San Andrea School

The San Andrea School is a school in Malta. It was founded in 1992 at Sedqa, Independence Avenue, Naxxar by the Parents Foundation of Education (who also founded San Anton School). At the time it was composed of three classes. In 1995, the school was temporarily moved to a block of flats in Din L-Art Ħelwa.

Premises

San Andrea School is situated in the middle of the Maltese countryside, in Imselliet. San Andrea School is composed of three buildings: Early School, Middle School, and Senior School. Each building is adapted to a specific age group, providing the suitable environment and tuition for the students.

Early School

Early School consists of Nursery and Grades 1-4. Each grade has four classes, with a common play area between them. All the classrooms have computers available. Early School focuses on teaching young students the social skills they will need for their future, thus giving a more hands-on approach to teaching rather than academic skills.^[1]

Middle School

Middle School consists of Grades 5-7. Students are of ages 8–11. Middle School prepares students for the different subjects for Senior School. Education is more topic-based with different teachers for different subjects. Middle School provides a number of special rooms for different subjects. These include a Library, a Science Laboratory, a Drama and Music room, an Art room, a PSHD room, a Mini Gym for indoor Physical Education sessions, an ICT Lab and more. Playgrounds are allocated according to year groups so that, as much as possible, each year group is kept to its own age range.^[2]

Senior School

Senior School consists of Grades 8-12. Senior School is the last phase students are required to go through, and it prepares students for their Matsec O Levels. Senior School is no longer classroom based, but subject based as students must go to specific classrooms for specific lessons, each lesson having its own qualified teacher. In grades 11 and 12, students can apply to become Monitors. Their role is to help keep order within the school, since they have better communication with their peers. Senior School also has a Student Council, the members being elected by students themselves. Students can put through their own suggestions, complaints or changes about anything to do with the school to the Student Council. Student of the Month certificates for each subject are given to students who have shown excellence in the subject. Senior School is a very important phase in the students education, as at the end of Grade 9 students are required to choose their option subjects - subjects that they will continue to study Grade 10, 11 and 12.

Senior school provides sports facilities, including a football pitch surrounded by a sports track, a tennis court, a shot put area and long jump and high jump facilities. Students from Senior school have won national medals and set national records in different sports. ^[3]

"The Insider" Newsletter

"The Insider" is a Newsletter published by San Andrea Senior School three times a year (at the end of each term). Students and teachers can write articles for "The Insider" if they wish to. Mr. Mark Sciberras, the teacher of Italian, was the first editor of "The Insider". The current editor is Mr Gilbert Fenech, the teacher of Design & Technology and Graphical Communication. The first edition was published in December 2005.^[4]

Houses

The system of houses starts in Middle School to give young students an idea of houses before they get to Senior School. There are four houses in Middle School: The Green House (Grims), The Orange House (Taz), The Yellow House (Golden Eagles), and The Blue House (Smashers). The houses in Middle School have their own respective picture drawn each drawn by a student.^[5]

In Senior School houses work differently. There are another four houses:

• The House of Aragon ( Aragonese ) – colour Green
• The House of Castille ( Castillians ) – colour Blue
• The House of Provence ( Provencals ) – colour Red
• The House of Auvergne (Auvergnese) – colour Yellow

Every house has a house master, these are: Aragon - Mr Jean Paul Buttigieg, Castille - Mr James Cuschieri, Provence - Ms Deborah Zarb, and Auvergne - Ms Lara Muscat. An elected older student serves as a House Captain for each House. Siblings will be in the same House as their older siblings. San Andrea Senior School students are given the right to have their own children keep the same House as they belonged to. If both parents are old students of San Andrea School, the children will have an option to choose their House. The house system in Senior School aims to motivate students into performing well in both academics as well as sports. Students gain points for their house by participating and winning in House tournaments of basketball, volleyball, handball and football. They also gain points for participating and winning in athletics, gymnastics, walkathon and cross-country. Points will be given as the students improve from one assessment to the other. Each mark will be changed to a grade and then the grades are compared. For every grade improvement a student will gain a point. Therefore if a student moves from C to A he/she will gain 2 points and 1 point is lost if a student moves from B to C. A child who retains his A will gain 2 points. Points are also awarded for showing outstanding performance in improvement, determination, effort and showing kindness to others. The students who gain the most points for their respective House, are awarded a certificate of achievement. This happens every year and the chosen student's name is inscribed in gold on the School Honours Board.^[6]

References