Education services
The wide range of Education services in the Brains Group encourages a personalised education for each of our students.
Personalised education
It is both the school’s responsibility and the students’ right that their educational needs are met throughout their school life. Brains offers the necessary measures and resources for our students to develop their potential, personal and social well-being.
EGD
The Guidance Department’s main objective is to guide and support our students in situations related to their evolutionary, social-emotional and academic development, especially during moments of change or personal crisis. This means working consistently and alongside families and tutors/teachers. The EGD also supports teachers and helps them improve their knowledge on personal resources, active listening skills, empathy, finding strategies and approaches to conflict resolution, getting involved with all their students and becoming drivers of both change and personal growth.
Student Welfare and Protection Coordinator
The role of Student Welfare and Protection Coordinator in our schools has come about because of the Organic Law for Full Protection of Young Children and Teenagers from Violence (LOPIVI, in Spanish), the aim of which is to ensure that the students’ emotional well-being is safeguarded.
Ms. Ana Herrero Jiménez, who is a psychologist and the coordinator of the Counselling Departments at Brains International School, is going to take on this group role, where she will liaise with the Senior Management Teams and counsellors in each teaching centre.
The Group Coordinator and the Welfare Delegate in each teaching centre are the reference points for the students and the educational community if there are reports of any cases of violence in the actual school or the school environment.
All of our programmes and measures for preventing ill-treatment or abuse, amongst or towards children, are carefully coordinated following the principal that individuals have the right to be well treated, in order to achieve an atmosphere of well-being and co-existence based on respect.
This also involves training the professionals who are in contact with the children, so that we can identify those indicators that enable early detection of high-risk situations which might affect the children’s physical, emotional and social health.
And finally, it involves taking action when cases are detected, and establishing the channels for communication, guidance and the reporting of incidents, by defining what to do and providing support or the means of referral to the relevant authorities. We are assisted in this task by the Compliance Officer, who is available to help the entire educational community and will intervene whenever there is a suspected offence regarding children’s rights.
At Brains, we ensure both the emotional and academic well-being of our students; we work as a team so that our students’ daily life evolves in as full and caring a way as possible, in a safe, healthy and welcoming environment.
Addressing diversity
The Plan de Atención a la Diversidad (Diversity Awareness Programme) promotes all the necessary strategies, measures and available resources to face the different levels of curricular competence, skills, learning styles, motivation or specific situations due to the international nature of our schools. As a result, we ensure our students can achieve a proper education suited to each of their circumstances.
Diversity Awareness Measures for all students[
- Multiple Intelligences awareness. Project-based Learning. Units of Inquiry. Cooperative Learning.
- Divided classrooms. English Plus. Classroom support (two teachers).
- Extracurricular activities
- Teacher training
Measures aimed at students with learning difficulties
-
- Individualised remedial education
- Academic support in class
- Individualised Curricular Adaptation (…). Individualised Education Programme
- Speech Therapy
- Brain Training Gym
- Kumon
- Chess
- Remedial education as an alternative to a 3rd or 4th foreign language.
Measures aimed at students recently introduced to the bilingual system
- English immersion programme. Spanish immersion programme
- Foreign integration and support programmes
- Individualised Curricular Adaptation
- Peers Tutoring. Mentoring (Big Brother / Big Sister)
Measures aimed at gifted and talented students
- School programme adaptation
- Advanced Mathematics
- Advanced English
- Enrichment projects
- OPEN CLASSROOM project on Social and Natural Science Research.
Measures aimed at students’ personal circumstances or school record (ECOPHE)
- Mindfulness
- Individualised support to manage disruptive behaviour in school.
- Individualised intervention by the EGD.
Family support
Our personalised relationship with families is a key factor in our education project. We constantly work on maintaining a healthy and fluid relationship with families and gaining mutual trust. The availability and proximity of tutors, counsellors and management teams is aimed at attending, guiding and accompanying the families in different issues regarding psychoemotional, academic and educational development for their children. This provides support for them in times of difficulty or crisis, seeking collaboration in order to find answers to the students’ educational needs.
Program for International Families
With over 60 nationalities represented in our student community, we are committed to providing a welcoming and enriching environment for all international families who are part of our community.
