Castor College
About our school: Castor College M/H/A/G is a secondary school, located in Beverwijk, a city not too far from Amsterdam.
It is a working class city in transition to a service economy. However, many people still work at a large steelfactory called Tata Steel. Beverwijk has 40.000 inhabitants. A part of the city is near the North-Sea coast, this village is called Wijk aan Zee. This is a very attractive place for tourists, just like the Zwarte Markt (Black market): a big international Bazaar.
The school has about 1300 students and 110 teachers. You can study at three different levels which are called HAVO (preparation for higher education), VWO (preparation for University) and Gymnasium. Besides the regular lessons the school gives you the opportunity to develop yourself with challenging projects and activities. The Erasmus+ project is an example of one of these projects.
IES La Azucarera
IES La Azucarera school is located in the city of Zaragoza, capital of the Autonomous Community of Aragón, in the Northeast of Spain, halfway between Madrid and Barcelona and on the riverbanks of the Ebro river, a green line crossing a very dry mediterranean area. La Azucarera is quite a new born school which dates back to 2006. We are located in a new area but we host students from three different neighbourhoods, being one of them part of the old town.
Our school is a Secondary school with students from 12 to 18 years old. Such students are allocated among the four courses of Secondary Education and the two courses of Bachillerato. English and French are studied at our school, being French compulsory in the two first courses of Secondary Education.
We host 850 students and some of them are of foreign origin. We have students of 32 different nationalities, which make up 19% of the total number of students. Most of the foreign students come from Romania, Morocco, China and all the Latin American countries. As we are located in a multicultural area, we have a strong commitment with diversity and respect for human rights. We promote activities that encourage students to be respectful towards their peers, with their environment and different perspectives of life.
Our team believes in education as a basic tool to cater for diversity. The school has been Bilingual in French since the academic year 2014-2015, and in English since 2019-2020. For that reason, Foreign Languages are important not only as subjects but also as tools to communicate in different subjects. We consider cooperation with other schools essential, because it enriches teachers’ skills and students’ experiences, as well as it contributes to open minds and respect for others.
We´ve been working on international activities such as exchanges and european projects since 2012, with one Comenius project and five Erasmus+ projects before this one. Students and teachers are eager to cooperate to face climate change and adapt our future to this new situation.
Lycée de la Plaine de l'Ain
Lycée de la plaine de l’Ain is the main high school of the city of Ambérieu-en-Bugey (14,204 inhabitants) which welcomes students from 14 to 22, as it not only hosts general curriculum for the Baccalauréat (A-level), but also trains students on a technical level, and for first university degrees. The students do not only come from the city but from the whole area of the Bugey.
Our school was built in 1983. Since its beginning, solar panels were set on the roof so that the school could produce its own electricity. It was very innovative for its time. Unfortunately, this beautiful project quite failed since the panel only worked for a few years. However, this project gave the school its identity: the “Lycée Solaire” (solar high school). There was also a project of heating classrooms with water pillars, but it didn’t work.
This school is very big, with different places and little corners, so new students may be a little lost at the beginning. Most of them talk about the school as a maze. Our school is colorful […] but it’s not always beautiful because some colors don’t match together. A lot of students go to our school, but it was not built for this much… Indeed, more than 1800 students are attending every year. It welcomes 10th,11th and 12th graders plus students doing their higher
education. That’s why there are a lot of prefab buildings outside. However, there is so much space that we don’t feel like there are so many people.
A new gymnasium has recently been built and the students can now practice climbing as well as many other sports. The new one loses less energy than the former one did because it is better insulated. A new project has been brought up and the building started. It consists of a new bus stop with a controlled entrance. It seems to be really nice and it should be done by next year.
Toscane M.
“Our highschool has many positive points : it has an Erasmus program which allows us to travel and welcome foreign students. During the lunch break, there are different clubs such as music club or sports club. […] The school also helps humanitarian association like « Les Restos du Cœur » where the students can offer their support or the « Téléthon » where the students run for a sum of money which will be given to the association.”
Manon K.
“I like our school because there are many places to study independently. We have a cafeteria where we can stay between two lessons, to study or have a snack with our friends. We also have a supervised room, where we can do our homework quietly, and a big library with many books, documents and some computers available for all the students.[…] To finish, we have a
part of the school dedicated to sciences, which was recently renovated. We have laboratories with a lot of equipment to make experiments in the best conditions.”
Liceo Classico Scientifico XXV Aprile
Liceo XXV Aprile is a secondary school located in Portogruaro, in the eastern part of the metropolitan city of Venice. Portogruaro is a quite small city with about 25.000 inhabitants, founded in the Middle Ages as a fluvial port along the Lemene river. In the city centre many ancient buildings remind us of the historical bond with Venice. Our school is situated in four of them, hosting about 1100 students and 110 teachers.
The school profiles are various, including Liceo Classico (focused on Humanities and Ancient Literatures), Liceo Scientifico (focused on Maths and Physics), Liceo Scientifico opzione Scienze applicate (focused on ICT, Chemistry and Biology) and Liceo Musicale (focused on Musical History, Technology and Performance). Each one of them allows access to any university faculty.
The school is also equipped with laboratories for Chemistry and Biology, Physics, ICT and Musical Technology. Extra curricular activities are held in many different areas in cooperation with the local cultural institutions. The European dimension is offered by taking part in eTwinning and Erasmus+ projects.