Schools
Col·legi Camí (Barcelona, Spain)
The school is located in Barcelona, a coastal city on the Mediterranean sea, which is surrounded by two mountains: Mount Tibidabo and Mount Monjuïch. Barcelona's origin dates back to the 1st century B.C., when the Romans made a small colony around Taber Mountain. Over time two principal languages developed in Barcelona: Spanish and Catalan. Both of them coexist in a situation of bilingualism.
Barcelona's weather is mainly warm because it is next to the sea, which regulates the temperature. Having a number of beaches also helped Barcelona to be chosen as a site for the 1992 Olimpic Games. These games were celebrated in Montjuïch, la Diagonal, la Vall d'Hebron and el Parc de Mar in Poblenou's neighbourhood.
Some of the best known monuments and places in this city are Sagrada Familia, Barcelona's Cathedral, Santa Maria del Mar's Church, la Casa Batlló, la Pedrera, el Parc Güell, el Palau de Pedralbes or the Gothic Quarter.
Barcelona is made up of ten districts called Ciutat Vella, Eixample, Sants-Montjuïch, les Corts, Sarrià-Sant Gervasi, Gràcia, Horta-Guinardó, Nou Barris, Sant Andreu, and Sant Martí. The school's district is Nou Barris which has fourteen neighbourhoods and the school is located in Vilapicina. It is the Southern most neighbourhood and therefore, offers the best connection with the rest of the city. Santa Eulalia de Vilapicina's Church, the buildings of Ca n'Artés and Can Basté and Esperança's Passage (integrated with seventeen old houses) are noted for their antiquity. The nearest connection is the Fabra I Puig underground station, and the most important square is Virrei Amat.
Our Secondary school offers a four-year course of study for students from thirteen to sixteen years of age.
Like most in Spain, the Camí School offers Maths, Spanish,Catalan (or another language depending on the area of Spain) English, Science, Geography and History, Technology, Music, P.E., Computer Science and Art.
The first and the second grades start their classes at nine o'clock except on Monday and Wednesday, and on Monday and Thursday respectively, when they start at eight o'clock. There is a two-hour lunch break and classes resume at three p.m. and finish at five p.m. The third grade begins at eight o'clock except on Wednesday, and they have a free afternoon. The fourth grade begins at eight o'clock every day except on Friday and one day they finish their classes at two o'clock.
Tests are given every trimester and at the end of the term there is a final exam. Grades are based on the average of these exams and the final one is comprehensive.
There is one classroom for each grade with an average of twenty-six students.
Escola Secundària Frei Gonçalo de Azevedo (Casvais, Portugal)
1. Location
Location: Tires
Area: S. Domingos de Rana
District: Cascais
Nearby Town – Lisbon
2. Geographical Coordinates
Latitude: 38º 43’ North
Longitude: 9º 20’ West
Altitude : 100 m
3. Geology
Soil Sediments: A mixture of
calcium carbonated and marl of the Cretacic period which belongs to the
Albanian-Middle Cenoma isotopic dating back 100 Million Years.
4. Climate
Climatic Subtype: Maritime mixed
with Mediterranean
Average Temperature of the
Hottest Month (July): 20º a 25ºC
Average Temperature of the
coolest month(January): 5º a 9ºC
Thermal Amplitude: Under or Equal
to 12ºC
Average Annual Rain
Precipitation: between 600 and 1200 mm
Total of sunny hours per year:
from 2800 to 3100 hours
Air Humidity(9 hours): 70 –75 %
Most frequent wind direction:
North and Northwest quadrant
5. Context
Our School is located on the
Eastern part of a municipality with about 200 000 inhabitants (Cascais). S.
Domingos de Rana, the school area, is composed by a population of nearly 41 000
inhabitants and has been built by a mixed population with origin from
other regions, mainly from Alentejo.
In recent times an increasing
number of immigrants coming from African countries (former Portuguese colonies)
has had as consequence that students from different cultural backgrounds are
attending our school. The behaviour or attitudes and values are varied, which
produce, sometimes social and family conflicts.
