The establishment emerges as an outstanding reference, since it has managed to surpass not only private and subsidized schools in Ñuble, but even renowned institutions in Santiago, such as the exclusive Nido de Águilas, whose monthly fee exceeds one million pesos. What is the formula behind this success? The director of the high school, Víctor Reyes, highlights five key factors that have contributed to this notable performance.
More art and sports without reducing hours of “hard” subjects
Although the majority of public, private and paid establishments surpassed their own marks in the Simce, one of the establishments in the Ñuble Region that stood out for its performance, both in fourth grade and second grade, in both measurements, was the Liceo Bicentennial of Multipurpose Excellence of San Nicolás, which showed greater solidity, at a general level, even more than private schools in Chillán with a tradition of leading good results such as Colegio Alemán. This one, located in Paul Harris, obtained 313 points on the fourth grade reading test and 290 on the mathematics evaluation of the same level. While, in the second half, in the Mathematics test, the students reached 358 points, the highest in Chillán, and Reading 291.
The Liceo de San Nicolás once again ranked among the best in Ñuble at both levels. The establishment achieved 309 points in mathematics and 314 in language in 4th grade, while in 2nd grade, it obtained 293 in language and 360 in mathematics. Its performance even surpassed expensive schools in the country such as Nido de Águilas, with monthly fees of over one million pesos. In fourth grade, that school achieved 310 points in Language and 303 in Mathematics. Meanwhile, in second grade, they obtained 277 and 326 in the respective tests.
“More than satisfied, I would say proud of the results, since the project is being improved and perfected year after year. Remember that this educational model was generated for the children of peasants, mainly in its origin, not only from San Nicolás, but from the Itata Valley, and that with history, we already know, by the SAE, by the school admission system , coverage expanded and today children come from all over to study. (…) Here there are children of a very high economic level sharing a room with very vulnerable children and they have not had, in these six years that we have been with the system more or less, any problem of coexistence,” assesses the director of the Liceo Bicentenario de San Nicolás, Victor Reyes.
One of the fundamental pillars of the educational model that has led them to shine in measurements and improve the school climate, has been the incorporation of more hours of art and sports to the curriculum.
“We have never reduced the hours (of hard subjects), we have supplemented them, no more than necessary and supplemented with a strong emotional base in the arts. From neuroscience, the brain is plastic and that plasticity increases greatly with the arts and sports. The brain is completely conducive to teaching more mathematics, more physics, more chemistry, than if I had the goal of teaching that without preparing the child’s brain to accept those more abstract subjects. So that’s the key. Afterwards it becomes easier for us to teach mathematics, language and all other areas of the national curriculum,” says the director.
Distributive leadership and greater autonomy for teachers
The decision-making power in the establishment is horizontal, that is, it is not only concentrated in the director or technical head, but is also delegated to the teachers by subject. That is, autonomy is given to the teaching teams in terms of planning an educational process with a pedagogical sense led by a “mentor” teacher.
This figure is the one who directs the teachers of the same subject in the establishment and makes decisions together, regarding issues specific to the process in that subject, for example, teaching style, the contents to be taught, the students who must be distributed by “groups”. ”, defined by learning rhythms, the ideal teachers for a given course and the materials necessary for the subject.
“The norm or the national standard is that in schools there is a group of teachers and there is a technical leader and then in theory they tell the teachers to talk, but those reflections do not occur fluidly, because many times the technical leader does not have the same knowledge. For example, a technical head of English, how do I get him to talk to the mathematics teachers? They do not use the same codes. (…) We are based on Michael Fulham, a world-renowned theorist who proposes a lot of autonomy for teachers. (…) We already had the mentoring and we wanted that teacher to be called a mentor and not a boss. The mentor is the one who accompanies and guides, not only in the disciplinary part, but also in the emotional part of the teachers. They take the curriculum, they prioritize it, they time it in years, they see what content is taught, the teachers’ schedules are established by the mentors and not the technical leader,” explained the director.
The remunerations that teachers receive are those contemplated in the Teaching Statute and their training, they are not random, they are based on the needs of the students and with a focus on the high school model. “Last year the Biology mentor managed a joint project with the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine of the UdeC, because many students were interested in studying that career. So, he reached an agreement and then students obtained training, but parallel to that we needed training in Biochemistry and Chemistry and that is happening this year for Biology teachers at the time agreed upon with the faculty. The University will gain more prepared students. I didn’t spend anything, I managed it,” he clarified.
Student engagement and “flexible groupings” based on progress
The establishment groups students in rooms according to their learning rates, skills and levels of progress, what they call “Flexible and dynamic grouping” strategy.
