A description of our country, our town and our school presented in the fist meeting of a Comenius Association held in Poland

1. COMENIUS Multilateral School Partnership
IES Arcebispo Xelmírez I
Santiago de Compostela

4.  Country: Spain
 Political System: Parliamentary
Monarchy
 Population: 46.7 million
 Capital: Madrid
 Area: 505,988 sq km
 Autonomous Regions: 17
 Major languages: Spanish (Castilian),
Galego (Galician), Euskera (Basque),
and Catalan (Catalonian).
 Monetary unit: 1 euro = 100 cents

5.  Autonomous Region: Galicia
 Population: 2.800 million
 Capital: Santiago de Compostela
 Area: 29.574 sq km
 Provinces: 4: A Coruña, Lugo, Ourense e
Pontevedra
 Languages: Galego (Galician), Spanish (Castilian)

7.  Town: Santiago de Compostela
 Population: 96.000
 Area: 220 sq km
Santiago means:
World Heritage – Administration –
Culture – Art – History – leisure –
monuments – parks – Architecture –
hospitality – pilgrimage – religion – the Way –
Gastronomy - Life

10. SCHOOLS IN SPAIN CAN BE:
PUBLIC /STATE-FUNDED= FREE & LAY
PRIVATE /STATE-FUNDED = PRIVATE partially
GRANTED BY THE STATE & mainly RELIGIOUS
PRIVATE = TOTALLY PAID BY THE STUDENTS &
LAY or RELIGIOUS

11. TYPE OF EDUCATION LEVEL OF EDUCATION AGE RANGE
VOLUNTARY EDUCATION PRE-PRIMARY EDUCATION 3-6
COMPULSORY BASIC
EDUCATION
PRIMARY EDUCATION 6-12
LOWER SECONDARY
EDUCATION (ESO)
12-16
POST-COMPULSORY UPPER
SECONDARY EDUCATION
BACCALAUREATE
(BACHILLERATO:
mainstream branch) 16-18
INTERMEDIATE
VOCATIONAL TRAINING
HIGHER EDUCATION
ADVANCED VOCATIONAL
TRAINING
18+UNIVERSITY STUDIES

12.  Name: IES Xelmirez I
 Type of school: Public Secondary School (IES)
 Number of students: 1000 students approx.
 Number of teachers: 90 teachers approx.

14. Founded in 1845, IES Xelmírez I was the only
Secondary School in Santiago for over a century, so
it is the oldest secondary school in Santiago and the
second oldest in Galicia.
It takes its name after the first Archbishop of
Santiago de Compostela, Diego Xelmírez. (1070-1140).
Many distinguished Galician characters from the
literary, cultural and political world, such as Valle-
Inclán, Castelao, Granell, Murguía, Pondal,
Montero Ríos..., studied in this school.

15.  Throughout its history, our school has been located in
many different places in Santiago.
 Two of the most notorious ones have been where the
University Rectorate and the Autonomous Galician
Government are located nowadays.

16. In 1984 the building of the IES Arzebispo
Xelmírez I moved to the actual location, just
in the very centre of the Campus Vida of
the University of Santiago.
It is placed in a privileged green area, very
close to the historical centre and the
business district of Santiago. It has a wide
variety of facilities and public services which
can be used both by teachers and students.

17. Deputy head of
Lower & Upper
secondary
education
Secretary
Deputy head of
Vocational and
Adult education
Asisstant head
teacher
Headteacher

18. Compulsory Secondary Education for Teenagers (ESO 12-16)
Compulsory Secondary Education for Adults (ESA 16+)
Post-Compulsory Education (Bachillerato 16-18)
Vocational Studies of Audiovisual Arts ; Intermediate and Advanced (16+)
Adult Literacy Programme.

19. THE ANTIQUE LIBRARY
 Over 5.000 volumes of great value.
 They are mainly from the 16th to 19th c.
 Restricted Access in order to care for
and preserve these valuable volumes.

21. THE MUSEUM OF SCIENCE
 540 tools and small collections used in
the Chemistry, Physics and Natural
History laboratories and classrooms for
more than 170 years.
 It is open to all the people who want to
see it.

23. Percentage of Religions according to
the number of Worship Places

24.  According to 1978 CONSTITUTION Spain is a
non-religious state in a laic society
 In public schools, education is laic but
agreements between the State and the Church
allow students to take up Catholic religion as an
option all through the compulsory education.
The percentage of students taking Catholic
Religion in our school is…

25. Samhain
• Celtic origin: pagan festival to celebrate the end of summer
and the night of the dead
• October 31st
Xmas
• Christian origin to celebrate the birth of Christ
• December
Carnival
• Pagan origin, Catholics celebrate it to prepare for the
fastening of Lent.
• Between February and March

26. • International Day for the elimination of
violence against women (November 25th)
• World Aids Day (December 1st)
• International Day of Peace (January 30th)
• Women’s Day (March 8th)
• World Book Day (April 23rd)
• Galician Writers’ Day ( May 17th)