School website: www.itcniccolini.gov.it
Information about the project: http://www.itcniccolini.it/w09/erasmus.html
Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/itcgniccolini
Twitter profile: https://twitter.com/ITCGNiccolini
SHORT PRESENTATION OF ITCG “F.Niccolini” - VOLTERRA (ITALY)
The main seat of our Secondary School, the “ITCG F. Niccolini” is in Volterra, an ancient town which was already important 2.400 years ago during the Etruscan period.
Main data about our school staff:
Classes: 29, Students: 420, Head teacher: 1, Administration manager: 1, Technical staff: 2, Secretaries: 4, Caretakers: 6.
ITCG includes a branch for Electrotechnicians (Electric engineers) in Pomarance, a small village not far from Volterra (20 Km). The traditional courses offered the following qualifications until the New School Reform came into force in the s.y. 2009-2010 (so up to last year):
- Administration, Finance and Marketing;
- Constructions, Environment and Territory;
- Electronics and Electrotechnics (Electrical engineers);
- Expert in Tourism and Catering (starting from 2015).
The ITCG also includes a branch inside the local jail in Volterra with 2 specialisations:
- Surveyor (old prison of Volterra called “La Fortezza”, a prison built in 1472 after the conquest of the town by the Florentines).
- Expert in Tourism and Catering (it was started inside the prison 2 years ago and classes are made up of prison inmates and external students).Out of curiosity, every year Volterra’s prison is exceptionally opened to everybody on the occasion of the so called Cene Galeotte, (roughly Dinner in Prison), with the participation of famous chefs who cook helped by the inmates.
Thanks to these courses, prisoners acquire knowledge, skills and social integration, also achieved thanks to a quite famous theatre company entirely formed with prisoners. School and theatre have contributed to open the prison to the town with positive outcomes for the territory and the inmates themselves.
- Starting from the current school year (2015-2016), another branch for Experts in Tourism and Catering has been established in our school in Volterra with two classes.
The courses last 5 years. You get a Diploma after a State Exam at the end of each course. The age of our students range from 13 up to 19.The courses are divided up in two cycles of 2 years respectively with a final year. In the first two years general subjects are taught; during the following two years our students have to deal with job-oriented technical subjects. During the last year they study in depth some subjects and acquire a more professional training.
In our school three European languages are taught: English, French and German. Our students are trained to take the Language and Computer certificates: PET, DELF, Goethe Fit in Deutsch 2, ECDL basic and advanced, Image and Web editing, CISCO Networking Academy Curriculum.
The immigrant students come mainly from the following countries: Morocco, Albania, Rumania, Kosovo, Macedonia.
Our students enrol in our school with high motivation for learning and being trained in technical subjects. The percentage of students who drop out at the end of the 1st and 2nd year is about 30% without any skilled qualifications and even without the basic competences. Disabled students are fully integrated in the class with two or three support teachers who actively look after them.
After leaving school they usually go straight to work for local businesses (e.g. Banks, Enel Green power, Professional offices, etc.) or they enter University (normally Economics and Finance, Electrical Engineering but also other Technical Faculties).
Historical outline
On the 31 August 1710 the grand duke Cosimo III with his Descritto and, upon request of the Commune of Volterra, granted the Piarist Fathers to manage the public schools to their citizens and the following year Pope Clemente XI issued a Bull allowing the Piarists to open a house in Volterra (the present S. Michele).
In 1712 a boarding house for boys coming from outside was created in Volterra and the Commune undertook to build the New Schools, whose first foundation stone was laid on the 24 December 1764 with an imposing ceremony.
Under Napoleon education was passed to the Commune, which in turn, entrusted it to the Piarists. Among the teachers let us mention Eugenio Barsanti, Physics teacher, and Giovanni Inghirami, author of a map of Tuscany. Among the famous students here studied Pope Pio IX immortalised in a bust by Pompeo Falcone and Marco Tabarrini, formerly Minister of Communications.
In our Institute hundreds of people have graduated and have been employed by Banks, specially the Savings bank of Volterra, by investment trusts, private businesses, technical departments in the Communes of the area, by the Consortium of Communes in the Upper Cecina Valley mountain area and the local health Authority, while others have gone in for a profession.
Video of our school:
November 2014
Work begins on designing the baseline survey of pupils and parents.