5. What are some primary responsibilities of a principal and how do you feel that you have succeeded in these responsibilites? In my opinion, the most important thing is to create an appropriate environment in the school to achieve our goals, and that these goals fulfill the needs of the whole community as well our students’ needs. To achieve this, it is essential to stimulate communication between all of us and to make efficient use of our resources. What I feel most satisfied with is how much my Management Team has been involved, and how we have turned our mistakes into improvement proposals.
6 .What do you think have been your most proud moments or greatest achievements in 2012? How would you describe this year as different from last year? Have you learned anything new?
I think our work in 2012 has allowed us to set out, with clarity, future goals we proposed for Sampedro. Furthermore, there is transparency in the decisions taken to achieve these goals; this enables us all to move in the same direction. Having achieved this, it is now up to each member to do his or her job. With regards to specific accomplishments, we feel satisfied with the fact that we are installing multimedia resources in all the classrooms; we also place great importance in providing an environment where everyone is respected and can carry out their responsibilities to the best of their abilities.
7. What measures do you think we can take within Sampedro’s community as a whole, to make up for the budget cuts in education without lowering its quality? In this high school we have a team of experienced professionals who know what they have to do and how to do it, so the key lies in not to putting any hindrances for them to do their job. We are fully aware that we have to optimize the use of our resources in proportion to our potential.
8. Do you think there could be improvements in the education system itself? For example, do you agree with the amount of theory that is taught here in Spain in correlation with the amount of practice (like using the laboratory)? I think the academic syllabus should focus on providing our young students with the tools they need to improve the world we live in. However we should not limit ourselves to educating students to provide a good workforce. Instead, it is essential to educate the young so that any job carried out is meaningful for all human beings and contributes to a society that is freer, kinder and fairer to the whole planet. The way to achieve this is by stimulating creativity, critical thinking, participative work and social commitment.
A person that is cultured, creative, helpful, knows how to detect the needs in their surrounding, can reflect on actions taken, will then know how to find which resources to improve the environment in which they live in. On the other hand, if we educate young people only to satisfy the market’s needs, we may be under developing our youth’s potential and who knows where that will lead us- possibly into a situation we do not want to be in.
9. What current projects are you working on as principal? As students, what new things can we look forward to in 2013 at our school? I believe it is important to reinforce amongst teachers a spirit of teamwork, and to promote inter-departmental work. As for students, the challenge is to stimulate their participation in high school life. What I mean by this is that it is important for students to have a more active presence in the day to day happenings in high school life. Though there are a number of ways of doing this, the two main ones are: a commitment to enhancing student staff liaison, and to commit themselves also to making their high school a place where their social and cultural values can be expressed, and where they can exchange experiences.
9 QUESTIONS
FOR THE
PRINCIPAL
By MªAlejandra Diaz