10 keys to choose a good school
Yes you are looking for a school for the next course and you still do not know which, do not worry, you're still on time. Choose a good school It is a difficult decision, since the education of the children is fundamental. Schools are one of the main social agents where children's education is developed. Where, in addition to schooling, they learn values, behaviors and social patterns, and can influence their training as a person as well as the family.
The choice of school for our children is an issue that concerns us even before their birth. Boys and girls spend many hours during the day at school, so to value the choice of the center in which we would like them to be formed, information and reflection arise.
The school will not only be the place where they will study and be educated during their childhood and adolescence years, but it is the space in which they will learn to develop with their peers, experience situations that will be new to them and develop their social skills. , sports, creative, consensus ...
On many occasions, we consider that children will be influenced to a greater or lesser extent in their adult life depending on the school that we choose for them. To some extent, this is because that is where they will learn how to relate to others in a context of autonomy. Until they start school, the social relationships of children are limited to the family, the children of their parents' friends, grandparents or neighbors, but this contact is not subject to rules or rules of mandatory use. At school they can choose their friends, they will learn to study, to manage their time, to develop their personality, to think, to know themselves and to accept themselves as they are.
Choose school: 10 keys to get your decision right
Actually, at the time of choosing a school parents are making such an important decision, that the psychologist and director of the Valencian Institute of Psychopedagogy Creative Mar Sanchez Marchori, emphasizes the criteria that should be taken into account and that can guide us in this decision:
1. Ideology of the center. More important than the educational content will be the identity of the center, which materializes in its ideology. This point determines the good choice of the same, since parents should value and decide if they prefer a private or public, religious or secular, mixed or differentiated school, near home or outside the city ... but all these characteristics should go in accordance with the principles and ideas of the parents, because if this is not the case, there would be a conflict between the home and the school that could affect the child.
2. Distance. Do not forget to value this aspect, since it will mean that parents have to take / bring the children of the school and hire bus and school lunch service.
3. Assess whether the school adapts to the needs of the family and the child. It is not a question of choosing the largest or the most modern school, but that center that fits the personality of the child. There are centers where sport is greatly enhanced, others where it is prioritized in creative activities, in some the discipline is more important, etc. Most children tend to adapt to the center chosen by their parents, but it is true that some are more indicated than others to get the most potential out of the student.
4. Extra academic offer. In addition to the academic offer, extracurricular activities are important, since they will complement school content with the development of tasks that stimulate their taste for sports, new technologies, languages, entrepreneurship, culture or creativity.
5. Languages. The importance of languages in the education of children is obvious. The choice of a school is influenced (and in many cases determined) by the languages it teaches, as well as the possibility of exchanges with other countries when the children have reached the appropriate age.
This program is a unique pedagogical project that promotes the development of emotional competence through the subject of English Language, equipping students with skills that will be useful for the rest of their lives. In addition, it favors teacher training through a personalized plan in areas of various kinds, and advises families through playful activities and suggestions for monitoring their children in the preparation of official tests.
6. Value the methodology. A fundamental point in the choice of school is the type of methodology applied in their teaching, their pedagogical orientation, the objectives they pursue, what their educational line is and what kind of follow-up they develop with the students and with the parents of the center ( conferences, parent schools *).
7. New technologies / ICT. In many schools, new technologies are used to encourage divergent thinking among students, as well as teaching them to manage a large amount of information and search for relevant content. Therefore, it is good to have a school in which the advantages offered by the application in their ICT classrooms are used.
The New Technologies are another means at the service of learning and serve as a reinforcement of knowledge in all subjects. Its objective is for students to adequately acquire competences, ethics and skills in the use of new computer tools and access to knowledge through the Internet, for which a learning system based on the creativity and participation that encourages curiosity and fosters self-confidence and motivation.
ICTs are present in the daily life of the school with computer rooms with one computer per student and classrooms equipped with Interactive digital whiteboards (POIs), multimedia and Internet connection in the classroom. The extensive use of these tools and the specific software developed for classroom use help to improve students' motivation and bring knowledge closer to the virtual environments they are accustomed to using in our digital world.
8. The facilities. It is important to know and visit the school before deciding. It will be convenient to tour the classrooms, sports facilities, see the atmosphere that is breathed in the center and walk through the places where, if we finally decide, our son will grow.
9. Department of orientation. In many occasions we do not know in the Guidance Department in all the years that our son spends in the center. However, it is not a small matter to consult the procedure of action that the school has before a possible difficulty of learning, since it is a key point the support of the children in these cases.
10. Training in conflict resolution. Assess the training of the center's staff in terms of resolving conflicts and social skills.
Marisol Nuevo Espín
