"This school is not for everyone": a tour of the open days of five schools and institutes

BarcelonaWhat worries parents when choosing a school or institute for their son or daughter? What are the most common questions asked by families? Have new technologies changed concerns when choosing a center? Creatures Attend four open days, two schools in Girona and two high schools in Barcelona, to find out.

Open days at schools

"Your sons or daughters will be in the center for nine years"

"You can visit the primary classrooms because you think you should enroll your sons or daughters for being here for nine years, not just for E3." Many parents look at each other and whisper when they hear the words of the director of one of the oldest public schools in Girona during the open day. It is as if they are suddenly reminded of the weight of the decision they must make.

The structure of the day is repeated in the two schools in Girona. First, a welcome for the families in the largest classroom, with an information sheet included. Then, twenty minutes of explanation with PowerPoint and the entire management team, representation of the AFA and the dining room on stage to explain the excellence of the school. "Our project is adapted to diversity", "learning is experiential" or "the child is at the center of learning" are some of the phrases that are repeated in the two centers, one of which has a more traditional educational project and the other more innovative. To finish convincing the undecided, all the artillery is removed with the activities that make them unique: on the one hand, dog therapy, a farm, a vegetable garden or a greenhouse and, on the other, swimming to third, also a vegetable garden, which are a green school or participate with La Marató.

In the two days, which make a tour exhaustive in every corner of the centers, a group of 4th grade students also play a leading role, who in the most traditional school even form part of their own speech in English.

Can he/she come in a diaper?

But if in nurseries the concern of families is that the children do not spend the whole day crying, here the main topic is that of diapers. "Can they come with a diaper?" is repeated three or four times in both schools. The first answer is similar: "We recommend that you do a good sprint in summer so that your sons or daughters manage to control their sphincter." Now, one center is more permissive than the other regarding the fact. Let the first weeks come with diapers, especially those born at the end of the year.

Adaptation period

The other big concern for parents is how the adaptation period will be done and how long it will last, basically because this will mean that many families will have to ask for days off from work until the children get into the routine of school. Although the Education Department recommends that it be four days, the two centres disagree and agree that it is an "insufficient" amount of time and that it will depend on each child. "The first few days there will be half the day," they already say.

English

Some parents are concerned about the level of English their children will have after school and even ask if they take the exam to obtain a recognised qualification. Both schools again show that, apart from the foreign language subject, they teach other subjects in English such as science, Physical education and older children even a play, but no, the centre does not carry out standardised exams. "English is taught from I3 and follows the same learning process as other languages," they specify.

The jump to high school

It is striking that in the most innovative centre, families ask if when the students make the jump to secondary school, where most of the learning still follows a traditional model, they are sufficiently prepared to follow the classes. "We combine systematic work and project work," the director is quick to say, who, on the one hand, reminds us that the school has "meetings" with the secondary schools assigned to it and, on the other, that the guidelines of the Education Department already include, as of this course, that the secondary schools must incorporate project work.

Centre timetables, lunch, extracurricular activities, Christmas and Easter, how many pre-registration applications are received or if someone is a second option are other logistical concerns that also arise. But the final view given by some of the fourth-year students reminds us that, no matter how much time passes and how many types of schools there are, the interests of the children do not change: "What do we like most about school? Playtime and the days we can play with the E3 students," they conclude.

Open doors at the institutes

"Even though it makes us sad, they are getting older and in secondary school they begin the path towards independence."

"At the beginning of the school year, the child will meet with the headmaster and his or her child's tutor, and these will be practically the only teachers the child will meet, because the idea of talking to the teacher when leaving school is over. More than anything, because their children will not want them to go to school." This is what a veteran mother, a member of the AFA, told parents of future first-year ESO students during the open day of a high school in the Gràcia district of Barcelona. Suddenly, all those gathered there are faced with the first years of their (no longer so) children's lives.

The transition from school to high school worries many families who see their children as still too young. Many have come with them. That is why, during open days, teachers dedicate time and effort to explaining how the transition will be made. "This is one of our strong points, we talk to the school and accompany the students in this step," says the headmistress of a high school in the Eixample district of Barcelona during a virtual open day. In other words, the same idea is repeated in all the centres: "Here we look after your children," says another teacher. Some promise tutoring, mentoring with older pupils or conversations with sixth grade teachers, and others explain that they will set up the classes so that all the pupils go with a classmate or that on the first day the older pupils will come in later so as not to "impress" the younger ones. Just enough to ensure that the transition is not so abrupt. However, there is one teacher who remembers: "Even though it makes us sad, they grow up and in secondary school they begin the path towards autonomy."

In one of the institutes, the teacher opens the talk with an anecdote in class and ends by saying: "I am very grateful for the work I do, I enjoy teaching." And the teacher who speaks next tells the audience: "I don't know if you realise how relevant these words are at a time when our profession is so discredited." Open days are also a time for protest: "Unfortunately, the arts subjects have little teaching load and we don't have time for much," admits the music teacher at a school. "Here they give us a computer in the 3rd year of ESO, the Consortium has been saying for years that the students will have one in the 1st year, but so far they don't arrive," admits a final-year student who gives a guided tour of his school to a group of new families.

Subjects or projects?

In all the talks, it is stressed that the objective is to train people who are autonomous, responsible, critical, participative, plural and tolerant, among other skills. "Our role is to ensure that their children learn," they point out in another centre. The poor results of the PISA report are hanging in the air. "Why are there subjects as such here or is it all projects?" asks a father. Families are not entirely clear about the learning methodology. And when it comes to talking about it, a teacher admits that she has had to explain the issue that has raised the most controversy lately. "Not everything is done by projects nor by exams. Here we try to work with different methodologies, but there are homework and exams, we are a traditional centre in this regard," they say in an Eixample institute. "Here we are organised by areas and we do competence-based work," they explain to the one from Gràcia. "But we have subjects because we saw that otherwise they would get into a mess," they admit. What is clear is that they will have to instill study habits because there will surely be more work, more oral presentations and more tests than in primary school, they say.

Mobile phones and computers

The other controversial issue is the use of mobile phones. At the entrance to an open day at a school, a volunteer from the Mobile-Free Adolescence movement hands out information sheets. The question is repeated at every open day: "Is the use of mobile phones prohibited?" At one school, they boast that they have been using technology for years and have not had to change "a comma" of their protocol after the guidelines of the Generalitat Nor do they do "experiments": "We already know what works and what doesn't." They defend the use of technology and its possibilities. "For us, they are tools for the future and we want to train them to use it critically and responsibly." "The computer is just another tool, like the book," they say in another center. Families nod. "But can they bring a mobile phone, yes or no?" they insist. They can bring it, but it is forbidden to use it in class or in the playground, most centers respond. And do they use it? "Yes, of course, but then we have to do our job, which is to educate so that they don't take it out anymore," says a teacher. In another institute they are confiscated: "We don't use mobile phones here."

At one of the open days, a mother thanks the presentation because it was the "most philosophical" of all those she has attended, although the doubts and questions that families ask are rather prosaic: what timetable do they have? Is there a canteen? What electives do they do? And extracurricular activities? Do you use books? How do you evaluate?

And another topic that never fails: how many pre-registration applications do you receive? How many people are left out? And does anyone get in as a second choice? How many siblings are there this year? The lottery of each year worries families, at the expense of a draw that will decide the future of their children. But the veteran mother of the AFA, in an attempt to reassure families, reminds: "All the institutes work and this one is not better than another."