...ok.. now Im writing a book :) I have very few fotos from kids school in Barcelona. I just never dared hanging there with a camera, I never saw anyone taking pictures there and just thought other parents starts asking questions that " hey foreigner.. what are you doing"..
I just want to defend the school in Barcelona.. years and years Finland is always on top in every list of primary education and only bad things are said about Spanish School System. I want to say something to defend it... but ok, Im not professional and my kids are really young. The only thing I know is the beginning years of the school life. Oskar started at 1st grade and Ines as first grade of Preschool, P3 ( pre for 3yrs olds )
- AND we liked it! I have nothing bad to say about the public school my kids went to.
The system is very different compared to what we have in Finland.
First of all in Finland school starts at the age of 7.. all years until that your either at home or at some sort of nursery. In Spain school starts with voluntary Pre-School at the age of 3.. The must must school starts at age of 6. These 3yrs old ones have the same long days as any other kids until 6th grade. School started every morning at 9am and finished at 16.30pm. And one huge difference between Finland and the big world is that in Barcelona school area was behind walls, gates opened for 10mins in the morning and about 30mins in the afternoon. And if you missed that morning... you had to ring a doorbell, wait for the school secretary come pick kids from the gate - and - explain why you are late! so once you mistakenly do it.. you dont do it again! Oskar also told me that they were not allowed to attend the first lesson.. he and some other kids who were late had to wait at the hall during the first lesson. In Finland there is no gates or walls.. its all open public area.. but I do think teachers expect you be in time here too..
Also when we picked kids up.. teacher came out to school yard with all kids and gave them one by one to the person who was picking them up. If there was changes in this person picking up.. school needed to be informed. Silly foreigners as we are.. in the beginning Oskar was running from the queue and after couple days his teacher was very strict with me that " I need to have an eye contact with who I hand out the kids, Oskar cant just disappear" .. ok ok Im sorry Im sorry .. lesson learned :) Ines, as a preschool girl, we picked up from the classroom door.
The school places were given out from one central office and once we went there..handed all our papers I think we waited 2-3weeks and we had a school place. Eeeeaaasy. Those weeks were exciting times.. we were not sure which school we get.. there was a huge school close to where we lived and we had heard all kind of bad stories of this school.. but were thinking : We need schoolplaces and if we get that.. we live with it. - But noooo... I consider us lucky! They gave us a really nice school. Much smaller and very safe, good feeling, cozy happy school. About 15mins walk from kids dads place and the same from mine. This school has extra lessons of music and english. Music they have loads, kids can play very many instruments and have private lessons, they also have a famous school choir. They have their own garden there where all classes grow stuff and during breaks they can sit there and play or paint. They had 2 times a year a sports day by the beach and did many excursions all over.
The school is called Escola Antoni Brusi.. Named after a Catalan journalist, owner and editor of a newspaper called El Diario de Barcelona. I was told that this school used to be a really bad reputation school about 10yrs ago.. there is a neighbourhood called Vila Olympica next to it and this area was made for the Olympics. New buildings, big flats and lots of families.. so many families that there was no schools enough and some kids were given a place in this Antoni Brusi instead. These parents at those times raised a hell that they will not accept this and city heard them shout. Parents were handed money to paint and decorate this school..fix a parents associaton there.. change few teachers, make it cosy and good.. . And they succeeded so well that this school is still today used as an example of " the power of parents of school kids" .. Nowadays.. Im not sure this would be possible as there just is no money for anything :)
One of the parents those days was an artist and came up with this school mascot, Brusit, its still in use and goes from one home to another. As well as there is a funky book made of Brusit's adventures and school sells it to collect money.
In public schools there is no uniforms in use, only in private schools. But our school did have some. First of all these, Bata's, school jackets were a must. We had a bit of an issue with Ines in the beginning as she said " Im not wearing boys color clothes" .. so I came up with some flowers and her name on it. I had seen in school some kids had Bata decorated so this is how I got my princess happy too..
And also sports clothes had to be bought. Everyday they had sports, that class of kids was wearing these "sports shirts" to school, the outfit also has the black pants but Oskar said the shirt is the most important. Also during school field trips they had to wear these shirts atleast. There was also a track suit ( or is it sweat suit, the word? ) and dance clothes available. And I think these were all expensive, the track suit was 55e, the short leaves t-shirt 12e, long sleeve 16e/18e and pants and shorts around the same... when at the same time normal shops in BCN sold kids clothes muuuuuch cheaper. But.. I guess the money is for good cause- for the school.
Also one big difference between school in Finland and Barcelona was the number of lessons they had.. Much more in Spain than in Finland at first grade... and P3 was serious learning too. Well..lot of play as well, but Ines had few hours of English for instance already at her age. School books we parents had to buy, and I thought they were expensive.. almost 200 euros for these 2 kiddies in total. And Ive heard the price goes up each school year. In Finland all school books are free and come from school. We also had to pay a material fee each month and some other small things. In total .. the public school in Spain is not cheap at all :) Homework Ines didnt get any, but Oskar did. Thats also different. In Finland you get homework during week and never weekends, but in Barcelona Oskar only got homework for weekends. They had this travel folder, Carpeta Viagera, he brought home each Friday with few sheets to do and had to be brought back on Monday. And all ofcourse in Catalan.. the main language they teach everything is in Catalan.. sometimes I was really in trouble and had to ask Marcs dad for some help :) but.. every time we had them done!
The schoolyear is from mid September to June, finishes the friday before Midsummer. Year is devided into 3 parts and each time they had longer holiday ( xmas, easter and summer) we got to see what they had done as they brought everything home.
Funky Stuff!
