ReachExtra
The La Linea Pedro Simon Abril Shool of La Linea has been nominated for the ‘Accion Magistral’ national awards for its project ‘El Cole de las Emociones’ (‘The School of Emotions’), a magnificent initiative which in June received the Andalucían Regional Government’s Coexistence Award
Pedro Simon Abril School, La Linea: 550 primary school-age students and 31 teachers. It is one of the largest schools in town and as a result, coexistence could potentially be an issue. Nevertheless, nothing could be further from the truth. This school has spent the past 5 years developing its project “El Cole de las Emociones”, an initiative that has earned it the Andalucían Regional Government’s Coexistence Award and, for the moment, a nomination for Accion Magistral’s national awards. Walking into this school is a lesson in itself.
Jose Manuel Marquez is the coordinator of the initiative which started 5 years ago. “The children were coming to school with more problems related to anger, tantrum etc… They didn’t normally show tolerance in the face of frustration, and were sometimes scared. We had to work on their emotions and we thought up the ‘School’s Positive Week’. It was fantastic. Following that I heard a girl say to a boy in the playground: ‘Don’t shout at me. If you want to talk to me, breathe as they taught us to and speak slowly. Otherwise, don’t talk to me’. That’s when I realised that it had worked and that it was worth the bother”.
The aim is to improve the students’ quality of life by managing their emotions. “Our objective is to create a happy world, with more empathy and less individualism. We live in an increasingly technological and stressful society. What’s most important is that the child is happy in school. A happy child learns much better”, explains Marquez.
Yoga, breathing exercises and techniques, conflict resolution group sessions and programmed activities make up the day in this exemplary school of surprising children; the school day starts in each classroom with breathing exercises to improve concentration.
Each topic incorporates activities and every term they work on one emotion. This year it’s forgiveness, gratitude and acceptance.
Family involvement, which has gradually grown, is essential for the project to be more effective.
There has been a clear transformation: “There is a higher level of team spirit and conflicts have decreased considerably. There has been an important improvement in behaviour”, says the coordinator.
Liberto, the emotional agent
Liberto is an “emotional agent”, a sort of emotions watchman. At the age of 11 he talks with surprising maturity about his responsibility, which he faces with determination and great clarity of ideas:
“If we get a new student I have to help him or her in the playground so he integrates, if there’s a fight we need to tell the teacher, we can’t get involved; and if there’s a child on his own, play with him or help him find some friends. It’s hard at times but it’s what you have to do and I do it because there are confrontations in school, as children we do have them, but they’re not important”.
