Italy

The Liceo Scientifico “Vitruvio”, a 52-year-old Institution, is one of the largest General Education Upper Secondary schools in Abruzzo with a total number of 1400 students aged 14-19. Our students study both classical and scientific subjects in order to deepen the interconnections between them, the relations between scientific theory on the one hand and literary, artistic and philosophical ones on the other. French, German or Spanish, together with compulsory English are the languages taught at the Language Dept. Every year the teachers’ Board establishes a mission which has to be common to every single subject. Every year our school holds a “Settimana della Cultura Scientifica e Tecnologica” (Science Festival), a project entirely devoted to Science and its connections to other school subjects. On “Open School” week (mid-March) students of other schools, teachers, parents and authorities from all over the region are welcome to visit the exhibits. The Liceo Scientifico “Vitruvio” has been awarded a special prize for this project by the Turin-sieged “Fondazione sanpaolo”. Our Institution has taken part to stages such as “Change the World – Model United Nations” in New York and to “You and Me 4 Europe – Young people and Media for Europe”, in order to stimulate European debate. Recently our students and teachers have been involved in yearly Intercultural exchange programmes with other European Institutions in Poland, Serbia, Denmark, Portugal, Slovakia and Israel. The aim is to enhance both students and teachers’ motivation through a series of Key actions among which the most important is giving the school a more European and International dimension. Every year more and more students apply for a one-year education experience abroad: this year we have students in the US, in Japan, Russia, Sweden, Portugal and Australia. At the same time we are hosting students from Denmark, Germany, the US and Australia. These experiences have had a very high impact on the school community contributing to creating a very positive learning environment. Teachers regularly attend in-service training sessions thanks to ERASMUS KA1and introduce their new competences and skills in their daily teaching activity. Every single step of this process has been accurately planned after having discussed and outined the specific needs of our Institution so far. We provide extra curricular English afternoon classes and, as a Cambridge Certification Centre, students take exams every year. We have recently started the procedure in order to become a Cambridge International school which will give us the opportunity to provide a special Cambridge curriculum where some subjects will be taught in English thus becoming a bilingual school.