The school has its beginnings in 1937. In September, the State Mechanical and Electrical High School in Poznań was established, which was the foundation of the Higher School of Machine Construction, with which it formed an organizational whole. It was a three-year vocational school of the second degree with the seat in the building of today’s Poznan University
of Technology at Plac Bergera 5 (now Maria Skłodowska-Curie Square). Students were admitted after the ‘small high school-leaving examination’, i.e. after the six pre-war years
of eight-year junior high school. In the 1937/38 school year, the school had two classes
– mechanical and electrical.
On March 1 1945, the school started working as an independent unit. On April 5. it had 182 students, and from 1 June a preparatory class was opened for 64 students. In July, the first secondary school-leaving examination took place. 16 people passed it from the mechanical class, and 13 from the electrical class. On September 1 1949, the school had 16 departments located in three buildings.
From 1 September, the facility included schools for adults, namely: the State Mechanical High School for Adults and the State Electrical High School. These schools carried out their statutory tasks until the end of the 1960/61 school year, and then they were incorporated
into the Technical High School of Mechanical Engineering in Poznań at Dzierżyńskiego 352/360 street (currently 28 June 1956 street)
From September 1 1951, a new name for the school was in operation – Technical and Mechanical Secondary School of the Ministry of Heavy Industry in Poznań. From 1953 July 6, the School was subject to the Ministry of Energy, at the same time changing its name to Technical Secondary School of Energy. From July 23 1958, all agendas of Technical Secondary School of Energy obtained one seat in the building of the Basic Metal School No. 1 at Inżynierska 4/5 street. On October 23 1959 the rooms were separated and the Technical Secondary School of Energy took over the newer part of the building.
IN A NEW BUILDING
On September 1 1964, during the municipal celebrations marking the beginning of the 1964/65 school year – a new ‘millennium school’ was handed over to the Technical Secondary School located at Dąbrowskiego 163 street, at the same time the School was named after General Aleksander Zawadzki. (The year 1966 was the thousandth anniversary of the creation of the Polish state. Preparations for it began almost a decade earlier, because the main element of the state celebration was the construction of a thousand schools, so called ‘millenium schools’). The new headquarters, of course, pleased the entire school community, strengthened the position of the School, but they were actually just walls. Everything had to be created from scraps, namely: subject laboratories (electrical measurements, electrical machines, electrical equipment, automation and high voltage, heat and cooling laboratory), they were successively equipped until the end of the 1970s; they were located in the lowest storey of the school building (rooms 01-07, 011 and 012), arranging playgrounds and green areas around the school building, including the planting of trees and shrubs, it was also a few years of effort (total 55,000 hours worked by teachers, students and parents in so-called ‘social actions’).
1968 Technical Secondary School of Energy received a banner founded by the Parent Committee and School Guardianship Committee.
On January 1 1977 – there was another name change of the School – the Electric School Complex was established, with the following organizational composition:
- Technical Secondary School of Energy – 5 years
- Technical Secondary School of Energy – 3 years on the foundation of Vocational School Complex
- Technical Secondary School of Energy – 3 years for working students
- Vocational High School – 4 years
- 2-year Post-secondary Vocational College
1983/1984 The first computer science laboratory in Poznań and in the voivodship opened at the Electrical School Complex, initially equipped with one microcomputer, and in the following year another eight computers from the Board of Trustees and three microcomputers received as a gift from the Ministry of Education. In the following years, a second IT studio was created. Additional equipment was purchased: printers, disk drives, server. From 1985, the studio enabled classes in training groups.
1986 Construction of a pavilion at the gym began. The new rooms included: a doctor’s office, a school counselor’s office, rooms for service staff, a student cloakroom, a darkroom and a room for the planned chamber of tradition of the School. The additional space of the pavilion allowed the creation of a reading room next to the library in the place of the current doctor’s office
and a room for another IT room
Since September 1 1987, the School had a new name – Electrical School Complex No. 1, and the facility at Świt 25 street received the name of Electrical School Complex No. 2.
On September 1 1999, XXVI General Secondary School – 3 branches of the general profile with English and Russian were launched in the Complex of Electrical Schools No. 1.
From September 1 2000, in connection with the new network of upper secondary education, the Complex of Electrical Schools No. 1 began working in the following organizational composition:
- XXVI High School – 4 years
- Technical Secondary School of Energy – 5 years
- XXVI High School – 3 years
- XXVI Profile High School – 3 years
2003 Z dniem 1 września, po roku przerwy reaktywowano Technikum Energetyczne. Od tego czasu w skład Szkoły wchodziły:
- XXVI Liceum Ogólnokształcące – 3-letnie
- XXVI Liceum Profilowane – 3-letnie
- Technikum Energetyczne – 4-letnie
On September 1 2003, after a year of break, the Technical Secondary School of Energy
was reactivated. Since then, the School included:
- XXVI High School – 3 years
- XXVI Profile High School – 3 years
- Technical Secondary School of Energy – 4 years
and until the end of the training cycle:
- XXVI High School – 4 years
- Technical Secondary School of Energy – 5 years
From September 1, 2017. The school functions as:
- Technical Secondary School of Energy – 4 years
From September 1, 2019, the school operates in the composition of:
- Technical Secondary School of Energy – 4 years to complete the cycle
- Technical Secondary School of Energy – 5 years with profiles;
- IT specialist
- electronics technician
- electrical technician
- automation technician
- energy technician