3rd Cycle

In the 3^rd Cycle confidence grows, choices and decisions start to be individual and a personality is developed, which needs to be moulded with skills and values.

The educational process is eminently pedagogical and social, and should be assumed by the entire educational community with a view to its ultimate success – training citizens with essential and structuring skills covering all aspects of human development. It is therefore the College’s duty to encourage educators to intervene successfully and to envisage the optimisation of the educational act on a path of change, personal fulfilment and competence.

Therefore, it is within the scope of the school’s autonomy that the curricular design emerges as a way of combining the available education offer possibilities with the needs observed. This institution offers a wide range of opportunities to diversify the educational offer and to bring it closer to the expectations of the community that seeks it.

The 3^rd Cycle is growing! After reaching ninth place in the ranking of the best schools in the country, it shows that the difference is in the people and in the objectives outlined over the years.

The College makes the most of the infrastructures it owns and strives, at the same time, to offer the difference to those who seek the best. The Information and Communication Technologies, the Curriculum Enrichment Activities, the diversification of projects and activities, favour the transdisciplinarity that is intended in this school context. The human dimension of work, education for citizenship and the appreciation of the Portuguese language and Mathematics are the constant concern of the teachers and co-workers of this school. The articulation of knowledge from the different curricular areas to build up projects, the acquisition of working and study methods, the development of civic awareness and the mastery of the mother tongue are skills that are constantly being improved and updated, and that will contribute to the formation of responsible, critical, involved and committed citizens.

These fundamental principles require the mobilisation of the whole College Community, including the Board, the Teachers, the Students, the Staff, the Parents and Guardians, as well as the surrounding Community. We all try to create situations that provide students with experiences that encourage their civic and socio-affective maturity, creating in them positive attitudes and habits of relating, cooperating and respecting others. The 3^rd Cycle is the ideal time to provide situations which lead students to reflect on and question their actions at a certain moment. The promotion of activities that allow the cultural development of the students and the implementation of teaching strategies leading to significant learning that value theory and practice are goals defined by the Class Councils and Disciplinary Groups.

All this arises year after year, and moment after moment. Every day new opportunities, challenges and problems arise. And all these need a firm and objective answer, creating in the student the security they do not yet possess. The 3^rd Cycle opens new horizons, creates new needs and breaks old taboos. We will continue to work to respond to the new challenges ahead and to an increasingly demanding and needy society.

The Educational Plan, in basic education, offers an academic basis, placing emphasis not only on the learning of the Portuguese Language and Mathematics, but also on English, Science, Information and Communication Technologies, Arts, physical and sporting activities and training for citizenship.