušķenieks – Latvian musician * Gunārs Birkerts – Latvian American architect * Uldis Cērps – Chairman of the Financial and Capital Market Commission in Latvia *

Tomass Dukurs Tomass Dukurs (born 2 July 1981 in Riga) is a Latvian skeleton racer who has competed since 1998. Competing in three Winter Olympics, he finished fourth in the men's skeleton event at Vancouver in 2010 and Sochi in 2014. Career Dukur ...

– Latvian

skeleton racer Skeleton is a winter sliding sport in which a person rides a small sled, known as a skeleton bobsled (or -sleigh), down a frozen track while lying face down and head-first. The sport and the sled may have been named from the bony appearance of ...

Indulis Emsis Indulis Emsis (born 2 January 1952) is a Latvian biologist and politician. He was Prime Minister of Latvia for ten months in 2004, the first Green party, Green politician to lead a country in the history of the world. He was Speaker of the Saeim ...

– Latvian politician, former

Prime Minister of Latvia The prime minister of Latvia ( lv, ministru prezidents) is the most powerful member of the Government of Latvia, who presides over the Latvian Cabinet of Ministers. The officeholder is nominated by the president of Latvia, but must be able to obta ...

* Andrejs Ērglis – Latvian cardiologist * Ingvars Vitenburgs – First Latvian to win three medals in three years at

International Physics Olympiad The International Physics Olympiad (IPhO) is an annual physics competition for high school students. It is one of the International Science Olympiads. The first IPhO was held in Warsaw, Poland in 1967. Each national delegation is made up of at ...

Māris Gailis Māris Gailis (born 9 July 1951) is a Latvian businessman and former politician. He is the former Prime Minister of Latvia, an office he held from September 1994 to December 1995. In the government of the Prime Minister Valdis Birkavs, Gailis b ...

– Latvian businessman, former

Ivars Godmanis Ivars Godmanis (born 27 November 1951) is a Latvian politician who served as the Prime Minister of Latvia from 1990 to 1993 and again from 2007 to 2009. He was the first Prime Minister of Latvia after the country restored its independence from t ...

– Latvian politician, former

Garlieb Merkel Garlieb Helwig Merkel ( in Lēdurga Parish (now Sigulda Municipality), Kreis Riga – in Riga) was a Baltic Germans, Baltic German writer and activist and an early Estophile and Latvians, Lettophile. Merkel was born into the family of a rur ...

– Baltic German writer and activist *

Wilhelm Ostwald Friedrich Wilhelm Ostwald (; 4 April 1932) was a Baltic German chemist and German philosophy, philosopher. Ostwald is credited with being one of the founders of the field of physical chemistry, with Jacobus Henricus van 't Hoff, Walther Nernst, ...

– Baltic German

Nobel Prize The Nobel Prizes ( ; sv, Nobelpriset ; no, Nobelprisen ) are five separate prizes that, according to Alfred Nobel's will of 1895, are awarded to "those who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind." Alfr ...

winning chemist *

Friedrich Parrot Johann Jacob Friedrich Wilhelm Parrot (14 October 1791) was a Baltic German naturalist, explorer, and mountaineer, who lived and worked in Dorpat (today Tartu, Estonia) in what was then the Governorate of Livonia of the Russian Empire. A pione ...

– Baltic German naturalist and traveler *

Kristjan Jaak Peterson Kristian Jaak Peterson (, Riga – , Riga) also known as Christian Jacob Petersohn, was an Estonian poet, commonly regarded as a herald of Estonian national literature and the founder of modern Estonian poetry. He died of tuberculosis aged 21. ...

– Estonian poet, commonly regarded as the founder of modern Estonian poetry *

Mārtiņš Pļaviņš Mārtiņš Pļaviņš (born 8 May 1985 in Riga) is a Latvian beach volleyball player. He teamed up with Aleksandrs Samoilovs in 2004. Pļaviņš and team mate Samoilovs represented Latvia at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, China after ...

– Latvian beach volleyball player, 2012 Olympic medalist * Krista Puisite – First Latvian golfer to earn LPGA Tour Card * Māris Purgailis – Latvian politician, former

Mayor of Riga Riga City Council ( lv, Rīgas dome) is the government of the city of Riga, the capital of Latvia. Its meeting place is in the Riga Town Hall (''Rīgas rātsnams)'' at the Town Hall Square (''Rātslaukums'') in the very heart of Riga. The Riga ...

Rainis Rainis was the pseudonym of Jānis Pliekšāns (September 11, 1865 – September 12, 1929), a Latvian poet, playwright, translator, and politician. Rainis' works include the classic plays ''Uguns un nakts'' (''Fire and Night'', 1905) and ''Ind ...

– Latvian poet and politician *

Einars Repše Einars Repše (born 9 December 1961) is a Latvian physicist, financier and politician, chairman of the Association for Latvian Development. Biography Einars Repše graduated from Latvia State University (now known as University of Latvia) in ...

– Latvian politician, former

Pēteris Stučka Pēteris Stučka, sometimes spelt Pyotr Ivanovich Stuchka (russian: Пётр Ива́нович Сту́чка, german: Peter Stutschka (in contemporary writings); – 25 January 1932), was a Latvian jurist and communist politician who served a ...

– Latvian politician, head of the

Bolshevik The Bolsheviks (russian: Большевики́, from большинство́ ''bol'shinstvó'', 'majority'),; derived from ''bol'shinstvó'' (большинство́), "majority", literally meaning "one of the majority". also known in English ...

government in

during the

Latvian War of Independence The Latvian War of Independence ( lv, Latvijas Neatkarības karš), sometimes called Latvia's freedom battles () or the Latvian War of Liberation (), was a series of military conflicts in Latvia between 5 December 1918, after the newly proclaim ...

Daina Taimiņa Daina Taimiņa (born August 19, 1954) is a Latvian mathematician, retired adjunct associate professor of mathematics at Cornell University, known for discovering a groundbreaking way of modelling hyperbolic planes by crocheting objects to illustr ...

– Latvian mathematician *

Justs Sirmais Justs Sirmais (born 6 February 1995), also known as simply Justs, is a Latvian singer and television presenter. He represented Latvia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2016 with the song " Heartbeat". Life and career Early life Justs was born on 6 F ...

– Latvian representative to the

Eurovision Song Contest 2016 The Eurovision Song Contest 2016 was the 61st edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Stockholm, Sweden, following the country's victory at the with the song "Heroes" by Måns Zelmerlöw. Organised by the European Broadcasting ...

References

External links

Riga State Gymnasium No.1
– Official site

– Deutsches Sprachdiplom {{Authority control Educational institutions established in the 13th century 1211 establishments in Europe International Baccalaureate schools in Latvia Schools in Latvia Education in Riga

Notable alumni

See also

References

External links