Guenia School, located in Guatiza, is clear about its teaching method to individually attend to each student who comes to the school. It has small groups in Infant and Primary, specifically between 10 and 15 children, with the aim of offering an extensive service to each of them and promoting their personality and qualities. "We are happy with the attention we give them, families are also happy with the personalized attention we give their children," the school's teachers commented.
The small census of the town, which could be a handicap for Guenia School, has become something positive and has expanded its vision to provide students with more attention in their day to day. "Each year it costs us more to get children to enroll," revealed its director, Elisa Brito Guillén. A disadvantage that they take advantage of to attract students from areas near the center. "20% of the students come from Costa Teguise and Los Cocoteros", she commented.
The children change classrooms depending on the class they have to receive. To motivate and not cause monotony in them, they usually have some subjects in different classrooms, such as the English class. In addition, with this individualized attention, which allows them to acquire knowledge in a more integrated way, they receive an education appropriate to their needs, strengths and weaknesses. "The attention is more individualized, so we believe that we have turned being mixed into something not negative at all," said the current director of the center, "when more students are mixed, it becomes more complicated."
Since the beginning of the course, the Infant students, specifically from 4 years old, have carried out various projects (jointly with the entire Infant cycle) such as the one dedicated to learning about the history of Lanzarote and César Manrique, with the project of 'Lanzarote and the Volcanoes'. A school initiative that will be presented to family members after its completion. With it they work on "stage fright and linguistic expression", stressed Saray Fraiz, one of the teachers at the center. "These projects motivate them to learn from other subjects such as mathematics, language, etc.", she stressed.
The most important thing for the teaching staff is that the children lose their fear of speaking in public and develop social skills that can help them in their adult life. For this, the activities in which they are exposed to their peers are vital to practice it little by little. "We have a microphone and we help them to be protagonists, to lose their stage fright," said teacher Saray. A way for students to establish personal relationships and learn to communicate with each other and with others effectively. The tasks with which they familiarize themselves daily, lead them to have a joint education and to know how to identify the emotions of their classmates. "They help each other a lot, they learn together through an assembly, which serves to find solutions and put them into practice," said the teacher.
"They help each other a lot, they learn together and look for solutions"
In addition, through teaching them to express their emotions, the school manages to ensure that the little ones can express, manage and know their feelings and understand the concerns of other classmates, to put themselves in their place and treat empathy from an early age. Each student has some labels with each emotion (sadness, joy, anger, fear...), accompanied by some clothespins with their name, which they use to get to know themselves better and everything around them. "Each one positions themselves in a feeling and they comment on what is happening to them", said Fraiz.
At the moment in which some of the children act in an "incorrect way", the others know how to identify the errors and individually support the other to improve their way of thinking and change the behavior that leads to those "bad manners". "The other day, a child threw a tantrum and his classmates gave him techniques to relax," she revealed. A "very necessary" learning to introduce the little ones to the management of "frustration management", Saray remarked. "They use the techniques they learn at school and also transfer them to home", a fundamental environment to acquire values.
Aware of the LGTBIQ+ community and diversity
A school dedicated to the integration and inclusion of all students who decide to enroll, focusing on attention to diversity. A school aware of the care of students with special needs such as Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), also with the integration of women and the LGTBIQ+ community ("Safe Space"), while providing activities with the aim of involving all members of Infant and Primary. "Initiatives are always proposed from the Equality Area, such as on Women's Day," revealed its director. Last March 8, International Women's Day, the young people, accompanied by the teachers, "launched themselves to do interviews with the working women in their environment," they commented.
"For Women's Day they launched themselves to do interviews with the working women in their environment"
From Guenia School they demand "much more public funding" for diversity care programs. It is a specialized teacher who is in charge of offering these programs in "all adapted classrooms", but even so "we demand more attention", they stressed from the management. They wish to emphasize that the demand for attention to children with special needs has "increased".
The use of Pictograms in the Infant classrooms encourages students to establish a calendar and schedule of tasks, with which they do not lose organization and know the subjects and teachers with whom they will work during their school hours. Above all, students with ASD "see it necessary" to have a school plan in each classroom to "know what is going to be done throughout the day", they have recognized from the center. An initiative with which all students are trained, regardless of the personal needs they have.
The impulse and use of technologies is remarkable in its classrooms. They have a Chroma Classroom to present all the projects and electronic devices such as tablets and mobiles, although they are used as a secondary resource, it provides them with familiarity with the current and modern resources that will be vital for their future. Despite this, the students "still have their own textbooks", Elisa stressed.
An interactive screen that lights up boosts their creativity and encourages their desire to be interested in subjects such as mathematics. "With it they learn geometric figures, numbers and letters, among others," said the Infant teacher. A way to maintain the attention of students, look for an alternative to mobile phones and turn the syllabus into an attractive program for them.