The major part of the population
has a low educational level, which can be seen by the low percentage of people
with a university degree (5%) and a high illiteracy rate in the district. The
population of this region is characterized by a great number of people more
than 40 years old, an aged population which is 9% in the region.
The school is built in an area
which dates back to the XVI century, and it stands in an area where most of the
houses have been illegally built. Faceiras and Massapés quarters, that,
meanwhile have been legalized by Cascais Municipality, that has provided better
housing conditions like sanitary system and water supply. Therefore it isn't
surprising that the surrounding area doesn't look pleasant and it is even
somehow irregular.
As the area is far away from Cascais district centre, its main influence is upon Oeiras, Sintra areas where industrial activity and new residential quarters of the Lisbon peripheral area, are set up.
Mostly students who attend the school, live in areas with chemical factories, food and graphic industries, car- parks, services and technology units.
In this context, family life
reflects the number of people living in this area. Labour demands, the
increasing number of monoparental families are part of the many factors that
have great influence upon the youngsters' guidance by their families.
Gimnazjum im. Armii Krajowej (Piasek, Poland)
"Gimnazjum im. Armii Krajowej" in Piasek, Poland is a state lower secondary school which offers three-year general education. A Polish"gimnazjum" is not equal to an English "gymnasium". In an English "gymnasium" you can do all kinds of sports. . But in a Polish "gimnazjum" you are taught in Mathematics, Polish, Biology, History and so on. Basically, the Polish word "Gimnazjum" means "grammar school" in British English. Polish students go to gimnazjums at the age of 13 and stay there until they are 16. At the age of 16 our students have to pass their final exam.
Our school was established in 2000 as a result of reforms in Polish educational system. Two years later it was named after Armia Krajowa - "The Home Army" the largest resistance movement in the second World War, not only in German-occupied Poland, but also in Europe. Veterans of the Home Army visit our school quite often.
An anchor ,which used to be an emblem of the Polish Home Army, is included in the logo of our school . The "Anchor" is a combination of the letters PW, standing both for Polska Walczaca ("Fighting Poland") and Wojsko Polskie ("Polish Army").
There are about 250 students and 25 teachers in our school .
Although our school building is rather old (it was built as a primary school in 1960's) we have quite modern gym hall.
We study various subjects : Polish language, Biology, Chemistry, Mathematics, History , Geography, Computer studies , Physics, foreign languages - German and English, Art, Religious Education and Physical Education. Lessons start at 8.15 in the morning and finish at 1.45 p.m. Each lesson lasts 45 minutes and we usually have 6 lessons a day. On Wednesdays we have 7 lessons.
In the afternoons students can participate in extra activities. We have sport clubs, a drama club, a choir and an art club. Five years ago we founded a School European Club. Its members organise contests, meetings and discussions . We make contact with foreign schools. So far we have had e-mails and letters exchange with Switzerland , Sweden, Italy, Russia and Turkey
Every year we celebrate "European Day of Languages" in September and Spring Day in Europe(on 21 March).
Our school is situated in a village called Piasek. We come from different villages of the community of Janów so every morning we travel to school by schoolbuses.
The community of Janow is situated in an extremely attractive tourist area of southern Poland, called the Kraków - Czestochowa Upland, ( www.jura.info.pl - English version - gallery) some 20 kilometers from the city of Czestochowa. For centuries Czestochowa has been the spiritual capital of Poland. Millions of pilgrims from the whole Europe go there every year to see the picture of Black Madonna at the sanctuary in Jasna Góra.
The Krakow - Czestochowa Upland colloquially called Jura is famous for its beautiful forests, white lime rocks, numerous caves and ruins of medieval castles called the Eagles' Nests Trail.Janów is one of the biggest communities unitet in Jurassic Communities'Association. Almost 50 per cent of the community area is covered by forests. There are four nature reserves,and numerous limestone inselbergs.