Istituto Comprensivo Statale I San Mauro Torinese is a public (government funded) school in a small town on the first outskirts of Turin, in the north-west of Italy. The institution consists of three Infant schools, three Primary schools and a Lower Secondary school. It was assembled in 2013 by the fusion of a Circolo Didattico (Primary and Infant schools) with a Lower Secondary school. In the period between 2000 to 2008, both these schools participated to some Comenius Partnership projects as partners and also as coordinator, with schools from England, Greece, Poland and Finland. Those experiences have supported the improvement of the European citizenship sense among pupils and teachers.

In Istituto Comprensivo I San Mauro, the teachers of the three school levels constitute a single professional group sharing responsibility in their educational actions that have equal importance in the school life.

Along the first year of the institute foundation, all the teachers have concentrated their efforts in the development of a common educational program within the framework of National Curriculum establishing child-centered learning environments and focusing on children’s needs in order to encourage pupils’ social skills, confidence in academic learning and prevent their non-achievement and non-engagement. Pupils are about 900 and more than 450 of them, aged 6 – 10, are attending the 5 grades of primary classes. The second half is divided in Infant schools and lower secondary. The number of pupils from immigrants families is very low, the most of them come from East European countries, as Romania, Moldovia and Russia. All the three primary schools and the lower school are provided with specific spaces and rooms equipped for different kind of activities: science, ICT (computers, IWB), P.E. sports, art.

In addition to the curricular subjects, the school considers a good practice to work on various projects and cross-curricular activities, to improve learning offer towards the educational success.

In order to support this objective, the school promotes its integration in the local community and its collaboration with the municipality and with various types of local associations.

Special efforts has been dedicating to the teaching of foreign languages:

• in infant schools children start experiencing English language through playful approaches
• in primary schools English is part of curricular subjects
• in lower secondary level pupils study English and French  as foreign languages

CLIL has been included in some primary classes curriculum by the teachers who attended special training courses. 

In our school a permanent and constant in-service teachers’ training is considered the foundation of a high-qualified teaching. Consequently every year, most of the teachers are involved in training courses aimed to:

• improve teaching strategies in the different subjects and areas
• experience activities and methods of teaching, focusing on different learning styles and learning processes
• share ideas and collaborate in the elaboration and actuation of projects
• develop digital competences and improve the integration of new technology in teaching and learning process

For the last years a group of primary teachers has been coordinated in their training by an expert colleague in best practices in teaching maths connected to real life. She has been attending a group of action-research monitored by the Nucleo di Ricerca within the University of Turin Maths Department. This kind of collaboration has produced several resources and useful materials which is worth sharing in an international context.

A relevant aspect of our school teachers’ training is the particular development of CLIL (Content Language Integrated Learning) approach. Some teachers of English attended courses and training events run by regional department of education. A small group of teachers attended  “CLIL in Primary classes” courses organized by NILE and International Study Programmes in  UK and Ireland within the past Comenius In-service training.

Some relevant projects to be mentioned:

 In 2015-2016

• teaching of French in lower secondary classes has been supported by a mother tongue Language Assistent.
• first experience of  French language learning in primary classes supported by the mother tongue Language Assistent.

- “Click and CLIL” – CLIL and ICT best practice project.

 In 2016-2017

-  English language teaching in Primary e Lower secondary classes  supported by English Language Assistent.

- “Français ensemble” –  project of French language teaching  to young learners as a second foreign language.

Teachers who will be actively involved in the job-shadowing activity:

- Mrs Lucia Guino, teacher of English, maths, science, geography, ICT; teachers’ trainer in training courses for primary teachers of English, qualified in CLIL method and strategies, C1 level competence with good digital skills, deputy headteacher, teachers’ trainer in “CLIL for Learning in primary schools” online course run by LEND (Lingua e Nuova Didattica) on Moodle system.

- Mrs Concetta  Saporito, teacher of Italian, French, history, P.E, art; degree in physical education, good  digital skills.

- Mrs Daniela Ruocco, teacher of Italian, French, history, science.

- Mrs Rosaria Leone, teacher of maths, English, science, geography, B2 level competence in English.