Parsifal Middle School

The Parsifal Middle School is a non-state, parochial middle school. There are normally two sections for each class. The teaching staff consists of personnel who meet the requirements of cantonal regulations. The programs, admission and certification criteria, compulsoriness, school calendar, weekly and daily schedule are in accordance with the regulations in force in cantonal middle schools. The school is equipped with a cafeteria and offers a guided study service that can be enrolled in one or more days a week. From the sixth grade, it is possible to take an extra-curricular English course.

The Parsifal Middle School aims to be a place of life where the child can perceive himself as welcomed and valued as he is. The task of the school, together with the family, is to educate for responsibility and increasingly challenging school work in a way that solicits everyone's freedom. What is learned with effort and gusto, along with what happens in school and outside, is judged by seeking comparison with personal experience pooled with teachers and classmates. Students, teachers and parents participate together, each with their own responsibilities and tasks, in school life. Special attention is paid to the needs of the children.

As a method of teaching, observation by children and the development of their independent reasoning are encouraged, and the growth of their creativity and expressive ability is fostered. Thus, for example, in teaching Italian grammar, the morphosyntax method is used. This methodology guides students to reflect on language through the observation of linguistic structures in texts, in such a way as to prepare them not only for the study of their own, but also of other foreign languages. In this way, children are gradually educated to reason about language structures and functions.

Among the teaching subjects, an interdisciplinary approach is preferred. In particular, we point out the Musical experience that is offered every year by the fourth grade. For the second part of the school year, teachers of visual arts and music education collaborate in the artistic production of a play staged at the end of the year for an audience of parents and friends. The creation of scenery and costumes, such as song production and acting, is done entirely by the children under the guidance of the teachers.

There is active collaboration among teachers of the same subject, which is expressed in joint planning work. In so-called subject groups, there is an active discussion of teaching, curricular differentiation, and results, which leads, for example, to the simultaneous administration of the same tests in the same classes of different sections. Some subjects or topics are taught in co-teaching. We also point out the present collaboration with the elementary school The Little Prince, an example of which is the work of comparison and verification with respect to the teaching of French language and Italian grammar. This collaboration, in addition to achieving specific educational objectives, underscores the unity of purpose and vision of the educating community.

In addition to the traditional orientation activities, during the second cycle of middle school, a number of meetings with guests close to them are offered to children during class time to discover various possible paths. Former students, college students or apprentices, tell about their experience from the choice they made after the fourth grade. In addition, for a number of years Parsifal Middle School has been a member of the Lift project, which, thanks to the implementation of weekly internships and the support offered by the coaching of tutor teachers, encourages an early entry into the world of work.