The Secondary School of St. André has 896 regular students and 5 groups of adult learners (night school after labour). Two years ago the school became part of a group of schools, as it is now the policy in Portugal. This Group consists, apart from the secondary school, of 2 kindergardens, a primary school and one elementary school , having a total of 2258 students and 240 members of staff (teachers and non-teaching staff).The Secondary school teaches several general and professional courses in the areas of science and technology, social sciences, languages and humanities, economics, arts, graphic desig n and ICT and Computing and develops with the students, along with the lessons,different activities inserted in clubs (such as Art, Patrimony, Europe, Sport, ICT, Theatre, Languages, Science) where they can develop important social skills such as citizenship, tolerance, integration and respect for the others ( which are also premises of the School Educative Project).Among learners (youngsters and adults) a percentage of them includes some coming from other countries, such as PALOPs ( African countries whose official language is Portuguese), Brazil, China, Moldova, Romania and Ukraine.
The Group of Schools is located in a city with a historical background based on an industrial culture which was the origin of the global Portuguese industrialization process in the beginning of the 20th century.
The Group of Schools’ aims, with its Educational Project, the consolidation of a participatory and constructive citizenship and the assumption of ethical values such as responsibility, acceptance of differences and plurality, cultural and historical values as a fundamental background for the future of our pupils, the adults of the future.
The school has extensive experience in teaching subjects related with arts, namely comics and illustration, always trying to articulate transverse formal knowledge with activities that can facilitate knowledge acquisition through a more informal learning environment, activities that can facilitate knowledge acquisition by providing a more relaxed learning climate, to enable learners to integrate particularly valuable in developing their skills in languages. The activities promoted at school have promoted the development of skills related with comics and languages. We can mention some projects where students have produced strips about many subjects like the protection of the environment, preventing violence, rules of citizenship, story telling, illustrating literary texts, etc.
