
Montserrat School
Our school is committed to what we call “global” education inasmuch as we aim at shaping both the minds and the souls of children and youngsters from a very early age. It is our mission to provide the tools they need to achieve physical, intellectual, spiritual and social excellence.

Montserrat School
Global, of quality and innovative.
Our school community is formed by 1046 students including pre-school (ages 0 to 6 years old), Primary Education (ages 6 to 12 years old), Secondary Education (ages 13 to 16 years old) and Baccalaureate, both IB and LOMCE (ages 17 to 18). Montserrat teachers believe in students being the protagonists of their learning and so are ready to do everything to ensure they achieve excellence in all possible ways.
At Montserrat School, our motto is “Excelsior, always higher and higher” and we live up to it.
“Montserrat School is a school where everybody learns something” (Howard Gardner, 2004)

Montserrat School
90 years of history
Our school was founded by the congregation of the Holy Family of Nazareth, on the 29th of September in 1926. Under the leadership of Sister Pilar Mas, we started our journey to excellence. Later, this tradition of leadership continued under the direction of Sister Cros (1949), Sister Soledad Rodríguez (1954) and Sister Montserrat Del Pozo (1993). Last, but not least, we would like to recognize the presence and devoted teaching of Dr. Isidre Gomà for more than 50 years.
It is the good work done for almost 90 years now that makes us look to the future to find ways to offer our students a complete education that “shapes their mind and their soul.” We are grateful to those who made this possible and for this we remain unwavering in our pursuit of excellence.

Montserrat School
Independent Character
We seek to foster a comprehensive and harmonious education for our students through:
Identity
Our pedagogy pays special attention to the individuality of our learners so as to help them grow truthfully and freely as active citizens, who willingly and progressively work towards justice, the common good and peaceful coexistence.
Professional training
We stress the development of professional capacity by facilitating the most appropriate techniques for intellectual and artistic work that generates personal fulfillment and contributes to the progress of society.
Insertion
We foster the appreciation of our students’ own culture as the way to foster knowledge of other cultures different from their own.
Understanding of “humaneness”
We project a transcendental vision of mankind and the world where Jesus Christ is at the centre of personal growth. We offer the Gospel Word in certain socio-cultural , personal or group contexts so that each one of them can find Jesus in their own religious experience.

Montserrat School
The Congregation of the Holy Family of Nazareth
The congregation of the Holy Family of Nazareth (@MHSFNazaret) was founded in 1874 by Saint Joseph Manyanet i Vives (Tremp 1833- Barcelona 1901) and by Sister Encarnación Colomina i Agustí (Os de Balaguer 1848- Barcelona 1916) to address one of the most urgent needs of the 19th Century: “the training of Christian families through the education of children and youngsters.”
The congregation grew and spread throughout the five continents under the motto “One Nazareth in each home.” Today, Sister Montserrat del Pozo I Rosselló lead it as it consists of 54 educative missions in nine countries, i.e. 27.813 students. The sisters feel “called to recreate Nazareth´s virtues; their family life rests upon love, humbleness, plainness and happiness” (Constituciones, 4).

Montserrat School
Visual Identity
Our three-dimensional logo represents the three bases upon which our institution rests, namely our conciliatory, quality and innovative teaching; our community formed by teachers, families and students, and our religious vocation.

Montserrat School
Bits without borders
Bits without borders is an NGO created in 1998 by the Spanish-Cameroonian Delegation of the congregation of the Holy Family of Nazareth.
Why this name for an NGO? The word “bit” means giving specific, accurate and effective help. “Without borders” means reaching third world countries, especially Africa, and applying European Nazareth schooling there.
Bfs becomes a wonderful platform for students to develop their global competencies as well as their solidarity. If you wish to make a donation, you can do so with the following bank account number: 2100 0841 99 02 00665755 http://bitssinfronteras.org/
Educational Project
Our educational project stems from the latest studies in neuroscience, psychology and sociology and draws heavily on the belief that each student is intelligent; it is the opportunities we give our students that will make them develop their multiple intelligences. In addition, we believe they will become autonomous learners if we trust in and learn together with them.
Educational Project
Early Learning
“There´s no greater freedom as the right to be intelligent” (Dr. Glenn Doman 1999).
A child´s potential at birth is immense. The development of neuronal circuits will partly depend on the stimuli received during the first years of life. The Early Learning Programmes inspired by Dr. Glenn Doman favour the development of a child’s neurological system so that we can prevent possible future learning difficulties.

