St Joseph's Senior School
Welcome to the St Joseph's Senior School Website.
The establishment was founded one hundred and twenty years ago by the Christian Brothers, based on an original Christian educational project.
Almost 1500 pupils attend the primary and secondary school, coming from the Greater Caen area, and some travelling from as far as 20 to 30 kilometres away.
We, the staff of St. Joseph's, have set ourselves an ambitious educational project which both motivates and guides us. It is a project in which we are dedicated to helping each child to develop self-awareness and to be open-minded in his relationship with others.
Many of the pupils participate in exchange visits with pupils from other countries with the aim of sharing our ideas and learning from others.We currently have exchange visits with schools from Germany, England, Denmark, Spain, the United States, Greece, Ireland, Malta and Switzerland. The pupils of our International Section study two languages from their first year in Secondary school, with the intervention in the majority of the lessons of a foreign assistant.
The numerous clubs in which our pupils can participate in enable the pupils to discover nd practise different leisure activities. The Sports Association gives each pupil the opportunity to practise individual and team sports.
Throughout the year there are many different occasions when the school shows its sense of sharing and caring by helping different associations such as the one in Calcutta which we have helped over the past 17 years.
A Project for the Kindergarten.
“Aiming for a bilingual kindergarten” at St Joseph's.
From the start of the 2005-2006 school year we will be offering an increased level of English tuition for pupils in the second and third years of kindergarten. This will represent a quarter of the total teaching time: one and a half hours per day (instead of the twenty minutes in the current schedule).
This part of the programme will be provided by Mrs H el en Greer, our English Language Assistant, who will work clos el y with the class teachers in all aspects of the daily routine: not only language work but also in early learning and physical activities, breaktimes and games.
Our youngest pupils, in the first year of kindergarten, who currently do not receive any English teaching will have twenty minutes of immersion in the language each day (songs, nursery rhymes, stories,...).
This project stems from a concern to offer our children, from the earliest possible age, an experience of other cultures, and an introduction to the sounds and expression of a foreign language. It builds on the desire that St Joseph's has demonstrated over many years to emphasize language learning at all lev el s; and it also anticipates future educational legislation. The increase in language tuition will be continued in our primary and secondary schools.
