OUTRES

Our school is named “Río Segura” (Segura River) located in Archena, a nice and popular town in the country because there is a spa, visited by a lot of people from other parts of Spain and Europe. Our town is in the Region of Murcia, in the south-east of Spain, also placed in the historical Valley of Ricote, considered as the last Moorish redoubt in the Iberian Peninsula, where agriculture and services are important economic activities. So, the socio-economic status of our town can be defined as medium and medium low. We are also near the Mediterranean coast, about 80 km.

 

The school is close to a residential area where homes are mostly ground floor. Parents are very involved in education of their children and encourage them to go on studying post-compulsory studies. We are a public Pre-Primary and Primary Education school, so the age of our students ranges from 3 to 12 years old. There are around 265 pupils and 21 teachers. The incidence of immigrant students is becoming less numerous, probably due to the hard economic situation of our country and many of them have been forced to return to their place of origin. We have a few children with learning disabilities or specific needs related to communication and language, who are helped by teachers and specialists to get a good integration at school.

 

This school has been a bilingual centre since 2009, what implies that 3 of the subjects attended by children older than 6 years are taught in English language (Science, Handicraft, and English). In this way, the school has several English teachers, who are helped by a native person from an English speaking country. Our school was the first one in the town providing a bilingual education. Actually, many of the teachers who do not speak English are formed at school in that language in order they can get a proper level of it. Even the students of 5th and 6th levels study French as a second foreign language. 

 

We have participated in several European projects such as Christmas decorations exchange with other European countries. We also got a scholarship during last year in Valencia that allowed us to participate in a language immersion experience with children of 6th level (11-12 years old) from different schools in Spain, all classes were, of course, developed in English. We really consider that participating in innovative projects and also sharing our experiences with other schools provide an exchange process that improves the learning process of our students.