“Educating each child to live their Jewish heritage with pride and to be openminded, responsible citizens of the World”
The Jewish School of Madrid. Ages 3 to 18.
(+34) 91 650 1229
(+34) 608 27 42 34
Two academics of "Harvard Graduate School of Education", tell us the experience of their time at our school
Jon and Heather came to Madrid for their children to learn Spanish. Their 8, 6 and 4 year old children were in school in our school. His parents, both academics from the Harvard University School of Education (Boston, USA), tell us about their experience:
“We had a sabbatical year from our jobs at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, where we study mathematics teaching and learning. We decided to move to Spain because we wanted our children to speak Spanish; American schools don't typically begin language instruction until 6th grade, which is too late. We began to search for a school, and were thrilled to discover there was a Jewish school in Madrid. We felt even luckier when we found out that the curriculum perfectly matched our family's needs, including strong religious and Hebrew instruction. During our decision process, we also visited several primary schools in the Madrid area, and found that Ibn Gabirol stood out as more international and progressive in its approach to educating children.
One other thing that made Ibn Gabirol special is that the staff really took care of our children in the first few months, arranging tutoring in Spanish and Hebrew, having conferences with us early in the school year to check our kids' progress, and worrying about various other details. All three kids now speak fluent Spanish, and our oldest is also beginning to read Hebrew, which is a real blessing.
In our opinion, the quality of teaching at Ibn Gabirol was very high. Teachers challenged our children to think, reason, and ask questions, which is unusual even in the best schools in the US. Teachers also focused on the whole child, attending to the social environment in classrooms, easing our children's transitions, fostering independence, and teaching Jewish values.
It's a huge positive that Jewish values drive the mission of the school; when our children encountered the normal social issues in classrooms, teachers guided our children towards a thoughtful solution. ”
Jon, Heather and their children have plans to return to our school for their next sabbatical year and we will be here for them. Before leaving, and in appreciation of the treatment received during their stay, this family made a generous donation of a large number of new books in English for the library. Thanks a lot!