ADVANCED LEVELS ‘PAR EXCELLENCE’ for excellent students

BACHILLERATO BUEN PASTORSIXTH FORM AT BUEN PASTOR

www.www.colegiobuenpastor.com

We are a private sixth form college and we are also a state run school for infant, primary and secondary education. Our ideology is based on the schools of Father Manjón and Siurot and on the Free Institution for Teaching led by Giner de los Ríos.

Buen Pastor school has provided top quality education in Seville for more than two decades. According to El Mundo daily newspaper, and for the tenth time since establishing the ranking, we are the number one state run centre in Andalusia, which concurs with the average grades

achieved by our students in the latest University entry exams; the second highest average of all the schools in Seville, as quoted at the time by ABC daily newspaper.

Continuing along these lines, this year, our A-Levels are aimed at excellent students. Therefore, enrolment in our programme requires a minimum grade B average.

The school has a dining hall, a library service and accommodation for students who may need it.

The school

Buen Pastor School offers sports facilities, green areas, laboratories, investigation classrooms, interactive whiteboards, a library and a periodical library where all our bibliographic resources can be found.

The school has adapted to new technologies by offering the numerous pedagogical resources and applications that they offer.

In addition to this, we are known for having a higher number of teaching hours.

This change was developed to better prepare our students for higher levels of education with the intention of not falling short at the moment of examination and/or transition and

university.

Our methods

Apart from being ranked among the 100 best schools in Spain by El Mundo, we are also mentioned by prestigious websites dedicated to schools. We are authentically proud of all outside recognition about our work.

Last year our pupils achieved: Two Outstanding A-Level achiever awards, a silver medal in the

Mathematics Olympics held in Santander, participation in the seventh Spanish Biology Olympics where, in addition to winning the gold medal, the student travelled to Singapore representing Spain in the International Phase, the National Air Force award for work

of students, as well as many other local awards.

External recognition

Our educational principles include the following:

“The student will study and work on the same content of study from infant school to A-Levels, varying only the

objectives, each phase following a

method of learning.”

“We believe that only through personalised teaching methods can we effectively make the best of the abilities and skills of each student. So, through the use of computers, individual tasks and support classes they should advance towards this necessary pe r s ona l i s a t i on without ceasing to investigate and try out new systems.”

Our school schedule and the methodology unables us to teach outdoors in contact with the academic, urban and rural e n v i r o n m e n t s . This is healthier and favours direct observation of what they will later, in theory, assimilate. In

addition, the teaching content must be taught to students in a critical manner and, as much as possible, using fun and attractive methods so that they will remember what they have learnt in the future.”

“In all possibility, practical and active knowledge of reality achieved intuitively, and the methods used to achieve this type of explicit knowledge should precede teaching of the theory, starting before the teacher’s evaluation of the students’ previous knowledge of the topic at hand.”

Educational principles

A-levels are a precursor to university and the more they are adapted to the study that awaits them, the better results students will achieve in that next step. Therefore our school has introductory courses for different university degree courses with a double objective: to familiarise teenagers with the knowledge they must learn

after A-levels while assuring that the degree course they have chosen meets their expectations through what is learned in their core subjects.

So, throughout sixth form, we offer classes in medicine, law, business management, psychology and engineering.

Introduction to university degree courses

The school also grants a lot of importance to having contact with reality and the practical components of teaching. Therefore, we have put in place an extensive work experience programme so that students may experience the

Work placements are carried out for

one month of a year. The placement is divided into 15 days of morning shifts and 15 days of evening shifts.

We believe this learning experience is very important as it offers teenagers a wider perspective and a more exact working knowledge of the labour market and what it is like on a daily basis.

Work experience in companies

We feel it is very important to be able to speak and write accurately and appropriately, a requirement which our educational staff must also search. That is the reason why we take great care of oral and written expression which goes much further than simple spelling correction, where it all begins.

With this in mind, our pupils take part in a debate club where they are trained in groups and later discuss current affairs. In the last few years, the most

outstanding of our debate club members have taken part in the debate programme “Con acento”, organised by Pablo Olavide University in Seville, with

As an additional highlight, various personalities have also participated in our club, sharing their knowledge and experience with us. They have also paid

painter Antonio Milla, poet Díez Crespo and forensic scientist LechaMarzo.

Accurate use of language

Today, English is an essential tool for our pupils’ future both at university and in the workplace, as knowledge of English allows them to travel to other countries and connect with all kinds of people.

Our centre is recognised by to examine

same university.

By the end of their sixth form studies we expect our students to achieve

a B2 level in English (recognized by Trinity College) which will allow them, according to the current standards for Education and after obtaining a degree, to give language classes in primary and secondary schools.

Along with English the students can choose a second foreign language among Portuguese, German, or French.

Lastly, we encourage students to follow language courses abroad during the summer holidays.

Foreign Languages

Information is essential for having a critical mind. This is the goal we have set ourselves: to educate teenagers to be conscious of the world around them and to be able

them via the media according to their own personal criteria. This is the reason why we

encourage students to be informed by reading the daily newspapers, something which allows them to acquire knowledge they can bring to the table in the debate club. Moreover, the students write the school newsletter “Icaria” which forms part of the activities carried out during teaching hours.