Educational Project
Multiple Intelligences
Dr. Howard Gardner´s theory developed at Harvard University includes intelligences other than the linguistic and logical-mathematical intelligences, namely the visual-spatial, musical, bodily-kinesthetic, interpersonal, intrapersonal and naturalistic intelligences. This theory reassures us that the individual differences matter.
At Montserrat School we offer students diverse opportunities to further develop all the eight intelligences and we encourage their in depth learning based on real-life experiences from “diverse entry points.” In doing this, students are able to strengthen their abilities and become more competent.

Educational Project
Collaborative Learning
To ensure a meaningful collaborative learning, we encourage positive interdependence, face-to-face interaction, individual responsibility, interpersonal abilities and individual and peer evaluation. Thanks to the guidelines for cooperative learning given by Roger and David Johnson (University of Minnesota), we are now a learning community where everybody is both a learner and a teacher.

Educational Project
Project-Based Learning
Our students learn through different types of projects. These include interdisciplinary Intelligent Projects (that tackle different competencies); Comprehension Projects (aimed at developing students understanding through different intelligences); both individual and group Research Projects (with which they further develop their research and argumentation skills); Design Thinking Projects, or Problem-Based Learning Projects, to mention just a few.
Educational Project
Teaching for Understanding
We see comprehension from a “performance” point of view, i.e. as the ability to apply knowledge in different contexts. As David Perkings aptly states “The learning of comprehension is more about learning to skate than it is about skating.” In other words, to comprehend is to be able to carry out a great variety of activities that demand thinking to find evidence, generalize, offer analogies or create something new. This philosophy gives birth to our Comprehension Projects which are based on activities that build up our students´ intelligences for them to come to understand and be able to express knowledge.

Educational Project
Experiential Learning
Our methodology is related to the design and creation of learning environments and educational experiences that move students out of their “comfort zone” and closer to the real world.

Educational Project
Thinking-Based Learning
Developing thinking skills is a MUST when teaching a curriculum. Our teachers use different strategies to document student thinking. In doing this they develop a new language through the use of diverse thinking routines.
Our curriculum also includes the acquisition of critical and creative thinking abilities. It is through metacognition that students make their thinking visible and further develop learning-to-learn competencies.

Educational Project
Dialogue on Faith and Culture
The new Chapel of Col. legi Montserrat created and made by the Aletti Art Center and directed by the master P. Marko Rupnik, is a space in which art and faith come together.

Educational Project
Global Sustainable Learning
The Montserrat school educational project offers “GLOBAL SUSTAINABLE LEARNING” to encourage excellence, to expose students to ethical knowledge and self-commitment so that everything they do is qualitatively, responsibly, sociably and personally significant. If one is to develop global competencies in the 21st century, it must be done through research, perspective, action and communication.
Educational Project
Multilingual Learning
At Montserrat School students learn Spanish, Catalan, English, German and French by designating these languages as the only means of communication for certain core subjects (English, Spanish and Catalan) or exclusively in acquisition courses (German and French). In this way, students work and learn in a trilingual setting (Spanish, Catalan and English) as they develop their linguistic competencies.

Educational Project
Personalized Learning
Students are the initiators of their learning process in our Educational Project; they generate their own individual Learning Plan. The teacher functions as coach and with the help of peers a student is able to find his or her learning path. We personalize the learning experience by constantly improving our curriculum, learning spaces, methodology, evaluations and the teacher’s role. Thanks to technology this learning experience is possible everywhere and at any time.

Pre-school to Kindergarten
At this stage of learning, we speak of two differentiated phases; pre-school (learners up to two years old) and kindergarten (learners from 3 to 6 years old). The Early Learning Programmes favour a good and complete neurological stimulation that, in turn, will make learners happy and able to make others happy as well.

Pre-school to Kindergarten
Assembly
The first half an hour of each morning is a privileged time in our school. It’s the time when kids come to school to listen, discover and explain new things through prayers, songs, poems and storytelling.

