Institut Ciutat de Balaguer

Ins Ciutat de Balaguer is in the town of Balaguer , capital of La Noguera (province of Lleida in Catalonia, Spain ). Balaguer has a population of around 17,000 inhabitants and its population works mainly in agriculture, services and tourism sectors. It is situated in a privileged site 150 km from Barcelona (about 90 minutes by coach),30 km from Lleida and near the stunning Pyrenee region. Near our town there are very nice places to visit like the St Llorenç dam which is becoming a much visited place because it is famous for its climbing opportunities.

It is a secondary school for students from 12-18 years old. It was built in 1955 and it has undergone several reforms to make it bigger and more modern. It has got three floors and lateral terraces. Currently, there are 460 students and 50 teachers. Our students come from different quarters of the town, some of them from gypsy ethnicity and others from well-off families… There are also some immigrant students coming mainly from Romania, Morocco, Senegal and South America that represents about 25%.This implies that the social background of our students is quite varied. Thus about 60% want to study for a degree at university and 40% either start professional studies or drop out.

The secondary school has got 20 classrooms, a big assembly hall or audiovisuals room, three computer rooms, a music room, two technology workshops, two rooms for craft lessons, gym, sports ground, a nearby swimming pool, staffroom, offices, social worker, two vocational and psychological advisors and one nurse.

Lessons begin at 8.25 a.m. and finish at about 2.45 p.m. There are two breaks: one at 10.25(which lasts 20 minutes) and one at 12.45 (which lasts 10 minutes). There are no classes in the afternoon so the students can do some extracurricular activities. There is no lunch service; all the students go home for lunch.

Our school participates is participating in various Programmes at the moment like: the programme Green Schools, a programme for the prevention of drugs, a programme against bullying, a GEP project which involves teaching content subjects in English and a STEAM project.

We were involved in various Comenius Projects (from 2004 until 2012) with Germany, Italy, Poland, Slovenia, Turkey, Hungary, Czech Republic and The Netherlands about environmental topics and the media. We are certain that this project will be a great opportunity for students to boost their self-confidence, practise English ,meet new places and people and learn more about service learning. Our school has also got the first cooperative run by students in the province of Lleida and a long tradition of collaboration in community work.