| Abstract: | The beginning of classes on Venčesl, as the area around Zgornja Ložnica used to be called, is intertwined with the beginning of the independence of the Venčesl church or basically with the time when it became an independent curate in 1785. Maksimilijan Resnik, the first known independent curate at St. Venčesl, started teaching and a Sunday school was created. Around 1850, it was followed by a private school led by the retired teacher Primož Felicijan Brölich. After his death, classes were temporarily not carried out. The need for a school was present at the Zgornja Ložnica territory. Despite the unfavourable material situation of the place, at the urging of national revivalists, the one-grade folk school was established near St. Venčesl in 1881. The first teacher here was Gabrijel Majcen, then a long-time school administrator named Ivan Povh was appointed as a permanent teacher. Classes were held in the pupils' mother tongue, in the Slovenian language and the German language was taught there. The sacraments (confession, communion temptation) were connected to the schoolwork, the national holiday celebrations were accompanied by visits to the holy masses. In 1895, the school was hit by an earthquake, and a year later by a fire. In the school year 1902/03, the Venčesl one-grade folk school was expanded into a two-grade school. The period of the two-grade school was marked by the First World War, and lessons were curtailed and irregular. German lessons were replaced by Serbo-Croatian and Cyrillic lessons. A new assessment was introduced, the reverse of the previous one, and the introduction of school trips and excursions was also a novelty in the work. In 1924, the retired Ivan Povh was succeeded as school administrator by his son Stanko Povh. With the merger of the former local political municipalities in 1933, the number of school-age children was increasing, and the school was expanded to a three-grade school in August 1935. During the occupation, classes at Zgornja Ložnica were German and taught by German teachers. On the night of August 7-8, 1944, the partisans set fire to the school building, as the German military intended to set up an outpost there. After the war, the Slovenian teachers returned to Venčesl, and classes were held outdoors under an oak tree in less-than-ideal circumstances, later in the school shack, which was also the centre of cultural life. In 1955, they got a new school building and the new name Primary School Zgornja Ložnica was introduced. As part of the reorganization of the elementary schools of the municipality, the previous 16 schools were combined into 9 larger ones, and on January 1st, 1962, the independence of the Upper Ložnica Elementary School was lost. It became a branch and has remained so to this day. |
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