History
“Once upon a time...” most of the tales that we tell children start like this. Lots of legends that tell us important facts start in this way too. The story of IPSI school also begins this way, in 1961, in Sant Isidor Parish, located in l’esquerra de l’Eixample, in Barcelona.
Our school history is inexorably linked to the evolution of our society over the past fifty years.
Let’s focus on the early sixties. It was a dark period of our most recent history. It was a period of time characterised by cultural repression, educational homogenization, great social disappointment which needed to be fed with little, or not so little, initiatives from what was the real civil society; with people who organised themselves thanks to interests that went beyond their own ones, which tried to fix and colour, step by step, that black and white Catalonia. This country was just waking up from, on the one hand, the idealised memories of the old republican school, with its drive, its renovation and its teaching methods and, on the other hand, the traditional school “the principles of El Movimiento” or “The National Spirit formation”.
In that darkness, some young educators, non-conformists, with a clear criteria of the real necessities of their environment, started the adventure of creating a school. They did it, as these things are done, without thinking too much about the resources, the place or the administratives difficulties. With knowledge, but specially with cheerfulness, overcoming one by one the difficulties of a system that was against any initiative that could threaten the questionable balance based on repression and imposition.
The projects are constituted by all the people involved in the school, and they comprehend every single decision during its history. These projects, led from the firmest conviction of effort, from the perfection as a referent, from the catalanism, from the inclusive humanism, by an authentic teacher and educator, Mr. Antoni Amorós, and the team that accompanied him, have been creating a school with its own personality. During the history and the evolution of the school some values have been consolidated, such as the love of nature, the importance of music and any other artistic expression, the importance of sport, discipline, as well as our cultural heritage, through, among others, Sant Jordi, Jocs Florals and the literary knowledge implicit in the school library.
We are a Catalan, secular and high-quality school, as many others that take part in the actual country in which this school was born, more or less, half a century ago. Catalonia has always enjoyed creating innovative pedagogic projects, for example, schools that nowadays take part in the public net of the educative service, but which are half-private schools, which means that they have the willingness to serve the community without renouncing their personality or identity.
Being a high-quality school is not easy, it means keeping up with, and on top of, significant changes, not just passing fads. It is important to maintain a maverick character and revising permanently the educative project is fundamental to keep improving. Apart from that, being a Catalan school has not been and is not easy either. Not now, and even less some time ago. The fact of maintaining the loyalty to the culture during the dictatorial time can only be understood by the firm conviction of those who had the determination of going against the tide.
This project has been made of pedagogy, methodologies and proposals that have enriched it, not only in academic results but also the satisfaction of students and families, who are the engine of this project.
