ISTITUTO SUPERIORE R.D’ALTAVILLA-V.ACCARDI, MAZARA DEL VALLO, ITALY

Website: www.isissdaltavilla.it

“R. D’altavilla V. Accardi” is a Technical Industrial Secondary School. It represents different fields of industry: “Mechanics, Mechatronics and Energy”, “Electronics, Electrotechnics and Automation”, “Chemistry, Materials and Biotechnology”, “Transports and logistics”. We offer Adult classes in the evening in the same fields. All classes study English as a foreign language.

Mazara del Vallo, located on the western Mediterranean coast of Sicily, is a “frontier town”, with an economy essentially based on the presence of a numerous fleet of fishing-boat and a considerable fishing production. This makes the town one of the most representative Italian centre for deep-sea fishing as well as a multiethnic pole where different people and cultures – mainly coming from North Africa – were able to find the way, unfortunately not always taken for granted, of the peaceful cohabitation.The significant presence of students from different nationalities makes our school to deal with often unexpected issues: immigrant students’ unique socio-emotional needs, community conflict, a wider range of skills in English, lack of a common language for communication with parents, and more.

These are the challenges that teachers face in our school and that we want to solve by rethinking classroom strategies, family engagement practices, and how to best navigate cultural divides. The school is investing in innovative education methods, focusing on quality teaching and lifelong learning. The school is very well resourced with facilities that provide students with a high quality learning environment. It is located in a spacious, well-maintained 3 floors building divided in three blocks. The school is also certified with quality system certification by the IQNET International Certification Network Certificate for the following field of activities: Design and Provision of Educational and Training Services in Technical Industrial and Professional High School for Maritime Activities.