Schools Gibraltar | Colleges Gibraltar

School Title

Head Teacher

A number of privately run playgroups and nurseries augment Government provision. There are currently 10 private playgroups/nurseries registered with the Department of Education and Training. These are inspected jointly by the Environmental Agency, the City Fire Brigade and the Department of Education and Training to ensure minimum standards of accommodation, numbers on roll and staffing levels.

Spanish is introduced formally in the Middle School (Year 4), although in certain circumstances relating to special needs and work with reception class children, the use of Spanish is not discouraged in first schools. All curricula are governed by the National Curriculum Regulations which closely resembles the UK National Curriculum. There are specific differences in respect of Spanish and other subjects (including Religious Education) which reflects local realities.

Entry to formal education in the First Schools and the Hebrew Primary School takes place at the commencement of the Autumn Term each year. This is organised in such a way that all children who will attain the age of 5 during the academic year are enrolled at the beginning of the academic year.

To ease the transition into schooling, morning sessions only are attended for a period of time. Morning sessions plus afternoon sessions follow this later on during the year. Finally, full attendance for both morning and afternoon sessions follow. Schools are free to determine when and how often children start attending afternoon sessions.

As is the case at Primary level, the secondary curriculum is defined by National Curriculum legislation. In the first two years (Years 8 and 9), both secondary schools offer a broad compulsory curriculum which includes English, Mathematics, Science, French or European Studies, Spanish, History, Geography, Art, Music, Religious Education, Physical Education, Design and Technology and Information and Communication Technology. In Years 10 and 11, pupils opt for a number of subjects from a range of subjects, always keeping to National Curriculum requirements, in order to enable them to study this reduced number in greater detail for public examination purposes. In addition, all pupils take the core subjects (English, Mathematics and Science), Religious Education and Physical Education.

A Special Unit for children of First School age was established at Notre Dame School in September 1983. A second unit was established in January 1985 at Bishop Fitzgerald School. These units cater for children for whom St Martin’s would be inappropriate but whose special needs cannot be met satisfactorily in the mainstream classroom. The capacity figure for the Units is an optimum of 6 at First School and 12 at Middle School. Special needs provision at secondary level is enhanced by providing a special unit at each Secondary School.

Course Provision
Full-time provision is centred on AVCE Intermediate (1 year) and Advanced Courses (2 years) in Information Technology, Business and Finance Studies and Building Environment studies.

Day-release provision in the main leads to NVQ Certificates at Level II and III in such areas as Retailing, Administration, Bricklaying, Plastering, Carpentry, Electronics etc or BTEC National Certificates in IT, Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Mechanical Engineering etc.

An area of rapid growth are courses leading to professional qualifications. The College is providing tuition/tutorial support for bodies such as ACCA, ILEX, ICSA, AAT, Institute of Bankers, and the Open University etc. There are also a large number of qualifications ranging from GCSE to the new AS levels being offered as part-time courses in the evenings.

The College is also the recognised examination centre for public examinations offered by UK Universities and the professional Institutes and Associations.

The Department sees its College of Further Education as providing educational opportunity for all who need it. The Department intends that the College becomes the main provider of 'Learning Opportunity' for post compulsory education in Gibraltar, by meeting the demands of the community, both vocational and professional, through imparting quality tuition with adequate and valid resources.