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COLEGIUL NAÈšIONAL ‚,ION LUCA CARAGIALE’’- MORENI, ROMANIA (COORDINATOR)
Our school, Colegiul National “Ion Luca Caragiale” received this name in 2016 , as before it was named Liceul Teoretic ‘IL Caragiale’, and it got this title due to the great results the teachers and students had, and due to the activities and project that we implemented. It is situated in Moreni, in Dambovita county, in a town surrounded by forests and oil wells. In the past, it was a prosperous area, as there were many factories and the oil extraction company that attracted many people from our country to work here. There were some years of bad management and everything was ruined. As a result, people were made redundant and many of them were forced to go and work abroad in Italy, Spain, Portugal and Greece. Other people work for a poor wage in the area, but they are pleased to have a job. This is the mentality that we need to change in our students, that they have the necessary skills or if they do not have them, that they will improve them, to get good jobs. But, for now many of them feel insecure about their future as their families struggle for earning a living.
Our school has 820 students, 60 teachers, 32 classrooms and it has both lower- secondary classes and upper secondary classes. The students from the 5th-8th classes attend the compulsory national curricula for their age. The ones from the high school are in two different lines: classes from the real profile – Mathematics and Computer Science specialization, and from the Humanistic profile – Philology- intensive English classes and Social sciences.
The school teachers provide the students with quality education, meant to help them either attend higher education or promote themselves as fresh workforce, in general the teachers aim to make students stay in school and never drop out. As we want to involve our students in as many activities as possible in order to prepare them for life and work, they take part in extra-curricular activities and in volunteering. The students from our school come from Moreni, but also from the surrounding villages, and they have to commute 30km daily. Because of the poor economic activity, there are youngsters who go to work abroad where they do menial jobs or they get employment in the area, in which the salary is not too good.
Taking into account the economic, social and educational context in which we work and live, our school management tries to find solutions to offer students better chances for their future. The survey that was applied last year and in which the students were the respondents, pointed out the necessity that our students should acquire and enhance the skills that will be helpful for life and future careers. The survey identified the students’ need to increase the English and digital skills, to live healthier, to boost their chances to get prepared for good jobs. It was also seen that most of them do not read novels, and spend their time in a not very constructive way. That’s why, our teachers and management expect to change this attitude to a more useful way of spending their free time, in which they improve their knowledge of the world. It was also seen that they do not do enough sports, that’s why they need to become aware of this and start doing some sports. The perspective that we live in an area in which there was a lot of uncontrolled deforestation and in which landslides began, raised the need of making our students environmentally friendly. We consider that through international collaboration we will promote the acquisition of relevant and high quality skills for our youngsters, that will make them be successful.
Our teachers and students were involved in 3 Comenius projects and a Leonardo one. All the activities we did, were carefully planned and carried out so that we obtained the maximum, and the participants should learn a lot from them. All these projects involved organising, planning, doing research, presenting the materials, making decisions, contrasting, negotiating, participating in project related meetings, coming up with solutions, evaluation, disseminating the results. The teachers who were in the project teams of these projects gained valuable experience in the project process and results and will help the less experienced ones, as they will guide them and support the team, in general.
The teachers in our school are open-minded, and highly motivated to prompt the acquisition and increase of relevant skills for their students to enable them to live healthier, better, to lead their lives in a meaningful way, to prepare for their future jobs, to actively get involved in the protection of the environment, and as a consequence, in their protection. As we live in a globalized world, we are eager to collaborate with our partners to raise the students and teachers’ cultural awareness, to understand the European cultural and language diversity, as , when they have these skills they will have a better professional integration and a more active citizenship. We have teachers who are eager to participate in the project who are good at English and ICT, who are trustworthy, have critical and analytical thinking and who will be valuable members of the project team.
Teachers and students of our school are involved in various extracurricular activities, sports competitions and, volunteering for helping the people in need. Everything is done at a smaller scale and the impact is only at a local level. We have experience in organising sports events and volunteering campaigns and this will help us in organising the project campaigns. We have teachers of English, ICT, Physical Education, Natural Science, Social Sciences, and form teachers with a lot of experience in their specialization and also in the organisation and unfolding of activities where many people are involved.
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Web site: www.cncaragialemoreni.ro
Fb page: https://www.facebook.com/Colegiul-National-Ion-Luca-Caragiale-Moreni-122155827825851/
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