Afterwords Im thinking omg we were horrible.. We just put our kids there..in different country, to school.. without knowing a word of Catalan.. They knew some Spanish after year in Andalusia, but not a word of Catalan. Oskar got extra tutoring in Catalan and Spanish few hours a week. Or its not Spanish. The language we know as " Spanish" is called Castellano in Spain. The language of the area/ province called Castilla.. they say the most proper accurate " spanish " is spoken in this area. There is so many different dialects and even own languages in provinces in Spain, that the main language we foreigners study and call Spanish.. is actually called Castellano in Spain. Oskars teachers asked us if they could put Oskar to the tutoring group with some other kids and of course we say YES! And I have no complaints about this! in couple months.. My son learned how to read and write in both languages! His teacher actually told me once that when she was doing dictating practises.. Oskar wrote better Catalan than some other kids in the class who were Catalan :) She showed me these practises they had made and there was not one mistake in Oskars paper.
wohoo! my smart little man!
Kids just adored and loved this school! we never had a morning they would have cried and said they dont want to go to school, They loved it! Ines went in a little train like this to the classroom each morning and oh boy those kids ran from the gate to compete who gets to be the first in line!
One thing I really liked is that they have ARTS much more in Catalan School than in Finland. Each class has a named artist and they concentrate on his /hers work throughout the school year. Oskars first class was Antoni Tapies, very famous Catalan Artist and they really went to visit his museums, had a special table for his works at classroom and tried to think as kids whats the meaning behind this art. Second grade they had another Catalan artist called Roser Capdevila and did just the same.
Apart from museum visits they had lots of other field trips, Guell Colonia, Torres Vineyard, a bee farm where they made honey,to see theatre plays and musicals.. as well as trips to closer around the neighbourhood like the market halls. Ines had less field trips but they took her class for instance to the Barcelona Zoo and to ride cute little ponies.
Oskars class had this suitcase travelling from one home to another all year, Maleta Viagera. One week in each family. There was the mascot, Brusit, and few books to read. The idea was that each family writes something to the Travel Book as well. We wrote a little story about differences in school systems and how we like the school and gave a little language course Finnish - Catalan. I also gave Oskars class a book of Finland, ( in spanish ) and they have been reading that and checking maps where is Finland in his class.
you click the fotos to see them bigger
coming back to the differences.. I think the biggest one is the lunch. Oh yes. In Finland we eat fast, cuz we are hungry and we have to eat. Quick, fast and done with it. Lunch break is school for instance is 30mins.. In Barcelona.. Catalunya.. España..the land of the siesta.. the lunch break at school was 2.5hrs.. heh..
they have 2 options, some kids are picked up to eat and rest at home, and some kids eat at school. Oskar told me it was about half and half. Our kids ate at school.. everyday at 12.30 and they had 3 course menu of ecological food. Starter, main course, dessert. We got each month a menu for whole month emailed to us. But this wasnt free.. we paid around 125e per child per month. Ines was few euros more than Oskar because they had extra person to help them out. Ines also had a excel sheet she brought home everyday. They had marked : If she ate first course, if she ate second course, if she ate dessert, if she needed help and if she had used cuttlery properly. Everyday someone had made a cross on this list how she had done. Kids liked the food.. they never complained it was bad or different. Which sometimes made me laugh..cuz If I had made this funny looking dark green soup with all strange ingredients for a starter, they would have never eat it at home..but at school they did. And it wasnt all funny looking or wierd.. it was also burgers and fries and choco puddings :)
First year at school, when Ines was at P3 they slept a nap during the lunch break. They had small beds at the gymnastics room inside and she had her own sheet she brought home to wash every Friday... This sleeping was also marked as yes /no on her control sheets.. and we saw that she never slept. I asked her many times that what do you do then if you dont sleep and she said " I play with the teachers or they read me a book" .. so I guess it was enough for them she was quiet and happy :)
One huge difference to schooling system is AMPA. Its a parents association in each school... and ofcourse because its up to parents interest and time.. its different in each school. AMPA sells the school clothes, some special books and also arranges many after school activities. They also have "babysitting" in the mornings and after school for parents who are working. First year we didint take any as we thought new school is enough but second year Oskar played football in school team and Ines had dancing and gymnastics after school. These happened directly when school was finished so we just picked them up later and put extra snack in their backbags.
AMPA also makes all kinds of different parties at school. We loved them!
Biggest party they make each year is the school finishing party at June.. In Finland we go to school all dressed up at 9am and its all very official and teacher hands report cards one by one to kids. In Barcelona they send these report cards with kids few days before and the school end year party is an evening party with band playing and catering service fixing a full sitting dinner. I like that!
I have very few fotos from school, it was so behind the gates that I just never dared to be too much filming there. I have been few times indoors, to meet kids teachers, but those were the only times parents were asked / allowed to go in after the first time they had introduced us to school. I have nothing bad to say about this school. Kids loved going there and both had teachers who loved their jobs. Kids never felt there sad or different, just the opposite! We did notice the crisis was showing in schools as less teachers and other helpers and Oskars swimming lessons were cancelled for the second year. Oskar used to love this swimming time they had once a week. They had couple times "open days" for parents to go watch and it was serious business..no fooling around, 1 hour a proper swimming school.
But other than that. Im happy. Oskar learned to read and write and is in same level in maths than kids in Finland, if not further and Ines also learned the alphabets and speaks little English too. What more can I ask?
We have many good memories in our hearts and Oskar also has this t-shirt. They made one for each kid in class.. catalan flag with all the names of the classmates
This is a song kids learned in school..and they still know it upside down, sleeping or awake. This song was also played on repeat on each after school party.. and its not even Catalan or Castellano, its Portuguese :)
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