Dear Surfers,

Welcome to Istituto Comprensivo Polo1. We hope you will give us your comments and suggestions about our website. Feel free to browse through our pages for information on the school and what we have to offer, as well as the community we live in. If you have any questions or would like more information, please contact us by e-mail, phone, or by mail. And moreover let's exchange ideas, opinions and information about education.

Istituto Comprensivo Polo 1 provides a bridge from nursery to elementary and middle school, creating a positive learning environment in which all students are encouraged to reach their maximum potential. This is accomplished by educational teams working in cooperation with parents and the community in order to offer a variety of choices for personal and academic success.

Our school is located in Tricase, a small village in the south east of Italy, at about 56 kilometres from Lecce, its provincial capital. About 20,000 people live here. Rome is about 700 km from here.

The former headteacher, Mr. Luigi Damiani, who worked here for a number of years, had overseen our school's developments. During that time, the school won many awards. Last year, for example, Il Chiacchierone, our school magazine, won a national award.

At Present the headmistress is Mrs. Antonia Preite

The "Istituto" is a state school and includes a nursery school, an elementary school and a middle school. The first is attended by children from three to five. The second is attended by pupils from six to eleven years of age. The latter is attended by boys and girls from eleven to fourteen. Elementary and middle schools are compulsory in Italy.

The nursery school is located in Via Pertini. Children attending this kind of school have lessons from 8.00 to 16.00. They have lunch in the school canteen.

The elementary school and the middle school seat in Via Apulia where there are also the headteacher's and the secretary's offices. In the elementary school lessons start at 8.30 a.m. and finish at 1.00 p.m.. Once a week all the pupils in our elementary school attend lessons in the afternoon from 15.00 o’ clock to 18.00 o’ clock.

Lessons at the middle school begin at 8.30. We have periods of 60 minutes and we finish at 1.30 p.m. We attend school from Monday to Saturday for 9 months (a total of 204 days per year). In the timetable we have an afternoon at school from 15.00 to 17.00 but sometimes we have more activities so it happens that we are at school two or three afternoons a week. In elemetary and middle school children have their lunch at home because there is no canteen for them.

In Italy the school year starts in September and finishes in June.

Our regular class subjects are Italian, Foreign Languages (English, French, German), History, Geography, Mathematics, Science, Technology, Art, Music, Physical Education, Religious Education. Activities after lessons include: drama laboratory, journalism and computer work. Pupils can also play a variety of different sports including soccer, basketball volleyball and handball.

Our school has a library, a hall, a staff room, a headteacher's room, a gym, a science laboratory, a language laboratory and two computer laboratories.

On the whole Istituto Comprensivo Polo 1 caters for 662 pupils and 74 teachers.

Since most students live close enough to school they walk, ride a bike, or get driven to school. Only few kids come to school by school-bus.

Through our weekly school newsletter, "Notiziario", school website and many committees and meetings, Polo 1 parents are kept well informed of the many opportunities available to support all students. Communicating our curriculum standards and expectations through parent conferences, and parent information evenings, is an important aspect of the Polo 1 community of learners.

We are entering a new era in the life of Istituto Comprensivo Polo 1 where we aim to provide a happy, stimulating, safe and secure environment for all our children, an environment in which they will develop into independent and life-long learners. Since the merger of the former nursery, elementary and junior schools on 1st September 2001, we have worked hard to develop a new ethos and culture, based on the well established foundations of the previous schools and are proud of our strong reputation for high standards, good discipline and quality education.

Pupils in our school are guaranteed the opportunity of a first-class education. Our school has been rated as one of the top schools in the Salentine area. In fact it has been recognized by some experts as one of the most innovative schools in our area integrating computer technology into daily classroom life. Pupils get a worldwide insight into the world of computers. Thanks to the latest hi-tech equipment they can now communicate on the Internet with schools in every part of the world. Mr Marsano said: "It widens their scope of understanding with other countries."

In the course of this school year each classroom in the school will be equiped with at least one Internet connected, networked computer and each floor will have a huge T.V. monitor hooked up to a computer capable of playing DVD's and other educational software.

The school has two computer labs which are fully multimedia capable and which contain machines capable of video and audio editing, MIDI composing, burning CD's, creating websites, etc.
Our computer labs consist of 24 student computers and a server. The server runs on Microsoft Windows 2000 server. The student computers run on Windows 2000. All computers are networked using the capabilities provided by this kind of operating system. All computers have TCP IP addresses. We have a direct line to our Internet provider, therefore we do not need to use the slower modems. Mr Marsano has assigned an e-mail address to each student and to each teacher. The e-mail is stored by our Internet provider on one of his computers. At the moment, the only students using these e-mail addresses are the ones in Mr Marsano's and Ms Calora's Internet class.

The school has invested heavily in trying to ensure that all our pupils have access to the most up-to-date hardware and software. Technology in all of its forms is changing our world. Students must become fluent users and creators of technology. They must use it fearlessly, question its use when needed, and think deeply about how it is changing our world for both positive and negative. As a department we continue to ensure that this equipment is utilised and that pupils leaving our school are equipped with the necessary skills to allow them use ICT effectively in their everyday lives.