1. Comenius Project Traditions Round Europe 2009-1-RO1-COM06-03144-4 Sellia Marina – Italy -

2. Education in Italy In Italy there are State Schools and Private schools. State Schools are very widespread and better than Private Schools. Children go to the Nursery School when they are 3 until 5 years old. Here they play, sing, draw and start writing. Nursery School isn’t compulsory but, nowadays, all Italian children attend it. Then, students attend Primary School for five years, from 6 to 10. When they leave Primary School, they go to the Secondary School of first grade and they attend it for three years, from 11 to 13. School in Italy is compulsory ‘till the age of 16 years.

3. The Identity Card of Our School The name of our school is: “Istituto Comprensivo di Sellia Marina”. “Comprensivo” is referred to the fact that our Institute includes three different orders of school: Kindergarten, “Scuola Primaria” and “Scuola Secondaria di 1° grado”. Sellia Marina is the name of the small town where our schools are located. Sellia Marina has got two hamlets: Calabricata and Uria. Our Institute, operative since the school year 2000/01, includes all the schools located on the municipal land. At “Sellia Marina Centro” there are: 2 kindergartens,1 Scuola Primaria and 1 Scuola Secondaria di 1° grado. Iat Calabricata there are: 1 Kindergarten and 1 Scuola Primaria. At Uria there are: 1 Kindergarten and 1 Scuola Primaria.

4.  We and our Foreign Students  Our school is attended by about 770 students; many of them come from different countries: Poland, Romania, Ukraine, Tunisy and, most of them, from Morocco.  Of course, when they come to Italy they meet a lot of language problems.  Our school is attentive to their problems.  In the last years, together with our Regional Government and the Arab Association, we promoted different Intercultural Courses, Arab Courses and Italian Courses for them. Nowadays, we are study the situation again to give new responses to new students. 

5.  The Subjects of study  Scuola Secondaria di 1° grado  Students go to school from Monday to Saturday and they can choose to attend it for 30 or 33 hours a week for 33 weeks a year.  They study Italian, History, Geography, Civics, Music, English, French, Arts, Technology, Mathematics, Physical Education, Religion and musical Instruments.

6. And now some words on our Staff She is our Headteacher: Dott.ssa Fiorella Careri

7. Miss Antonia De Luca, the old headteacher who the project started with

8. Mr Giuseppe Vaccaro, our vice director

9. Our Administrative Director Mr Fancesco Laratta

10. The Comenius Staff Mr Biagio Moscato, English Teacher

11. The Comenius Staff Miss Antonela Brancati English teacher and her students

12. The Comenius Staff Mrs Concetta Placida French teacher and her students

13. Some students