Lleida (Catalonia - Spain)
There's a specific context in INS Castell dels Templers, in Lleida, motivating teachers and school administration to get involved in this partnership. Our school is newly established and we have started our activity this year. We offer both, compulsory secondary education and initial vocational qualification programs through vocational courses and specific educational programs. The typology of our pupils is the result of our specific educational programs, generally young students who had left school due to learning difficulties in standard curricula or due to social problems. This range of young students has a second chance to get back to school in a new environment (despite being an urban school we are placed in the countryside).
Our strategic objectives are to extend the period of schooling for our students in order to ensure their initial professional qualification and reducing consequently academic failure. This defines a new profile of students with very specific needs such as better abilities, a sense of self-confidence, and a good command over the use of ICT, communication and social skills in order to strengthen its passage from school life to working life. We want to take part in this Partnership because we are truly convinced that we're educating citizens of Europe, that’s why we have to open our school to European projects right from the beginning. Besides that, we'd like to share ideas and strategies about value orientation and we want to comprehend how the social cohesion is being worked out in other countries of the European Union due to labor mobility.
In addition, Partnership activities require a wide amount of skills such as, communication, social and linguistic skills, teamwork spirit and the use of ICT. All these new abilities will be the key to change the attitude of our youth, to provide them better skills at work, business and social life, while we are working seriously involved in their education focused on their future working life.
Finally, we want to encourage our students to participate in European challenges and their main causes through innovative projects that promote values orientation and social cohesion. We expect to increase teachers and students motivation and creativeness, and what is more, a relevant comprehension of European cooperation, developing an active European citizenship based on intercultural dialogue, understanding, respect and tolerance for other cultures and a realistic knowledge of the European labor market.