a fire. This solved the previous political arguments over restoring the historic schoolhouse, and a project to fully renovate the building was initiated. In 2002, the project, which amounted to 82.32 million Estonian Crowns (5.26 mil euros), was successfully finished. Since 2001, the school's director has been Ott Ojaveer. Curriculum Hugo Treffner Gymnasium serves students in years 10 to 12. Students enter based on an entrance exam, which is taken in the spring of each year. Students who have performed well in a national olympiad are not required to take the entrance test. The school has three major departments: physics and maths, humanities (history, civics, philosophy, religious studies and art history), and life sciences (biology and chemistry). In addition to attending classes that address theoretical matters, students may also attend practical lessons in the subject matter. There are also elective courses and extracurricular activities, such as choir and folk dancing. Partnerships with schools from abroad The Comenius project 2012/2013 In October 2012, the students of Hugo Treffner Gymnasium went to Urspringen, Germany. The students stayed with host families. They took part in a variety of fun activities, which also included a little bit of work and a groupwork based project work. Then the students were shown around town and they also visited some historical buildings. During the third week of April 2013 four German students and one teacher visited Estonia within the Comenius project. The programme was roughly the same as it had been in Germany. Estonia – Netherlands student exchange 2010/2011 During 2010/2011, some students of HTG participated in a student exchange with Merlet College in Cuijk, the Netherlands. In October 2010 the Dutch students came to visit Tartu and in March 2011 the Estonian students went to Cuijk. Both parties spent a week in the other country, allowing them to get acquainted with the local cultures. Estonia – France student exchange 2012/2013 In October 2012, a student exchange program took place between the Lycée Léonard de Vinci and Hugo Treffner Gymnasium. The French students spent a week in Tartu. They were introduced to the local culture and cuisine. In March 2013, the Estonian students spent a week in France, where they were shown a piece of French people's local lives. Friendship with the Uppsala Fyrisskolan in Sweden Since 1992, every two years about 15 students and around 5 teachers from the Uppsala Fyrisskolan come to Estonia to compete