ITALY SCUOLA SECONDARIA DI 1°GRADO "G. PAVONCELLI" CERIGNOLA

The “Giuseppe Pavoncelli” 1st grade Secondary School  is a state school in Cerignola, attended every year by approximately 800  students between the ages of 11 and 14.

The school is a wide, modern building located in the heart of the city and named after one of the crucial characters in the history of Southern Italy, born in Cerignola (1836-1910) also Minister of Public Works for the Italian Government.

In terms of area and population, Cerignola is the second agricultural center (60.000 inhabitants) in the whole region and the surrounding land is one of the widest and most fertile soils of the whole Italy. As result, the urban economy is almost exclusively centered on production, storage, marketing and processing of agricultural products.

Our school is made up of  36 classes. The school time consists of 30 hours/week: students are welcomed at 08.20 in the morning and leave school at 13.20.  Only 5 classes out of 36 follow an extended school time of 36 hours/week, leaving school at 16:20 on Thursdays and Fridays.

The teaching staff counts 81 units including 17 special educational needs teachers.

The non-teaching staff consists of 12 caretakers and 5 administratives.

Our school has always been involved in the fight against early school leaving, joining projects at different levels: local funds (F.I.S.), Regional funds (F.S.E and F.E.S.R.), National funds (P.O.N.) EU funds (Comenius, Erasmus programmes) aimed to develop interest  and love for learning and to provide a challenging learning experience which all students can benefit from.

Our students leave school with high standards in the basic skills of reading, writing, arithmetic (Mathématiques Sans Frontières, Kangurou) and foreign languages (Cambridge/Delf certification).

In addition, we wish to inspire them offering a broad and varied curriculum experience that embraces arts, music (musical competitions) and sport (Giochi della Gioventù). 

Main objective of our educational community  is for students to become self-motivated, independent learners with a wide range of generic study skills that will prove useful to them throughout their lives. Neverthelss, we try  to develop appreciation and respect for different religions, beliefs and moral values of tolerance and mutual understanding, to prepare our students to live in a multi-cultural society.

The target students for the present project will be from the five classes with extended school time . The afternoon timetable, usually planned for workshop activities, along with the higher total amount of school hours/week may support a successful development of the project actions.

The staff teachers of the two classes will be responsible for the project in order to provide all the specific curricular skills needed. Some of them have already experienced strategic partnerships working for the Erasmus project "Cultivons l'Europe", as well as for the Comenius project "Viv(r)e mon collège". All the  others have taken part to PON, FSE and FESR projects.

Among our main projects and workshop activities:

- Erasmus+ programme

- P.O.N. Projects

- Cambridge/Delf Certification

-  Pav-Lab High-tech laboratory

-  Franglish Chorus (multilingual choir)

-  Class exchanges

-  Kangarou (Maths competition)

- Matematiques sans frontieres (Maths competition)

-  Students’ Sport Championships

-  Theatre workshop

-  Music therapy workshop

-  Piano and saxophone courses

- School trips and guided tours