Letter from director
Dear Parents, Friends, and Guests,
Let me be the first to welcome you to our website on behalf of all members of our school´s community – the faculty, staff, students, parents -- and to invite you to make a personal visit when you can. As a new member of the school´s community, and also as a parent of a child newly enrolled in the school, I can assure you that you will receive a very warm reception by all in this lively, dynamic educational community.
The School is proud of its unique position in northern Spain. It is at one and the same time an international school, but one that follows an American curriculum taught mainly in English. It has an international and multicultural population, but at the same time serves a large number of local families. It offers classes for children beginning at age 2 through to the end of high school. It prepares students for university admission to fine schools both in Spain and in the English-speaking countries. It is a school with 42 years of solid history behind it that also looks determinedly toward the future of your children.
As we enter this new century, indeed the new millennium, we know that students will face many unknown challenges, ones we cannot even anticipate or imagine now. We therefore need to prepare them for this reality and ensure they not only learn the knowledge and skills that are relevant for today´s world, but also that they gain the confidence, the ability, and the mindset to teach themselves the knowledge and skills they will need throughout their lives.
To this end, we believe that:
- Learning (education) is an on-going process of making sense of the world. We are all learners.
- Current learning depends upon earlier learning and understanding. It is cumulative.
- Learning is not immediately perfect or smooth. It is often messy; it requires making guesses, taking risks, and correcting errors. It is developmental.
- Learning takes place in many ways, through all of our senses. It therefore requires multiple resources.
- Learning occurs across many dimensions—intellectual, emotional, physical, ethical, spiritual. It is multi-dimensional.
- Learning involves seeking order, establishing patterns, finding harmonies, making meaning. This is done on a personal, communal, societal, and global level. It is transactional.
- Learning requires that practice which is meaningful and purposeful takes place on a regular basis. It needs structure and attention.
- Learning happens best when it is not isolated from the real world or artificially segregated into disciplines; it is integrative.
- Learning happens best when it involves students in terms of their own personal questions, concerns, hopes, and aspirations. It is individualized.
- Learning requires positive feedback and realistic yet sympathetic assessment ("coaching" or "mentoring"). It is interactive.
- Learning is the most important and exciting activity we engage in.
In closing, let me invite you to learn more about our school through this website and to visit us in person. We look forward to welcoming you!
With sincere best wishes,
Dr. John F. Larner
Director