On Wednesday, Her Majesty Queen Letizia reprised one of the most prized traditions of the Spanish Royal Family and travelled to Zaragoza to open the new school year.
The tradition is for members of the Royal Family to travel to an institution of each level of education (primary school, middle school, high school and, sometimes, university) and visit the facilities to mark the beginning of the new academic year.
For the 2021-2022 school year, Her Majesty visited Odon de Buen Public Kindergarten and Primary School and Gallicum Secondary Education Institute, both located in Zuera, near the Aragonese city of Zaragoza.
Queen Letizia’s tour began in the courtyard of Odon de Buen Kindergarten and Primary school, where the children welcomed her and then continued to their psycho-mobility and multi-sensorial activity room and their library.
The school has two different buildings, one where the Kindergarten classes are located and the other for the Primary school. The institution has two groups for each level, except for the first level of Primary School, which has been divided into three groups to accommodate better the needs of the children that have lost the last three months of the past school year. Odon de Buen has two signature features: their focus on cooperative learning, active methods and multiple intellects and their multilingualism, with a varying percentage of the teaching hours being offered in English and another chosen language and their participation in the ERASMUS+ initiative under the protection of the European Union.
Her Majesty then travelled to Gallicum Secondary Education Institute, where she received a tour of their facilities. Because of the large number of pupils, the school had to move its classes into two buildings, one that houses the higher grades and one that houses only the three lower grades and the administration and management offices.
The institution is based on principles such as equality, inclusion, tolerance, respect, smoother relations with the surrounding environment, participation and collaboration, innovation, and the promotion of the education of each scholar not just academically but as a functioning member of society. Accordingly, the school implements a strict no discrimination and cooperation policy between students, teachers, school personnel, and families to reach these objectives.
During all of the visits, Her Majesty was accompanied by the President of the Autonomic Community of Aragona, Francisco Javier Lambán, the President of the Aragona Courts José Javier Sada, the Government Representative in the Aragona Autonomic Community Rosa Serrano, the Chief Judge of the Aragona Community Ángel Dolado, and the Mayor of Zuera Luis Zubieta.
