History

“A long, long time ago…” or “Once upon a time…” thus begin many of the tales we tell children. Thus begin many legends that narrate important and significant events we wish to remember. And thus begins the small yet great history of IPSI School, in 1961, in the premises of the Parish of Saint Isidore, on the left side of Barcelona’s Eixample district.

The history of the School is inextricably linked, as it could not be otherwise, to the evolution of our society over the last fifty years.

Let us place ourselves at the turn of the 1960s, a decidedly grey moment of recent times. A time of cultural repression, educational homogenisation, and social disenchantment. From this backdrop, small, or not so small, initiatives of what was the genuine civil society started to emerge; of people who organised themselves for interests that went beyond their own, that transcended and aimed to gradually improve and bring colour to that black-and-white Catalonia that was awakening and navigating between the idealised memories of the already old republican new school, its drive, its renewal, its pedagogy, and the traditional school, “the principles of the movement” or the “Formation of the National Spirit”.

And among all this greyness, some young educators, nonconformists, with a clear understanding of the real needs of their environment, embarked on the adventure of creating a school. And they did it, as these things are always done, without thinking too much about resources, spaces or administrative difficulties. With knowledge, but above all with enthusiasm, overcoming one by one the difficulties of a system that was suspicious of any initiative that might destabilise a balance as fragile as any that is the result of repression and imposition.

A reference to the educational project inevitably brings us closer to what is essential to the nature and character of IPSI School. It is, without a doubt, what most seduces about the legacy of its trajectory. Projects are made by the people who sustain them. They are made from each and every one of the unique projects that have imperceptibly joined it throughout its history. Projects that, led by the firmest conviction in effort, a true Catalan essence, and inclusive humanism, by a true teacher and educator, Mr Antoni Amorós, and all the team that accompanied him, have been interweaving and shaping its own character. In the history and evolution of the School, the love for nature, the importance of music and any other artistic expression, the value of sport, the spirit of self-improvement and discipline, as well as the culture of our country, through, among others, the day of the Festa Major, Saint George (St Jordi), the Floral Games (Jocs Florals) and the literary production that is implicit, through the school library, which has always been a cornerstone of the school’s cultural project, among many other things, have undoubtedly consolidated as a project.

We are looking at what is a Catalan, secular, quality school, like many others that make up the current community of our country and which were born, more or less, half a century ago. Catalonia has always enjoyed a tradition in the creation of innovative educational projects. Centres that today are part of the network of schools of the Educational Service, state-funded, with a will to serve the community without renouncing their own character, their personality, and their identifying features.

Because being a quality school is not easy, it means always being attentive to significant novelties and not just trends, it means keeping things that may seem obvious under question, it means having a nonconformist character, it means permanently having and revising a demanding and feasible educational project, it means above all, all members of the educational community working very hard and well. And being a Catalan school has neither been nor is easy. Maintaining fidelity to a culture, to an identity, during the era of the dictatorship, can only be understood by the stubbornness and conviction of those who had the courage to go against the tide, knowing they were the only guarantee of survival. A resurgence to which those of us who inherit the legacy owe it to our predecessors to continue.

This project, however, has been built, as we have said, from pedagogy, methodologies, proposals that have enriched it and, without losing its character, have updated it and placed it in a privileged position both in academic results and in the degree of satisfaction of its users, the boys and girls, and above all, their families, without whom we would not be here.