Comparacion entre escuelas

Theory of Education – Characteristics of Effective Schools

Comparing two models:

Escuelas Aguirre (Spain)



Headley Park (England)

Escuelas Aguirre, Madrid (Spain)

The School was founded in 1873 by Mr. Lucas Aguirre, who considered that “all the matters the population suffers are caused by the ignorance and the lack of culture of people”. He was a liberal thinker andcollaborated actively with the First Republic. When he died, he decided to donate his fortune to build three schools: one in Siones (his father’s village), another one in Cuenca (where he was born) and finally, in 1886, one in Madrid (where he spent most of his life). However, in 1967, the school moved to a new building, also in the neighbourhood. All these schools were free of charge and, initially, werededicated to the education of the people in need.

Nowadays, Escuelas Aguirre is still a Public School, and it is composed by a group of professionals who maintain the same purposes and the same values in which this School was founded, who are convinced that this School is a model of teaching, and who work hard for preserve the school’s influence and identity within the district.

EscuelasAguirre’s aim is to promote an Education of Quality, both in Curricula and moral values, fostering relationships and working together to keep their prestige and importance within the community.

Educational Plan:

Escuelas Aguirre is a Public Institution for Education, and therefore it is a school free of charge, secular, democratic and with a policy of cultural integration, as all the PublicCentres in Spain. But, in this context, Escuelas Aguirre has some specific characteristics that provide the school with its own identity:

* Location in a privileged environment:

The School is situated in front of the Retiro Park, which provides students with the chance of enjoying environmental, physical and cultural activities.

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Facilities and resources:

The School isorganized in two independent building, one for Kindergarten and other for Primary Education. Both of them are located in the school grounds, but separated by an area of gardens where children take optional lessons on agriculture.

The classrooms are spacious and hexagonal shaped, and they can be rearranged to ease team work. There are 18 classrooms and several spaces, as the library, the staffroom, thelaboratory, administration offices, the Pedagogy and Speech Therapy Cabinet, the gym, the lunch room, the kitchen, the sport facilities, the school kitchen garden… There are also some specific rooms, as a music room, a computer room, a psychomotor room, an audiovisual room and a multiple function room.

* Pedagogical and social principles:

Escuelas Aguirre is committed with an Educationfocused into an integral development of students. By a constructive methodology, teachers provide guidance and lead the learning to establish the relations between school experiences and knowledge. They preferably use inductive and deductive methods to reach the correct results.

Some of the aims of the school are:

* To foster the integration of all students in the class-group.
* Toencourage students participation in their social and natural environment.
* To adapt the Education to students needs.
* To promote self-esteem in students.
* To establish relationships with the families to improve the Educational process.
* To act as mediator in situations of conflict.
* To promote ethical values and an Education in equality.

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Teachers and staff:Escuelas Aguirre is composed by 30 teachers committed with the Educational Plan of the School, who work hard to address the students’ learning to develop the different aspects of their personality, always respecting their singularity, and to inform and help parents in an effective way. Moreover, teachers are constantly learning new methods of teaching in order to give a top quality education.

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