“Project-based
learning”
Laying the foundations
for our students
The changes that have taken place in recent decades have led to a far-reaching rethinking of Primary Education, a key moment for laying the foundations for future learning.
Technological innovations have imposed an unquestionable paradigm shift and have led us to bet on computer language, robotics and programming since the beginning of this stage. Its implications on school performance, critical thinking, problem solving and creativity development are particularly significant.
In addition, globalisation and the increasing flow of information have led us to focus on communication skills. Developing our activity in Spanish, English and Mandarin Chinese, our “Public Speaking” project also contributes to increase confidence among young children and to enhance skills related to organising, debating, leading or defending their own ideas and beliefs.
By using project-based learning as a methodological basis, the classroom becomes a space for research, discovery and cooperative learning. We are committed to promoting teaching skills to fully develop the cross-cutting education of our Humanitas students in a transversal manner.
Thus, it would be impossible to understand our project without the emotional intelligence programme that supports it. From the Counselling Department through the Tutorial Action Plan, all our students have a daily session dedicated to their personal growth, learning to identify, express and manage their emotions.
Discover our
projects
Mandarin Chinese and English-Spanish Bilingualism
In Primary School, our students carry out 45% of their activities in English, 45% in Spanish and the rest in Mandarin Chinese.
In this area, our teachers’ internationalisation stands out, in accordance with the goals set, communicating with their students at all times in their native languages.
All projects and knowledge areas are developed in parallel, with the same objectives and topics, in Spanish, English and Chinese.
The objective at this stage is that students acquire a solid base in these languages to face Secondary School and use them as a working language to develop different subjects and pass the external language tests that they must take, according to the goals proposed by the school.
Our objective is to provide students with a solid command of the English language, in all its skills, both oral and written. In this sense, reading motivation and literary creativity workshops help us promote an infinitely wider vocabulary, greater understanding of grammar and fluency at the communication level.
Humanitas believes that this area of knowledge must have a practical component. That is, we teach English as a communication tool, not as an object of study in itself. Focusing on these skills leads us to turn the classroom into a scenario where students are at the centre of the process, consistently favouring “active learning”. It is important to bring the activities and programmes carried out closer to our students’ real lives, also enhancing the “real life-experience”.
In the first years of Primary Education courses, the “Phonics” project that starts during Early Education continues. At the same time, the “colourful semantics” programme emerges, a technique that encodes the different grammatical roles and gives them a certain colour. This methodology improves students’ narrative skills, promotes the use of longer sentences and improves comprehension and writing.
In 5th grade, our students travel to the United Kingdom for a week to have a first contact and immerse themselves into another culture in the international socio-educational field.
It is worth mentioning that Humanitas is the first school in Spain to obtain authorisation to teach Mandarin Chinese as a second Chinese language in primary school, during school and curricular hours.
The main objective of learning Chinese is to promote interest and a positive attitude in learning towards Chinese culture, which will result in personal growth within a global perspective. The main objective of learning Chinese is to promote interest and a positive attitude in learning towards Chinese culture, which will result in personal growth within a global perspective. The language goals set for the Primary education stage are related to the ability to express oneself and interact orally in simple and common situations related to students’ life. Regarding the written language, goals relate to the possibility of being able to identify and become familiar with the Chinese characters they have learned.
Drama
Within the HBS Project, the goal is linked to developing a fluent and accurate use of the English language, as well as skills related to critical thinking, argumentation, improvisation and self-confidence. The “Public Speaking” project is designed to support students’ learning activities in this regard. Through interpretation and dynamics encouraged in these sessions, students acquire fundamental communication tools.
“More than language”
Following our own Early Education project, Más Que Letras (More Than Letters), in Primary Education we develop Más Que Lengua (More Than Language). Our students work on spelling through songs, visual resources and dictations that help us provide customised assistance.
Likewise, the reading plan is a project that helps improve grammar, vocabulary and writing skills in addition to fostering imagination, curiosity and critical thinking.
From the first courses, both in Spanish and English, students make presentations and speeches in public. With this, we develop communication skills that help them argue, organise and structure a topic, as well as to listen and respect the opinions of others and gain self-confidence.
The entire learning process is strongly supported by technology to ensure continuity across the different educational stages.
