KITES DAY AT LA FRAGUA SCHOOL

 

Students from ASPAEN Gimnasio La Fragua School had a beautiful day on August 10^th, 2011. The sunny sky was decorated with colorful kites flown by the pupils. They had fun while doing different sport activities, too. Kites had different designs and flew very high due to the strong wind. Students won prizes for the biggest, the smallest and highest kite on the sky.

ASPAEN GIMNASIO LA FRAGUA ATTENDED THE IELTS TRAINING COURSE

Five English teachers from ASPAEN Gimnasio La Fragua attended the IELTS (International English Language Testing System) training course on July 26^th, 27^th and 28^th, 2011. Sessions were held at Universidad Cooperativa language center by the British Council. The course dealt with how the IELTS test is organized and how trainers should prepare exam takers to achieve high results.

The importance of teaching sub-skills was a highlighted component of the training course. Martin Horkley from the British Council leaded the sessions during these three days. ASPAEN Gimnasio La Fragua English teachers had a marvelous opportunity to learn more about the IELTS test, which will be a requirement in the school bilingual program to evaluated teachers’ English level. Moreover, the strategies and techniques learned will be useful for improving the current PET training course given to tenth grade students.

The English language department deeply thanks ASPAEN Gimnasio La Fragua for their economical support to attend this transcendental event, which will definitely improve bilingual processes at the school.

 

    Assistants to the 2011 IELTS training course

BRITISH COUNCIL VISITS ASPAEN GIMNASIO LA FRAGUA

"As part of an inter-institutional agreement, the British Council is now administering the ASPAEN Program of Bilingualism. In this sense, representatives from this institution visited ASPAEN Gimnasio La Fragua on May 23rd and 24th in order to carry out a set of activities that were part of the diagnosis stage of the school bilingual program. These activities included lesson observations to English teachers, interviews to students about English lessons and diagnosing students' and bilingual teachers' English level. The visit from the British Council was successful and very beneficial in order to consolidate the school program of bilingualism".

ASPAEN GIMNASIO LA FRAGUA AT THE LITTLE BEES SPELLING CONTEST

Three students from ASPAEN Gimnasio La Fragua participated with enthusiasm in the II Little Spelling Contest, organized by Gimnasio Bilingue Children's World. Juan Diego Ahumada Luna, Andrés Felipe Molano Esquivel and Cristian Camilo Cerquera Castañeda from fifth grade, represented the school. The contest was on May 25th, 2011 and took place at 'Bahamas' social room. Students reinforced their spelling skills and had a lot of fun during the event. The winners were from Güipas y Chavos School, first and second places; and Colombus American School, third place.

 Andrés Felipe Molano Esquivel, Cristian Camilo Cerquera Castañeda and Juan Diego Ahumada Luna.

 ASPAEN Gimnasio La Fragua contestants during the Little Bees Spelling Bee Contest.

Teacher Ever A. Vargas from ASPAEN Gimnasio La Fragua and Sandra Milena Roa Cruz, Principal from Gimnasio Bilingüe Children's World.

ENGLISH WAS THE HIGHEST SUBJECT IN THE SABER 11 TEST!

The 2010 promotion from ASPAEN Gimnasio La Fragua made history in Huila, Colombia, after being the first institution that obtained a score over 70 points (71,09) as a group in the “Pruebas Saber 11”, before called “ICFES or Pruebas de Estado”, applied the twelfth of September, 2010.  According to the excellent scores, we will be among the first “Calendar A” 50 schools in this country.  In spite of the fact that the 16th of November the Instituto Colombiano Para el Fomento de la Educación Superior (ICFES) will let us know the classifications of schools, we strongly believe that ASPAEN Gimnasio La Fragua will be classified as “Muy Superior”, where it has been during the last six years.  Furthermore, we will be the first school in Huila and one of the best schools in the south of Colombia. “Dinero” will be the magazine that will publish the school ranking based on the ICFES information about the SABER 11 test.

Congratulations to the 2010 promotion of students, parents, teachers, and the school community such as the administrative staff and the board of directors from ASPAEN Gimnasio La Fragua for the reached success and the achieved goals. Every student got over 55 points in the test. Below you can see the graph with the scores per subject in the eleventh grade group.  Moreover, it is relevant to highlight the great improvement in scores in each subject, but at the same time it is important to highlight how the English subject is the one with the highest score, which makes English teachers proud of it.

To sum up with, we are already working on training the future students from prom 2011 who will start eleventh grade next sixth of December to have a successful performance and excellent results in the SABER 11 test.