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COLEGIO SANTO TOMÁS DE AQUINO
LA MILAGROSA
Centro Privado concertado con la Consejería de Educación y Ciencia de la Junta de
Comunidades de Castilla – La Mancha
Shaping the European dimension of education and plurilingualism
in our school
Fundación Educación Católica (FEC) (Foundation for Catholic Education) has its rai‐
son d’être in a clear social calling: to save the permanence of those catholic centres
which are needed in a particular place. No catholic school should be closed if it is
feasible and it fulfills the important social and
church function of forming in a human and
Christian way kids and young people. FEC was
founded with this aim, promoted by the Span‐
ish Federation of Monks and Nuns related to
Education.
Santo Tomás de Aquino ‐ La Milagrosa
School in Tomelloso is one of the twenty‐one centres that FEC has got all over Spain
and one of the two that FEC has got in the autonomous region of Castilla – La Man‐
cha.
Our school is situated at the centre of the town
of Tomelloso. Its population is over 38.000 people. Eco‐
nomic activities are focused on agriculture sector
(farming and stockbreeding) being especially important
the growing of vineyards and the ranching of sheep.
The wine cooperative ‘Virgen de las Viñas’ is the
biggest one in Europe and the
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second biggest in the world. There is also a strong industrial sector with enterprises
which are leaders in metallurgy, electricity installation and agricultural machinery
(ANRO, MERSA, and MECAFA for example). The composition of our population is
getting richer thanks to the presence of immigrants from Romania, Maghreb and
South America, whose presence is very important; there are about 3,500 people
from 54 nationalities at this moment in our town.
Our school has a 12 % average of students
coming from some different countries. Our educa‐
tional syllabus has got three different stages: In‐
fant, Primary and Secondary Education. There are
about 670 students as well as 41 teachers and five
administration and non‐teaching staff.
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The European Dimension of our school
We have been carrying the following Life‐
long learning European projects and activities since
2007:
‐ Comenius School Association “Travelling Europe”.
Countries: Portugal (coordinator), Spain, Denmark,
Italy, Turkey and Wales (UK). A number of ques‐
tions and web quests are being developed about
subjects related to History, culture, arts and litera‐
ture of these countries. Students send letters by
mail and become ‘electronic’ pen pals, but always
using the school European e‐mail. Each country is
building websites like blogs where all these
experiences are written and shown to the rest
of the schools. (Our blog is:
www.fecstlmeuropa.blogspot.com). Up to
this moment we have travelled to Saletto
(Italy), Copenhaguen (Denmark), Cardiff
(Wales, UK) and Braga (Portugal).
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Along courses 2009/10 and 2010/11, our school will participate in the
Comenius project CLIMATE CHANGE: THE SOLUTION IS YOU, with schools from
Greece (coordinator), Hungary, Turkey, Poland, Lithuania, Belgium, Italy and Spain.
Activities related to environmental issues, recycling and climate change will be
dealed with by students and teacher during the next two years. The first mobility
took place in Tomelloso in autumn 2009. Next countries to be visited will be Turkey
and Poland (2010) and Greece (2011).
Comenius Assistanship 2007/08. A teacher from Romania, Rossana Dar‐
caci, was with us since 1st October 2007 to 1st June 2008, working as auxiliary
teacher of English Language and developing an important work with the Romanian
community of the school. During the academic year (2008/09) we also had a Comen‐
ius Assistanship Host Programme; the teacher who was with us last year is called
Maria Kouti and she comes from Greece. She has been working in the school from 1st
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October 2008 to 1st June 2009; she taught English and Greek language and culture to
students from 3 to 16 years old. She also gave English lessons to the teachers of the
school. We also applied for being a host school during the academic year 2009/10,
but sadly, in spite of being declared eligible by the authorities, we were not chosen
by any European teacher.