Pre-school to Kindergarten
EntusiasMat
EntusiasMat is an educational and pedagogical project initiated at our school which takes learners from 3 to 12 years old. It is based on the multiple intelligences theory and engages students to work effectively with mathematical concepts.
Basically, EntusiasMat aims at helping students move from concrete to abstract thinking. This is why it uses different strategies to trigger physical and social responses that help learners understand mathematical concepts better.

Pre-school to Kindergarten
Ludiletras
Ludiletras is a reading-and-writing programme that aims at the neurological development of learners from 3 to 6 years old. It takes language not only as the means to communicate orally and in written form, but also as the means to understand and represent reality; to build up knowledge and to self-manage one’s thinking, feelings and attitude.
Let’s challenge ourselves to learn by combining a linguistic and a global perspective to give as many opportunities as possible to our students.
Pre-school to Kindergarten
Project Learning
Project learning helps students conceptualize through activities related to the multiple intelligences and so they develop motor, cognitive, emotional and sociable abilities that will help them share the world in which we live.
Pre-school to Kindergarten
Atelier
The atelier is an experimental lab that employs a variety of tools, textures and techniques. There, students are given different possibilities to express themselves freely while further developing their creativity, their artistic interest and their imagination.
Pre-school to Kindergarten
Violin (Suzuki Method)
Kids learn to play the violin in the same way as they learn to speak: by listening, absorbing and imitating. In teaching music, we provide the right environment for students to grow emotionally and spiritually.
“The best and most effective way to learn music is to be in touch with it from an early age on”

Pre-school to Kindergarten
Chess
“The teachers play and the kids win.” The chess programme strengthens intellectuality and creativity to help students acquire problem-solving strategies and abilities.

Pre-school to Kindergarten
Rhythmic Gymnastics
With the Rhythmic Gymnastics programme students work on breathing, coordination and equilibrium, i.e. the basics of any sport. It is the physical spaces and the many opportunities that leads them to be physically excellent.

Pre-school to Kindergarten
Trilingual Environment
From a very early age, students are immersed in a trilingual teaching environment where Spanish, Catalan and English are spoken. In the first two preschool years, one of the tutors will always speak English. When students reach Kindergarten 50% of the lessons will be given in English as there is one English teacher designated per class. Throughout these years students develop mastery in English through games, storytelling, songs, role-plays, etc.
Primary Education
Primary Education (from 6 to 12 years) is divided in three, two year phases (Initial, Medium and Superior).
At this stage, there’s special attention to a continued development of all the intelligences through project-based and contextualized learning in the following subjects: Catalan Language, Spanish Language, English Language, Natural and Social sciences, Religion, Music, Arts & Crafts and Physical Education (P.E.).
Primary Education
Assembly
A privileged time in our school for students to listen and absorb knowledge, values, virtues, social abilities or anything that involves human and spiritual growth.

Primary Education
Good-work Project
Good-Work Projects are interdisciplinary projects that designate students as the protagonists of learning with multiple-intelligences activities.

Primary Education
EntusiasMat
EntusiasMat is an educational and pedagogical project initiated at our school which takes learners from 3 to 12 years old. It is based on the multiple intelligences theory and engages students to effectively work with mathematical concepts.
Basically, EntusiasMat aims at helping students move from concrete to abstract thinking. Employing different strategies to trigger physical and social responses helps learners understand mathematical concepts better.
Primary Education
School Garden
Students learn to respect the environment and understand how human beings interact and interrelate with nature.

Primary Education
Robotics
Robotics is everywhere in our school because it helps students be creative and develop higher-level thinking skills. With robotics students hone skills such as teamwork, motivation, memory, language, mathematical thinking, science and technology.

Primary Education
Computers
Programming… New technologies are our tools.
Primary Education
Chess
Because of its ludic and intellectual characteristics, chess is an efficient pedagogical resource to help young learners (from 3 years) to be able to improve their learning and learn moral values.

Primary Education
Drama
Drama helps children grow their self-esteem, verbal and non-verbal communicative skills, concentration, lack of inhibition, and empathy through role playing.

