ESCOLA SECUNDÁRIA JOSÉ SARAMAGO – MAFRA

The “Escola Secundária José Saramago – Mafra” is located in Mafra, a municipality 40 km from Portugal’s Capital, Lisbon, where prevailing business-related services and commercial units are evidence of an increase in tertiary services. There’s been a considerable growth in terms of educational, social, cultural and environmental achievements, infrastructures and tourism.
Although the situation doesn’t change much, for the 2021/2022 School Year:
There are 203 teachers and 72 non-teaching staff that includes 3 school psychologists. Being the only public secondary school in the Municipality of Mafra, all efforts are made to meet the expectations of its educational community by providing different learning modalities to both youth and adults. 1649 students (age group 15-19), including those with special needs, attend day classes (a full-time education), in 2 different streams of secondary education, namely:
i) courses, with 1226 students, in the fields of Science and Technology; Languages and Humanities; Socio-Economic Sciences, and Visual Arts;
ii) 8 professional courses in the scope of technicians (423 students) in Pharmacy, Health Services, Sports, Management, Computer Programming, Multimedia, Restaurant & Bar and Tourism. In adult education and training, consisting of 313 students, we maintain a diverse offer promoting an increase in the educational level and the inclusion of the population in different contexts.
Our school is provided with modern and well-equipped spaces used not only for practical lessons, but also for different extracurricular activities, namely in Science (Biology, Chemistry, Geology, Physics) and Photography laboratories, specific classrooms for Visual Arts and ITC, auditoriums and others, besides support facilities such as the School Library, integrated in the Municipal and National Library Network and services related to Psychology and Career Guidance and to Special Needs Education. There are several national and international projects in the field of science and humanities that transversally contribute to the achievement of goals established in both the School’s Education Project and the Municipal Education Project. Furthermore, the school has been investing in promoting environmental values for several years and is therefore recognized as an Eco-School. From a previous project, there is a weather station installed in the school garden. Teaching staff has been involved in lifelong learning and education projects such as Comenius and Erasmus+ and some teachers have developed valuable eTwinning Projects. Therefore, Project-based Learning regarding Environmental issues at a local, national and global scale and working with partners of different cultural heritages and values will contribute to enhance teaching and learning skills at a European level.