Children from Amaiur Ikastola at the
San Fermin Festival (June 2009)
Amaiur Ikastola is located in Iturrama district, very near
the town centre. Most of the students, come from around this
area and a few of them are from small villages close to
Pamplona. Altogether, there are 388 students and about 36
teachers.
The main language at school is Basque, it means that we
teach most of the subjects in that language. But all
students have English and Spanish as school subjects too.
Within the school apart from the usual lessons, teachers
also work on different projects, such as: Basque enhancing
team, Reading enhancing team, Parent’s Tutoring team and the
ITC team. The first one creates new proposals for
encouraging pupils to speak fluent Basque (as most of their
mother tongue is Spanish). They make games and campaigns to
motivate children and make them love Basque.
The second one has created a character, an elf that lives in
the library and offers children creative possibilities to
make them closer to reading for pleasure. The Parent’s
Tutoring team makes plans for involving parents in their
children’s education and cooperation with school.
And finally, the ITC team works for the integration of the
new technologies at school.
The parents’ association organises a wide range of after
school activities, such as dancing, all kinds of sports,
musical instruments and arts.
There is something that makes our school colourful and alive
- all the festivals we celebrate during the school year!
At Christmas we welcome Olentzero, our Basque Father
Christmas.
The 4th of February, we go out and sing a song asking for
sweets and food.
At Carnival time, our character is a bad guy called
Mielotxin who was a thief and we burn him!
To end the school year, we have a big party where all the
students, parents and teachers take part in a festival
first, and in a lovely meal afterwards.
See
our children singing a Christmas Carol (Flash Video 9mb)
