The first day of classes at the "Colégio de Benguela" was on the 16th of February of 2013. On this year, the "Colégio" opened with just 50 students and 75 employees. Taught 12 levels from pre-school to 9th grade. It was a beautiful day full of hope.

It's, to this date, the only A class private school in the province and one of the few in the country. The "Colégio de Benguela" is a private education institution that teaches the Angolan Curriculum. However, to furthermore prepare our nacional e internacional students to study abroad, our curriculum has been greatly enriched and deepened. Thus, students are provided and expected a broader knowledgement and mastery of the subjects that the national curriculum proposes.

The "Colégio" wants to have at its service only the best teachers, thus making our priority how good you are and not where you come from. If the "Colégio" finds itself not being able to hire teachers from Angola, it will look for them in other countries.

We're open from 7.30am to 5.30pm.

Outside of school time, a variety of activities are offered to the students. However, the "Colégio" doesn't consider these activities to be "extra-curricular". On the contrary, these activities are absolutely central to the pedagogical strategy of the "Colégio", because it's through them that we work and develop the main competences that are part of our Pedagogical Project. Outside of the class period, students are supported by the teachers in carrying out their practical work and research. They're encouraged to have a Reading Plan to develop skills related to language use, oral expression and creative writing. They develop a Calculation Plan that allows them to train and master techniques of mental calculation. They attend research and discussion clubs related to "Big Questions", where they develop important personal and social skills, forming and issuing opinions based on the most diverse issues of the present time. They theatre occupying positions of Direction of Actors, Scenographers, Actors, Wardrobe or Writers. They also practice various sports in an organized and competitive way.

No. They're neither paid nor obligatory. It's up to the student to realize their importance and to actively attend to them.

The "Colégio" has a cafeteria and a bar where students can get their meals. It is not obligatory that they do it inside. There's a stationery store where students can order and/or buy their books and other school supplies. We have an infirmary with an experienced full-time professional and a special education department, with a psychologist and a specialized teacher to support the students with higher difficulties.

Yes, but only for students of Lobito and dependent on vacancies available.

The "Colégio de Benguela" Tuition Fees are annual. However, to make life easier for the families, the "Colégio" can negotiate and accept other types of payment modalities, ranging from payment's in 3, 10 or 12 parcels. There are three different levels of tuition: Preschool, Elementary and Secondary Education.

"Todos os caminhos vão dar a Roma" (Portuguese proverb, direct translation: "All paths lead to Rome") is an old saying. But if when we ask how one goes to Rome, each person points us to a different direction we'll end up confused. When it comes to education, there are usually several ways and strategies to achieve a particular purpose. It's important that in these situations, the path pointed out by one teacher is the same as the one pointed out by others, resulting in everyone following the same path the same way.

Not directly. None of the methodologies and strategies developed with and for the students are new and all have been extensively tested and measured in very diverse cultural and diverse educational backgrounds in the past. But the way they integrate, compensate and balance each other, how they fit into the "Colégio's" Pedagogical Project and some of the specific tools such as the Guides and the Forms of Formative Assessment, can be considered original and specific to the Method.

Collaborative Learning, Classroom Inversion, Problem-Based Learning, Mental Maps, Gamification and Formative Assessment. This last one may seem strange, inserted in the group of methodologies, but the evaluation, as the Method understands it, is a pedagogic tool as or more important than the others.

Develop the autonomy of your students. Autonomy understood as a broad sense, ranging from the ability to organize, define objectives, self-evaluate, self-regulate and, most important, to learn by their own means.

Because it's in an absolute undeniable way the basis of everything! An healthy self-esteem is like "nadar a favor da corrente" (Portuguese proverb, direct translation: "going/swimming with the tide"). Without realizing it, with a high self-esteem we go faster and further without even realizing it.

By supporting the families by alerting them to their importance in the process and developing strategies in school that contribute to small and big daily victories for the students, making sure we recognize and promote these achievements in a personal and public way. Collaborative Learning, Gamification, expressions such as theater and creative writing and sports, are a part of this strategy to work and develop the students' own social and expression skills. However, it is the Formative Assessment that fulfills and leverages, definitely, the healthy development of students' self-esteem.

The greater the diversity the greater the number and quality of skills developed by the students. Written tests by themselves are a poor means of evaluation, since they focus only on the knowledge acquired in the past. Now, the multimedia tasks, the classes taught by the students themselves, the well-oriented group works, jigsaws, workshops and many others strategies, in addition to giving the teacher a deeper knowledge of the students, they give them the opportunity to grow in other fields by "forcing them" to express themselves through various means and forms. Such developed abilities will remain with them long after the knowledge has faded.