Primary Education
Film
This subject is taught in English once a week and focuses on students learning the audio-visual language adapted to each grade. Students learn to film, create and interpret cinematographic text types.

Primary Education
Entrepreneurship
We want to make our students authentic entrepreneurs as they develop abilities like decision-taking, teamwork, leadership, self-confidence and presenting skills. Our entrepreneurs experience the real world through ludic and entertaining activities.

Primary Education
English
There are 5 weekly hours devoted to the teaching of English and 30% of the curriculum is taught employing the English language so students get the necessary mastery to pass the so-called Young Learners English Tests (YLE) which measure the progress students make between 7 and 12 years old.
Primary Education
German and French
In Primary, students learn French and German alternatively one hour per week. In this way they are able to choose one of the two when they get to Secondary education.

Primary Education
Mountaineering

Primary Education
Post Communion Groups

Secondary Education
This educational stage covers 4 academic years and is compulsory for children between 12 to 16 years.
At this stage the curriculum consists of subjects that combine contextualized and interdisciplinary learning so that students get to solve real-life problems. This is what allows us to have learners become the protagonists of their learning and develop the necessary competencies to generate change in the world.

Secondary Education
Spiritual Training
Daily training (the 30 first minutes of the day) offered at all stages in our school that helps them become critical thinkers; it encourages them to actively participate in life and it helps them to enhance decision-making abilities.

Secondary Education
Interdisciplinary projects
These learning experiences engage students in complex, contextualised and significant real-life problems that combine different subjects and through which students get the abilities and knowledge they need to design and create products that meet some social needs. In doing so, they get to develop competencies and knowledge that trigger critical and creative thinking, on the one hand, and team work on the other. It is the student that steers learning; teachers are coaches that help them along the way. Below you will find some examples.
- EARTH PROJECT: Social Sciences and Music (7th graders)
- STEM PROJECT: Natural sciences, Technology, Robotics and Film (7th and 8th graders)
- STEAM PROJECT: Biology, Physics and Chemistry, Technology, Robotics, and Film (9th graders)
- WITNESSES PROJECT: Civics and Religion (9th graders)
- ARTISTIC PROJECT: Music, Arts and Crafts (9th graders)
- HUMANISTIC PROJECT: Social Sciences, Religion and Ethics (10th graders)
- SCIENTIFIC PROJECT: Biology and Geology, Technology, Physics and Chemistry, Robotics and Arts and Crafts (10th graders)

Secondary Education
Steps
Personalized learning of Mathematics which allows students to work at a different pace and different levels using the methods that better fit their learning.

Secondary Education
Ambits
This subject makes students learn from their home city. Every Friday afternoon, from 15:00 to 17:00, together with their teacher and a syllabus, students discover something scientific, artistic and creative in the city in which they live. Students reflect their learning through a Multiple-Intelligences project with an e-learning platform and elaborate a final product using ICT skills.

Secondary Education
Film
One hour per week devoted to the learning of audiovisual and filming techniques that help students create and interpret cinematographic text types. All Secondary students do this subject in English.

Secondary Education
Drama
Drama helps children grow their self-esteem, verbal and non-verbal communicative skills, concentration, lack of inhibition, and empathy through role playing.

Secondary Education
Madame Curie
One hour per week devoted to research and the application of the scientific method. All Secondary students do this subject in English and at the end of 10th grade they do a Team Research Project.
Secondary Education
Be an Entrepeneur
In the 10th grade, students get the opportunity to create their own small business. This helps them learn to assess and understand the social needs in and out their community and thus be able to provide some solutions to these needs. We want students to understand entrepreneurship as a tool to generate a social change, to innovate, to get to know and enhance abilities to become agents of social transformation. This subject is give in English two hours per week.

Secondary Education
European Youth Parlament
10th Graders do EYP one hour per week. This subject offers them a close look at the European political and economical reality, and helps them understand their social and moral responsibility in this context. They work as teams and pass a political resolutions similar to the ones given in a European General Assembly. The ones that show good oral skills and political knowledge get to participate in the European Youth Parliament regional, national and European contests.

