We draw now, in order to begin to define our hopes and expectations as a school community, on the lived experience of Richard Gerver, headteacher of a primary school called Grange in central England.
“For me, “the basics” are the biological talents with which we come into the world as organisms with an incredible capacity to learn. We are born with all the competencies, the basics that we need. Babies and very young children have incredible intuition, natural creativity and deep curiosity. When we were thinking about what we should do at Grange, I became obsessed with how we could harness that learning capacity and find out what procedures the system was using to inhibit it. If we could figure that out, then we could create an incredible learning environment.
That is our aim: to go back to basics in order to regain our students’ motivation and create a true learning environment.
The families, pupils and professionals who make up this educational community have exchanged our different ways of understanding education, bringing them closer together and forming a joint vision, a shared dream of what we want OUR CENTRE to be. The centre to which families entrust their children, where pupils will spend a significant stage of their lives and mature in their personal, social and academic development, and a place of professional development, involvement and commitment to society for different professionals.
Over time, the principles and aims of education have evolved and many others have appeared as a result of social changes in the immediate environment of the school.
Our core values and aspirations revolve around the following principles:
- Inclusivity. The main ethical reference point at Cenit School is the value of human dignity, accepting all people, whatever their condition may be, helping them to develop their capabilities to the maximum.
- Equity. Being aware of each person’s uniqueness, we dedicate all our efforts to ensure equal opportunities and the necessary specific support.
- Respect for the students. We form a big family, which recognises children as free and unique individuals, in the process of growth. We work to achieve the greatest development in their personal autonomy.
- Participation. Our school is a plural school, which welcomes all people and encourages collaboration between families, pupils and teachers, involving ourselves with the environment and society as a whole.
- Interculturality. Our school is a place of encounter and exchange, as previously mentioned, a place to learn to know, respect and live with other cultures.
- Professional teaching competence. We are committed to continuous improvement, committing ourselves to innovative teaching and methodologies to guarantee the development of basic competences for all students.
We are a close and familiar school, fortunate to have people who come from very different and distant places, enriching us with their experiences and ways of understanding life. To ensure that this happens, we must strive for respect, tolerance and understanding in all circumstances.