Special Program for International Families:
We understand the challenges and opportunities faced by international families when moving to a new country and adapting to a new culture. That is why we have developed a Special Program for International Families, designed to promote integration, cultural exchange, and mutual support among our diverse communities.
Activities and Events:
- International Fair: Annually, we organize an International Fair where families have the opportunity to showcase and share aspects of their culture, traditions, and cuisine with the entire school community.
- Parent Cooking Workshops: Our cooking workshops provide parents with the opportunity to learn and share traditional recipes from their home countries, thus promoting camaraderie and cultural exchange.
- Collaboration with the School Radio: International families have the opportunity to participate in school radio programs where they can share their experiences and perspectives with the school audience.
- Second-Hand Markets: These events provide a space for exchanging items and resources among families, promoting sustainability and solidarity.
- Breakfasts and Gastronomic Days: We organize social events such as breakfasts and gastronomic days where families can enjoy typical dishes from different countries and share culinary experiences.
Program Benefits:
- Networking: International families have the opportunity to establish contacts and build support networks with other families from their home countries, as well as with local families.
- Integration: We strive to create an inclusive environment where international families feel welcomed and valued, fully integrating into school and community life.
- Cultural Exchange: We encourage our international families to share their culture and traditions with the school community, thus enriching the educational experience of all our students.
- Spanish Learning: Through our Spanish classes, families have the opportunity to learn the local language and participate more actively in life in Spain, while also helping their children develop language skills more quickly.
At Brains International Schools, we are committed to creating an inclusive and enriching environment where all families feel valued and supported.
Families in school
In our Families in school sessions, led by our own Educational Guidance team, we work on resources and personal skills to build positive, family-life dynamics that can boost our children’s integral development so they can become autonomous, confident, strong and especially happy people. Our main objectives are:
- Helping parents understand their children’s and their own emotions.
- Learning to express and handle emotions correctly, accepting our feelings.
- Developing and strengthening both the parents and the children’s self-esteem.
- Understanding children and their behaviour, both individually and in their social environment.
- Developing active listening, empathy and assertive communication.
- Learning to set limits and resolving conflict in a positive way.
- Providing resources to achieve emotional well-being and learning to live positively.
Plan de acción tutorial (Tutorial action plan)
The main role of the Educational Guidance Department is to develop, coordinate and play an active role in the Values and Emotional Intelligence Programme. This programme is part of the Tutorial Action Plan that takes place throughout the different educational stages and includes:
- Getting to know and believe in yourself. Understanding others. Recognising and expressing emotions and ideas (self-esteem, empathy, expression of emotions, etc.)
- Developing self-control. Learning to make responsible decisions. Valuing and looking after your health (self-control, decision-making, health and values).
- Enhancing your social skills. Problem-solving and avoiding conflict (interaction skills, assertiveness and self-affirmation).
Some activities aimed at reaching these goals include:
- Mindfulness practical lessons
- Class assemblies
- Sex and relationships education
- Drug abuse prevention
- Responsible use of ICTs and social networks
- Education for Equality and Preventing Gender-based Violence
- KIVA (a programme to solve and prevent bullying)
Speech therapy
Our schools offer a speech therapy service, a discipline that includes analysing, preventing, evaluating, diagnosing and treating speech-language pathologies expressed through voice, speech, communication and orofacial functions disorders. Our speech therapists are specialised in:
- Speech difficulties
- Language literacy difficulties
- Learning difficulties
- Orofacial myofunctional disorders: swallowing, breathing, malocclusion
As parents, we always have doubts about what is the best way to help and support our children during the different stages in their lives. We know that the early detection and assessment of educational and emotional needs, or of slower development, prevents more complex problems from arising.
At Brains, our aim is to continually improve so that we can offer our pupils, who are your children, the tools to become better people, happy people who are able to manage their emotions in the healthiest way possible.
For this purpose, and in order to support our pupils during their development, Brains has set up a new multidisciplinary student-care service: CEDE BRAINS (Brains Centre for Educational Stimulus and Development), made up of a team of specialists in speech therapy, psychology, pedagogy, psychomotor education, and occupational therapy, who will provide comprehensive and coordinated intervention for the different needs our pupils may have during their school career.