LICEO SCIENTIFICO STATALE“Teresa Gullace Talotta”

Rome

Author: Maria Grazia Maglione

GENERAL INFORMATION

‘Teresa Gullace Talotta’ is a secondary school specialised in scientific studies, located south of Rome, in the area of Cinecittà, near the famous studios. It was opened in 1979 under the name of “32° Liceo Scientifico” and in 1981 was named “Teresa Gullace Talotta” after the heroine of Roman Resistance.Teresa was a brave woman, mother of five children and expecting the sixth one, shot by a Nazi soldier during the occupation of Rome in 1944 while she was trying to speak to her husband, prisoner in a barrack in the city centre.The famous film director Roberto Rossellini drew inspiration from Teresa Gullace for the well-known character of “Sora Pina” interpreted by Anna Magnani in “Roma Città Aperta”.

SCHOOL LOCATION

At present, the school is housed in two different buildings, one located in Piazza Cavalieri del Lavoro, 18 near viale Palmiro Togliatti and the other one in via Solmi, 27, at a short distance.Both sites can be easily reached by underground (see M on the map) and buses (559, 557, 451, 657, 502).

The main buildingThe annex building

PRESENT ENROLMENT AND CATCHMENT AREA

Its present enrolment is about 1,000 students, boys and girls, aged 14-18, coming above all from the densely populated districts of Cinecittà Est and via Tuscolana but also from other suburban areas south of Rome.

FACILITIES

Each building is equipped with the following facilities:

- Multimedia Lab- Physics Lab- Science Lab- Art Lab- Video Lab- Library- Great Hall

COURSES OF STUDY

The Liceo offers three kinds of courses of study:

- TRADITIONAL COURSE in which literary (emphasis on Italian and Latin) and scientific subjects are well balanced

- BILINGUAL COURSE (experimental) in which students can go on studying two foreign languages (English and French)

- NITP COURSE (experimental) (National Information Technology Plan) including scientific subjects such as Maths, Physics, Natural Science and Chemistry)

TIMETABLE FOR TRADITIONAL COURSE

Subject 1st year

2nd year

3rd year

4th year

5th year

Humanities 4 4 4 3 4

Latin 4 5 4 4 3

English 3 4 3 3 4

History 3 2 2 2 3

Philosophy 2 3 3

Geography 2

Science 2 3 3 2

Physics 2 3 3

Mathematics 5 4 3 3 3

Art 2 2 2 2 2

P.E. 2 2 2 2 2

Religion (optional) 1 1 1 1 1

Tot. hours per week 26 26 28 29 30

TIMETABLE FOR BILINGUAL COURSE

Subject 1st year

2nd year

3rd year

4th year

5th year

Humanities 4 4 4 3 4

Latin 4 5 4 4 3

English 3 3 3 3 3

French 4 4 3 3 3

History 3 2 2 2 3

Philosophy 2 3 3

Geography 2

Science 2 3 3 2

Physics 2 3 3

Mathematics 5 4 3 3 3

Art 2 2 2 2 2

P.E. 2 2 2 2 2

Religion (optional) 1 1 1 1 1

Tot. hours per week 30 29 31 32 32

TIMETABLE FOR NITP COURSE

Subject 1st year

2nd year

3rd year

4th year

5th year

Humanities 4 4 4 3 4

Latin 4 5 4 4 3

English 3 4 3 3 4

History 3 2 2 2 3

Philosophy 2 3 3

Geography 2

Science 2 3 3 2

Physics 3 3 3 3 3

Mathematics 5 5 5 5 5

Art 2 2 2 2 2

P.E. 2 2 2 2 2

Religion (optional) 1 1 1 1 1

Tot. hours per week 29 30 31 31 32

STREAMS

There are 46 classes, 26 are located in the main building and 20 in the annex.

There are streams from letter A to N.

8 streams (A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H) are complete (with five classes each).

The others are incomplete (I, M, N).

There are only two NITP courses (B, F) and one bilingual course (E), the others are traditional.

ORGANISATION OF THE SCHOOL YEAR

The school can decide how the school year will be organised.

The school year consists of a minimum of 200 school days and generally starts in the mid of September and finishes in the mid of June.

The school year is divided in two terms, the former from September to January, the latter form February to June.

A six-day week from Monday to Saturday is applied.

The school timetable does not change during the year.

The school-leaving exam takes place in June and July and is run by a board of school teachers (3) and teachers from other schools (4).

ORGANISATION OF SCHOOL TIME

Classes begin at 8.30 a.m.

Classes may finish at 12.30 p.m, 13.30 p.m. or 14.30 (students of bilingual and NITP courses have six classes once or twice a week).

In the morning there is a break from 11.20 to 11.40.

Each class lasts 60 minutes.

The main building is open for extra-curricular activities at least four afternoons a week (in particular for remedial or reinforcement courses, language perfection courses (Spanish, Chinese ESOL certifications), theatre lab and other school projects.

SCHOOL ORGANISATION

The Principal Mr. Paolo Massa

Teaching staff Assistant PrincipalPrincipal’s staff

F.S.P.O.F. (teachers with special functions chosen by the teaching body on the basis of their competences

Teachers in charge of Departments (Humanities, Scientific Subjects, Foreign Languages, etc.)