Conversion of the school in
a bilingual centre English‐
Spanish. Since year 2007 we
are developing Innovation
projects leading to the con‐
version of the school in bilin‐
gual English‐Spanish and
promoting French; up to this
moment we are the only
school in Tomelloso which
has got French as a third language in curriculum (after Spanish and English) in pri‐
mary Education. During the last year a research was carried out among the stu‐
dents, teachers and families of the school and at the same time activities to moti‐
vate students and teachers have been carried out as well. Banners and signs in Eng‐
lish, French and Spanish have been placed all over the school. Theatre plays per‐
formed by primary students have also been released. Last course we started a bilin‐
gual programme for Infant Education children (3 to 5 years old) based on an inno‐
vation project. This course we will extent that programme to the students of 1st
cycle of primary education, that is, 1st and 2nd courses; in primary education we will
work on subjects such as Science and Physical Education. We will also start the
introduction of some lessons in English in Physical Education in
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Secondary courses. Being our school a private school sustained with public funds we
have no right to access the State funds to create a European section in our school,
that’s why we developed these innovation projects to obtain the permission to intro‐
duce a bilingual teaching in our school. Last year’s project led to implement in En‐
fant Education on a weekly basis:
‐> 90 minutes of teaching on English Language.
‐> 50 minutes (10 minutes every day) of bits of intelligence on sociocultural
aspects of English speaking countries.
‐> 45 minutes of gross motor skills development.
‐> 30 minutes of storytelling with the Comenius English Auxiliary Teacher.
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European Cell. This workgroup
started in 2007, basing its work on
what has been promoted by FERE‐
EECC for several years now. It has
become the reference group for the
coordination of all European and
bilingual projects at the school. All
projects related to the promotion of
European Union or the learning of foreign languages are coordinated by the mem‐
bers of this group. There is a special notice board at the school reserved to this
group to publish those notices, events, activities… related to European Union. The
spreading of the idea of Europe as a conglomerate of
states that work together to manage the welfare of
their citizens, in the joint projects to develop coopera‐
tion with the third world due to our privileged position
in the world, following the humanist idea of the speech
given by Schumann on 9th May 1950, in which the idea
of securing peace in Europe through the cooperation
among the countries of the continent was stated.
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From 24th to 26th June 2008 we were invited to participate in a meeting of
Spanish Catholic Schools celebrated in Bruxelles (Belgium). A representative of our
school went there and with the representatives of other 22 Spanish schools partici‐
pated in a course on the running of European institutions and how to promote the
idea of Europe in our schools. In December 2008 we were visited by teacher of the
faculty of Education from the University of Riga (Latvia). This visit was organised by
CEP Tomelloso. CEP Tomelloso has also provided for information and procedures for
our teachers to participate in courses abroad.
Thanks to CEP collaboration our students of fith year of Primary Education are
now penfriends with the school ESPOO ESBO at Espoon Kaupunki in Finland.
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We want to go on developing the following lines of action as far as Europe and
the teaching of foreign languages are concerned:
Participation in Lifelong Learning Comenius Multilateral Partner‐
ships.
Participation in Lifelong Learning Comenius Bilateral Partnerships.
Participation in Lifelong Learning Comenius Assistantships (host).
Participation in E‐Twining Projects
Development of plurilingual programs at our school.
Promotion of French as third language in our syllabus.
Promotion of the workgroup European Cell, including parents and
students in its projects and meetings.
Training of teachers in CLIL activities and foreign language compe‐
tence, through School of Languages, CEP, and other.
We are looking forward to promoting the mobility of our students to
other European countries through study trips, visits and courses at the
European Institutions.
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For any enquiry related to our European projects and / or our plurilingual
program you can contact any member of our staff at:
[email protected] (Headship)
[email protected] (Director of studies)
[email protected] (Plurilingual Team)
[email protected] (European Cell Team)
[email protected] (General address)
Please, visit our web sites:
http://fecstlmeuropa.blogspot.com http://www.santotomaslamilagrosatomelloso.com
C/ Socuéllamos, 16 13700 Tomelloso
Ciudad Real — Spain
Phone and Fax 926 510 213
January 2010