Keeping knowledge up to date

Next year, our sixth form students will continue to act as guides to visitors to the “Vault of distinguished Sevillians” (Panteón de Sevillanos Ilustres) and the “Saint Peter of Alcantrá Chapel of the

Third Order” and, also, taking part in conferences and lectures, concerts,

that, promoted by the school, make up part of their education.

Cultural Activities

Buen Pastor has a music school led by Mr. Serafín Arriaza. Arriaza, native of Seville and carrying on the musical tradition of his father, completed his higher education studies at the Superior Music Conservatory Manuel Castillo in Seville, with the highest grades and the End of Studies Outstanding Achiever Award.

He received classes from maestros such as Alberto Ponce, David Russel, José María Gallardo, Robert Aussel and Álvaro Pierri, among others. He perfected his talent with Master classes from Ms. América Martínez and Joaquín Clerch.

Furthermore, Mr. Serafín Arriaza has won awards in both national and international competitions winning a total of 21 awards. It should be pointed out that,

prize in the América Martínez

prize in the María Luisa Anido de Cagliari International

the Andrés Segovia Linares International Contest, and third prize in the First Joaquín Rodrigo International Guitar Contest.

Buen Pastor has one of the best maestros and maintains music in the curriculum until the end of the students’ education, complementing work in other subject areas with class concerts. The school also maintains its choir activities.

Arriaza Music School

Sport is not only an essential discipline for the healthy development of the body, it is also a source of many values.

Within school hours the centre provides the time required for sport in all years of sixth form education and promotes competitive extra curricular activities, in which all students can and should participate.

The school uses different methods which allow students to take part in sporting activities and encourages more elite sports such as fencing or athletics. So last year a 9th year student (3rd year of secondary school) defended their title as Andalusian champion in the under 15 category. Students also practice indoor football, basketball and volleyball.

The importance of sport

We are pioneers in using cultural trips as a complement to the classroom, something we consider

extremely important as it helps the student to discover, in situ, what they are learning.

Educational trips

The religious nature of our school determines that we pay attention to religious instruction, independently of our positive assessment of this subject as a teaching aid during the

early years of education to instill positive moral values. However, this should not prevent teenage students from using their initiative to make up their own mind about religion.

Religion

importance in a teenager’s education is solidarity. That is why in our school we try to promote this value through campaigns to help people in the Third world, helping the environment, respect and help for the elderly etc., without forgetting critical study of the cause of all manner of scourges which affect our world, emphasizing those which affect our country.

Buen Pastor School has been collaborating with Adolfo Kolping school in Ecuador for a number of years. The school was founded in 1999 and is located in the small town of Yaruquíes, which belongs to the city of Riobamba, in the Chimborazo province, Ecuador.

The school is part of a social project (the pupils do not have to pay money) whose founder is Father Wolfgang Shaft. It is aimed at helping the poorest children from indigenous communities in the area, and from the deprived neighbourhoods of Riobamba city. Their schooling starts in the second year of primary education up to A-Level. It maintains a technical nature which tries to teach a profession, as well as teaching the very basic areas of knowledge, through which the pupils can raise themselves and their family out of poverty.

Buen Pastor school is, and has been since 2000, collaborating with the school sending money annually so that they are able to buy machinery and teaching materials. In 2004 Buen Pastor School signed an agreement with Adolfo Kolping school in which it was promised that all primary teachers’ salaries would be maintained for every academic year. Buen Pastor School also collaborates on a weekly basis with the “soup Kitchen” at the Pumarejo centre in Seville, providing food and help from student volunteers who distribute the food.

Community spirit

The objective of the school system should not only be to pass on certain knowledge to its students, but it also has a fundamental duty to complete their education and encourage co-existence that the student already experiences at the heart of their family.

Therefore, the school has rules to achieve the following goals: to

integrate the pupil into society through interpersonal relations, to stimulate the development of certain habits and behavioural values that steer them towards self discipline and active respect of others and to sanction any behaviour which, despite our best intentions, go against the principles, habits and values that the school has an obligation to encourage in our students.

Guidelines for co-existence

According to the principles of the Institution for Free Teaching, we must guide students’ feelings and choices towards the interests of the State, to the point of being willing

and not intellect, are the bond between man and what strengthens

good manners, as well as the willingness to actively cooperate for society. This patriotism is what we also, following the Institution for Free Teaching, would like to pass on to our students as part of the philosophy and approaches of Mr. Francisco Giner de los Rios.

The course of our education

Finally, following Mr. Francisco Gi-ner de los Rios, our education must have the main aim of forming ho-nourable citizens, with strong will, devoted to work and well-informed

to the point where no element nor basic problem in life be foreign to them, citizens who are ready to put the collective interest before their own.

Purpose

Calle Martínez de Medina, 2 - 41018 – Sevilla

Telephones: 954 53 02 64 / 954 53 80 78 www.colegiobuenpastor.com