Teachers in charge of laboratories

Class coordinators

SCHOOL ORGANISATION

Non-teaching staff

General Manager of the Administrative Services

Administration Staff

Technical Staff

School caretakers

SCHOOL ORGANISATION

Collective Bodies Class Committee (Consiglio di classe)Made up of all the class teaching staff, two representatives of the parents and two representatives of the students; it has a didactic role and makes decisions about the teaching activity, the school trips and the didactic visits.

Teaching Body (Collegio dei Docenti)Made up of all the school teachers, it has a deliberative function for didactic matters, in particular it works out the School Education Project (the so called POF).

Committes (Commissioni)Made up of teachers whose function is to help run the school (for ex. the Orientation Committee, the POF Committee, the School Trips Committee, etc)

SCHOOL ORGANISATION

Collective Bodies

School Council (Consiglio di Istituto)Elected every three years, made up of 19 members: the Principal, 8 teachers, 2 non-teaching staff’s representatives, 4 representatives for parents and 4 representatives for students, It is the decision-making body about the general management of the school (POF, school regulations, educational aids purchasing, scheduling of remedial courses, school trips, cultural exchanges)

Students’ Committee (Comitato Studentesco)To help communication between students and their representatives in the school council

Parents’ Committee (Comitato dei genitori)To help parental involvement in school life

ABOUT TEACHERSTeachers have 18 classes per week, except Science teachers that have 20 classes per week.

They have to take part in Teaching Body Assemblies, Class Committees, Departments meetings.

Twice a year there are afternoon teachers-parents meetings to get information about the students’ performances and establish a collaborative relationship between the school and the students’ families.

Twice a month teachers have to dedicate an extra-hour to meet the students’ parents also in the morning.

At the beginning of the school year teachers have to prepare the educational programming for each class on the basis of the criteria established by their Department.

They also have to fill in intermediate reports ‘pagellini’ in the first and second term.

At the end of the school year they have to prepare final reports and programmes for each class.

THE MISSION STATEMENT (POF)

The School Education Project (POF) is a very important document describing the school identity and providing information on the general objectives and principles of its educational plan.

The liceo mission is to provide its students a modern, multicultural, challenging education in order to develop their personality, abilities and attitudes.

As a science school, special emphasis is given to the scientific method, at the core of the teaching process.

In particular, our school promotes liberty of teaching, collegiality, sharing of choices, respect for diversity, education to legality, receptiveness/openness to the terrritory.

EDUCATION OBJECTIVES

Our Liceo uses a teaching/learning process based on the four cultural axes so that students can acquire the Lisbon eight key competences for active citizenship:

1. Learning to learn2. Planning and managing projects3. Communicating4. Collaborating and participating5. Acting autonomously and responsibly6. Problem solving7. Identifying links and relations8. Acquiring and interpreting information

These key competences are all interdependent, and the emphasis in each case is on critical thinking, creativity, initiative, problem solving, risk assessment, decision taking, and constructive management of feelings.

SCIENCE CURRICULUM

2nd year Basic Chemistry: the various aspects of the cell

3rd year Mendel’s Laws, from Mendel’s genetics to modern geneticsBiotechnologyEvolution and classification of organismsAnatomy: main systems of human bodySex Education

4th year General and Inorganic Chemistry

5th year Earth Sciences: Astronomy, GeologyPalaeontology

PHYSICS CURRICULUM TRADITIONAL COURSE

3rd year Mechanics, uniform rectilinear motionThe Principle of InertiaWork and Power, EnergyPressure in fluids, Pascal’s and Archimede’s Principles

4th year Thermology, perfect gas characteristic equation, absolute temperature, changes of stateFirst and second principle of ThermodynamicsAcoustics, sound vibrations and their propagation, speed of soundOptics, light and its propagation, reflection and refraction

5th year Electricity and Magnetism, Coulomb’s Law, conductors and insulators, condensers, magnet, compassElectric currentMagnetic field produced by currentElectromagnetic induction, electromagnetic waves

PHYSICS CURRICULUM NIPT COURSE

Biennio1st-2nd year

Equilibrium and stationary processesMotionEnergyLight Propagation

Triennio3rd-4th- 5th year

Forces and fieldsReference systems and relativityPrinciples of conservationReversible and Irreversible ProcessesMechanic and electromagnetic wavesThe structure of the matterThe Physical Universe

SCIENTIFIC SCHOOL PROJECTS

Maths M@tabelMaths Olympic GamesMaths KangourouPLS (Maths and Physics Labs)

Physics ‘La Bilancetta’ project (“The Little Balance”), a short treatise by Galileo where he presented his own theory based on Archimedes’ Law of the Lever and Law of Buoyancy. CLIL units/modules in some classes(Biomechanics project)

Science Year of AstronomyROADR project ‘In class with the telescope: let’s adopt a constellation’DVD about DarwinAlternative Energy SourcesLectures about Environmental Issues

THANKS FOR YOUR ATTENTION

Visit our website: www.liceo.gullace.it