Compulsory Secondary Education ( 12-16 years old )
1ESO (12 years old) 2ESO (13 years old) 3ESO (14 years old) 4ESO (15 years old)
Acting autonomously, thinking and communicating, discovering and having initiative, spending time together…..
Compulsory secondary education is a crucial stage for the education of responsibility and consolidation and improvement of knowledge and skills acquired in former stages. The first two years keep up similar standards to Primary Education in order to ensure a suitable transition which makes it possible for the students to continue with their learning process without problems. In this way the students’ autonomy and working habits strengthen. The last two years focus on the process of the acquisition of key competences and prepare them for future studies. Furthermore, we guide the students towards the kind of studies that appear to be more suitable according to their interests and personal strengths, together with their families.
Since our students’ age is now fundamental for the consolidation of their personality, on the one hand, we want them to acquire a solid academic education by developing a sense of responsibility towards their school duties and, on the other hand, to encourage them not only in the knowledge and development of their personal identity but also in their respect, commitment and cultural interest.
Academic framework
Academic frameworkpotentials, along with the value of personal effort as a necessary condition to progress.
IPSI has its own teaching methods. Our system is based on the acquisition of mechanisms that allows to build knowledge from experience and reflection ( such as observation, analysis, classification, deduction, application, association, synthesis, among others ). This teaching method makes students acquire solid structures of thought and work thoroughly on every task and so the results improve dramatically. Our results in basic competences assessed in 4th year ESO are above the average in Catalonia and other schools of the same level of complexity ( In Catalonia it is 67.2% and in IPSI it is 94.9% ). In this way we ensure a good preparation for Baccalaureate.
Therefore we aim at making our students able to:
. Learn how to be and act in an autonomous and responsible way by working on self- knowledge, acceptance of their own identity, control of their emotions, self-demand, critical thinking, and the development of learning strategies and responsible habits such as interest, accuracy, organization and quality of their work.
. Learn how to think from observing, analyzing, classifying, deducting, applying, associating, summarizing, synthesizing.
. Learn to communicate orally and through writing, after students learn to control the expressive resources of language: spelling, use of punctuation marks, mastery of vocabulary, register, syntax correction and expression.
. Learn to discover and to have initiative from exploring, experimenting, making questions, verifying hypothesis, having initiative, creating and developing projects and search for alternatives.
. Learn to coexist and to be in the world respecting diversity, developing social skills, participating in the life of the institution, team work , managing conflicts positively and developing projects.
All this daily work is carried out by a qualified and committed teaching staff that applies IPSI own teaching methods, following a continual assessment.
Human framework
Human frameworkWe consider that education is much more than acquiring knowledge. It is growing up as a person, developing our personal identity, self-esteem and critical thinking. In a word, it is getting ready to live in society. Therefore, we are deeply concerned with the fact that the students can progress towards educative aims such as self-confidence, self-esteem, love and respect to life, personal health care, tolerance, acceptance, mutual help and collaboration.
We foster these human values when we design and apply:
. All the attitude part, values and rules of our curricular projects
. Specific subjects such as Culture and Ethic Values
. Cross-curricular projects on health and the environment (ecoipsi and recycling), social solidarity (origamis campaign for child cancer research), ‘No one sleeping in the street’ ( in collaboration with Arrels foundation), Toy campaign ( with the help of Red Cross ), Avismón, La Marató ( the 4th year students take part in the Pintem la marató contest, Banc d’aliments, ( a race against famine ), cooperation ( Escola Amiga project ), inter-stages collaboration (Gegantó making project by P4 pupils and 4th year ESO students who do Technology as an optional subject )
. Tutorial action plan, because the aim of these activities is the student’s development in order to strengthen a better personal growth and social integration.
. Termly meetings every term with student representative in order to enhance the students’ participation, their emotional welfare and their democratic commitment inside and outside the school
Social and cultural framework
Social and cultural frameworkWe consider that all activities included in the social and cultural framework complete our school project because they take the students’ academic and human background outside the school. We are certain that the social and cultural education is a pleasant and satisfactory experience that stimulates a responsible coexistence in a context of participation, respect, flexibility, solidarity, commitment, interest and tolerance, as well as arousing their curiosity.
In ESO we offer the following activities:
. We celebrate our cultural traditions (La Mercè, Castanyada, Christmas, Carnival, Easter, Sant Jordi’s Day and the school major festivity), the local festivals with giants and timbalers, balls de bastons and sardanes.
. We go on school trips and do cultural activities related to the music, the art and the knowledge of our city; we also do activities that promote respect for the environment.
. Cultural week: three days in which the students have the opportunity to attend talks, concerts, workshops and trips to do with social, cultural and international current issues our teenagers are particularly interested in.
. Literary week: by promoting and spreading information about the literary world we celebrate literature. We do it by means of activities such as visits to cultural centres and exhibitions, talks and plays performed by students. It is in this context that we celebrate Sant Jordi’s Day, the school's main festival, one of the most emblematic days of the academic year, which we all look forward to.
. School day-trip: in the first week of the new year we go on an educational outing whith the aim to welcome our students and allow them to socialize and interact in a warm and relaxed atmosphere. We design activities in order to promote the group dynamics and the opportunity to get to know each other ( students and tutors ) from the very beginning.
. Final cross-curricular work and research project: it consists of a group of activities structured in such a way that the students work both individually and in teams. The main aim is for the students to learn what doing research work really involves.
. Literary contests: we organize them in Spanish, English and Catalan ( Jocs Florals ), which let us feel the vitality of the students’ writings.
. Participation in external contests of Literature ( Sambori )- Òmnium Cultural and Mathematics ( individual tests and Copa Cangur – Maths competition between different schools ) The IPSI team won the Copa Cangur in Catalonia in 2016-17 and 2017-18 academic years.
Diversity outreach
Diversity outreach We defend an integrating model that enables all the students to realize their full potential. Consequently, we offer each student the opportunity to see how they progress, learn and develop their own capacities to their full and that others value the student’s effort and learning progress..
We make a school possible for everybody, because each student is different and not all of them have the same interests and possibilities. According to each student’s characteristics we implement different resources and teaching strategies and we reorganize students and teachers depending on their needs.
. Reorganization of students : in Catalan, Spanish and Maths classes groups are reorganized in such a way that there are 20 students per class, instead of 30.
. Support classes: In Catalan, Spanish and Maths
. Robotics Project: from P5 to 4th year ESO
. English classes are split up in two groups for better class management and learning
. German and French as second foreign languages
. Plans and strategies for specific work. When needed, we implement personalized curricular programs
. Exhaustive tutorial action plan
. Educative Orientation Service
. iPads: as a pedagogic resource. We make sure that the students use this valuable tool resonsibly at all times.
. Personal orientation programme (both academic and vocational) in 4th year. Our aim is that our students can make an autonomous and responsible decision regarding their studies in the following stage