Secondary Education
Cambridge exams

Secondary Education
Workshops
This is a special three-day training secondary students attend at some point in the academic year. Such training is chosen around varied subject-matters and implies a change in the timetable for students and teachers. Students of different ages and grades are encouraged to participate in the creation and exposition of a product that somehow is at the service of our (learning) community. Workshops are interdisciplinary and contextualized and so they help teachers to evaluate student competencies.

Secondary Education
Mentor Programme
This is a programme designed for 10th graders that offers students the possibility to live the day-to-day of a true professional environment (an office, an operation room, a business, TV broadcast studios, etc.) under the supervision of an expert for a few days.

Secondary Education
Personalised Technology
The student-centered teaching model, based on projects and collaborative learning, integrates and requires that which only technology and information processing tools can offer to the contemporary classroom. Students in secondary school use iPads or laptops on a one-to-one basis in order to facilitate equal access to the curriculum, yet differentiated learning for all learners.
Baccalaureate
Situated in the school’s LeaderLab, Baccalaureate students are able to generate their own narrative so that others can feel, think and act differently when leading the life they want to lead. They are leaders capable of integrating excellence, commitment and ethics to not only become more and more intelligent but also to make good use of it.
“Many things have been given to you and so the challenge now is to use this to make this world a better place” (Dr. Howard Gardner, May 2013)
Results IB and Selectivity 2020
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Baccalaureate
LOMCE BACCALAUREATE (Ley Orgánica de Educación 2006)
LOMCE BACCALAUREATE takes two academic years.
In our school there are two types of LOMCE Baccalaureate, namely the following:
- Scientific and Technological
- Humanistic and Social
At the end of the two-year programme, students get the Baccelaureate certificate that gives them access to university or vocational school.

Baccalaureate
International Baccalaureate (IB)
The International Baccalaureate Diploma programme is rigorous and holistic. It lasts two years and offers an excellent training for both life and a global society. This programme is supported by renowned universities in the world and consists on some core topics and some optional ones that guarantee the students´ personal development of their interests and strengths.
The IB´s main aim is to develop students´ international understanding so that they become aware of their responsibility to create a better and more peaceful world. In Col.legi Montserrrat this Diploma offers them a “Bilingual Diploma” at the end of the two years. IB students have the opportunity to participate in different World Student Conferences offered by the IB organisation at different places in the world.
Baccalaureate
Learner Profile
Baccalaureate is designed so that learners are able to seek the truth and the good to become:
- Inquirers
- knowledgeable
- Thinkers
- Communicators
- Principled
- Open-minded
- Caring
- Risk-takers
- Balanced
- Reflective
Baccalaureate
People with vocation in serving others: CAS and Learning-and- Service
Baccalaureate follow a very thorough programme in Creativity, Action and Service that makes students participate in varied activities while learning other academic disciplines at school.
Creativity: examination and expansion of ideas that lead to either a product or the interpretation of some other piece. It includes visual and interpretative arts, digital design, writing, film, culinary crafts and craftworks.
Action: physical exercise for a healthy life style. These activities can be team or individual sports, outdoor activities, personal training or any other physical effort that benefits one´s health.
Service: collaborative response to a social need in the community. Through their service to the community, students develop and apply personal and social abilities in real situations that demand decision-taking, problem-solving skills, initiative, thoughtfulness and responsibility in the action they take.
Baccalaureate
Experience abroad
Baccalaureate students have the opportunity to participate not only in projects offered by renowned universities such as Tufts, but also in social businesses and institutions, or global campuses of SP Jain in Singapore, Dubai or Sydney.

Baccalaureate
Apple Training Centre
The Research / Monograph Work for IB is a compulsory curricular subject for all Baccalaureate students.
The main educational objective of carrying out a Baccalaureate Research Work is the learning of two skills: the research ability and the ability to communicate what is researched in writing and orally.
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Acknowledgments
Here you can see some of the most important awards and recognitions awarded to The Montserrat School in recent years.
The Montserrat School in the News
Here you can access a selection of articles published by the media about our school, its innovative character and educational leadership.

Facilities
Virtual Tour
Contact
Av. Vallvidrera, 68
08017 Barcelona
Tel. 932 038 800
Fax. 932 806 254

Job Vacancies
Montserrat School offers positions in comprehensive and innovative teaching. If you wish to work with us, please fill in the form below.