Mathematics
Learning in a playful, hands-on and collaborative way all the objectives contemplated in the curriculum. Identify, analyse and solve situations and problems in their environment, for which elementary operations are required. They will develop personal strategies for estimating, calculating and orienting in space and apply them to solve simple problems. They will also use simple calculating and measuring instruments as well as elementary data collection techniques to obtain information about everyday phenomena and situations.
"First Class Learning"
In our teaching-learning model within our own HBS Project, we use this programme as a complement in the logical-mathematical thinking area, to boost, depending on maturity and age: addition and subtraction, multiplication and division, fractions, decimals and percentages, shape, space and measurement, reasoning and problem-solving skills.
Each child’s journey begins with our assessment process to identify their level of ability and any specific gaps in knowledge, understanding or skills. We then develop a customised programme tailored to their individual learning needs. Each student is encouraged to work at a pace that is appropriate for them. Children make progress once all concepts or skills are adequately understood and reinforced. New ideas and challenges are introduced to maintain interest and stimulation.
We enhance imagination, academic performance, creativity, visual memory, concentration, observation skills and the ability to analyse and synthesise. In addition, a global priority objective is included in mathematical learning within each course to ensure that clear, productive and cumulative work habits are achieved during each course. That is why we work comprehensively on the basic skill: Learning to Learn.
Science Project
The goal is to initiate the knowledge and understanding of the human body, the environment and its interactions through the English language. The project also aims to acquiring the abilities, skills, knowledge and attitudes needed to understand the world in which students live, the past and present collective experiences and the space in which life in society develops.
"The science club/divertigenios": Young Inventors
In order to promote scientific curiosity, entrepreneurship, respect for the environment, sharing and communication among peers, different activities and projects are developed within the HBS Project as a complement to Science.
Likewise, with the collaboration and coordination of Secondary Science teachers, different laboratory practices are carried out in all STEAM knowledge areas.
In addition, older secondary school students show and explain to their primary school classmates experiments appropriate to their age and knowledge. Also, 5th and 6th grade students are the ones who explain and demonstrate the laboratory practices to the youngest students from Primary and Early stages.
Health education
This programme is a joint effort between the Physical Education Department and the School’s Nursing, Canteen and First Aid Services.
The objective is for students to learn the relationship between understanding nutrition, postural hygiene, physical activity and exercise as concepts; and how important these concepts are in their lives, so that they acquire the ability to integrate them into their day-to-day lives, critically analysing the effects of their application.
I.C.T.
Our students regularly work with technological tools and devices that stimulate and motivate them, in addition to speeding up their learning.
Within the HBS Project, we develop several contents related to ICTs. We work with Augmented Reality, we promote audiovisual creation, website generation, QR Gymkhanas, as well as the elaboration of concept maps that support each and every one of the subjects taught at the school transversally. In this way, we create in our students a clear and consistent digital competence.
In this sense, and in line with technological innovations, a programming and robotics project has been undertaken to promote and establish computer language among students, developed by the school in collaboration with “Lego Education”. This project is being implemented in all Primary school years, as part of the HBS offer, as a cross-cutting approach in the STEM area.
Likewise, the “One to One” Project (one iPad device for each student) . begins in the last courses of primary education. With this, we not only favour digital skills, but also those related to student autonomy, a more customised teaching, learning to learn, critical thinking and creativity.
Emotional intelligence
Emotional education is a continuous process that we develop and strengthen in our students throughout their schooling, helping them generate positive emotions and interpersonal skills to resolve conflicts appropriately.
Guardians are the reference people for students in the centre. Therefore, guardians develop and teach this subject together with the Counselling Department, although the entire educational community is involved.
Our method is global and cross-cutting. It is a continuous and practical process; and it is actively and dynamically developed so that from a very early age students develop their own vision of the world and of others.
During Primary education, twenty minutes of the school day are dedicated daily to work on different activities programmed or generated “here and now” by the students themselves, making a journey through the different emotional states they have gone through during the day.
Music and Art Club
At the Primary Education stage, music and art are significantly important. They are a fundamental way to express their most creative side, enhancing their sensory, motor, cognitive and emotional systems. Both subjects are designed so that students can communicate and express themselves freely, through a mechanism that comes naturally to them.
In addition to promoting the knowledge of other artists and inspiring activities through them, this space is ideal for promoting self-esteem and generating an environment in which students feel safe. The project for both subjects is developed from the existing interest areas in each trimester. In this way, we achieve a cross-cutting approach that favours our students’ learning directly.
Come and meet us
Discover our educational project from the hand of our teaching staff