In the words of Víctor Reyes, the action promoted was adapted to the heterogeneous reality that the high school presents, that is, to the diversity of learning levels that coexist in the classrooms, a reality that, in general, is presented by public establishments as opposed to private ones. where children have a homogeneous level of knowledge.
“When we started the model for rural children, the big problem we had was that they came with different levels of learning that did not adjust to the grade they arrived at. That is, I could receive a child in first grade and his learning levels were fifth grade. (…) The teacher said I pass the subjects, but the learning did not appear in the children, it was not reflected. So, we broke the course structure and now we are going to work by grouping, skill and rhythm, but with dynamism. When the child surpasses himself, he moves on to the next grouping. The results were validated by the Quality Agency, which was looking at the model that worked and that we were not going to stigmatize the children, because it was strange, we completely left the national context,” says Reyes.
The student’s commitment to the process has influenced the results and their motivation has transcended active participation in competitions or presentations of various disciplines both inside and outside the country, which enriches their training. The exchange of students has also added to the performance. On average, 10 high school students will travel abroad to perfect the various languages taught such as Mandarin Chinese, French, German, Italian, and English.
“No peso is spent, because one looks for host families, therefore, there is no municipal cost, only management. The agencies that promote mobility in the world are giving me scholarships,” she says.
If it is about defining a profile of the student, the director describes that “the students are supportive, simple, respectful, sincere, always close to the management of the high school, they express their interests very clearly at an early age and the high school is reoriented to meet those expectations, a great example is the pre-military area that was requested by the students.”
The contribution of representatives as project executors
“Families are the great emotional support of students, the family advises the habits and discipline that are required to foster good coexistence environments. Parents here are not mere spectators of their children’s educational process; they also actively participate in promoting projects that benefit the well-being of the community, which has also had an impact on improving the climate and, therefore, performance. The General Parent Center defines itself as an ally of the high school and participates in improving the conditions of the students, to keep at bay, for example; the bullying”.
This is stated by the president of the Center for Parents and Guardians of the Liceo de San Nicolás, Sergio Saavedra, who comments that as a board of directors they have led projects that they have managed to finance with state support and others with resources from the parents themselves, such as equipment in chambers, polyclinic adolescent of emotional containment, they have also managed talks on health, sexuality and the use of technology and social networks.
“We bought security cameras because the educational population had grown so much that we needed to have a little control. (…) At times when there were so many students, there was the need to have an assistant or a Tens here, who could contain in the first instance, for example, a child who fell during recess. (…) We cooperate with medications and things necessary for care. The school hired the professional,” he said.
According to Sergio, the board has tried to imbue the representatives with the model, since initially there was distrust of the strategy of advance groups in the room, since it was perceived as discriminatory, but as the prejudices gave results They disappeared.
“Nowadays we realize that our children need discipline, that they need the strong hand of a father, a mother and also the teacher, which was what was handled before. We support the decisions that are made, in everything that benefits our children, but also if there is something that does not correspond, we will point it out, therefore, a reciprocal relationship is generated,” he comments.
Lyceum immersed in ambitious projects: industry 4.0 and new building
The bicentennial high schools do not have additional subsidies, only at the beginning there is a contribution, in the case of this high school it was in 2011, and it was used to build classrooms and CRA (Learning Resource Center). Its financing methods are the same as those of the rest of the municipal establishments, with any lack of resources being made up for by the Parents Center.
“The availability of resources is the SEP, which is our great fund to support the model. The Pro Retention resources, which are for the most vulnerable children, and the PIE resources. The normal subsidy is to pay salaries and to maintain the contractual part,” she says.
They are currently developing a project at the forefront of new “Education 4.0” technologies, for an approximate amount of “300 million, which will launch issues related to robotics, mechatronics and automation, financed by the GORE. “We are going to be the first high school to implement industry 4.0. We already know that we already have the study of all the careers that will disappear in the future and we are moving forward so that the children, who are currently in fifth year and sixth year, have a more technological preparation and when these new careers appear they will perfectly are inserted,” he explains.
For the future, the establishment plans to have a new building due to major infrastructure needs, since in addition to secondary education it houses the basic education of the Sergio Martín school, which burned down 60% in the past. The idea is to have a single educational campus that integrates both cycles. “It is not that enrollment will increase, but that we will be able to unify basic and middle school, and the art and sports classes that are taught today at the boarding school. There will be greater security and better environments, it comes with the new norm of two square meters per student, we are going to be pioneers in educational infrastructure,” Víctor values.
$40 billion is required for the project and it is close to having the RS.
