The primary purpose of the reception classroom within the Catalan education system is to provide immediate and appropriate support to newly arrived pupils, primarily to facilitate learning the Catalan language. Rosa Ruiz Borralleras, headteacher of Bellavista–Joan Camps i Giró School and Eulàlia Álvarez Garcia, reception classroom tutor, emphasised that this is an additional, and therefore temporary, measure, despite its importance and necessity in schools. The reception classroom is conceived as an open working environment integrated within the school to ensure the gradual incorporation of pupils into mainstream classes, with particular attention to the emotional aspects of the reception process.

The lecture by Eulàlia Álvarez and Rosa Ruiz formed part of the subject Language and Literature Teaching, taught in the first year of the Primary Education degree by lecturers Maria Pujol and Carla Vidal. Language immersion and multilingualism are key topics in the syllabus, and the Faculty invited the speakers to share their real-life experience with students.

“Following the inclusive school model, our school opts not to assign a single physical space as the reception classroom: pupils are primarily supported in mainstream classrooms. It is therefore ‘a shared responsibility of the entire teaching staff to ensure its proper functioning’,” the teachers stressed. At Bellavista–Joan Camps i Giró School, Eulàlia Álvarez is the designated tutor for the reception classroom, but the management team works to raise awareness among all teaching staff, as “one person cannot reach all pupils,” they explained.

A highly complex school

Bellavista–Joan Camps i Giró School in Les Franqueses del Vallès is officially classified as high complexity and has a high percentage of pupils with additional educational needs. Around 70% of the children, or their families, are of foreign origin, although most hold Spanish nationality. Despite efforts to apply the Department’s Admissions Decree, the reality is that Les Franqueses has significant territorial segregation, which concentrates the migrant population in the Bellavista area. The municipality currently has five nursery and primary schools.

The teachers acknowledge that it is not always possible for pupils at the school, especially those newly arrived, to communicate in Catalan throughout the day. “We notice that they speak Spanish among themselves, for example during break time, even though they may understand Catalan. Most families do not speak it either. A common situation is that both parents attend the school enrolment, but afterwards only the mother takes responsibility for the children’s schooling and attends meetings,” they said. “It is difficult for families to engage with the school when they do not speak the language; we often communicate through a friend of theirs, or with the help of the child, who translates what we say to the mother, or via a translation service,” the teachers explained. In 2022, 32 different languages were spoken at the school. “Many different dialects coexist depending on their region of origin,” they noted.

The reception classroom also supports pupils in the area of emotional education. “We encounter pupils who have not had breakfast, have slept very little, or have no parental supervision, which makes it difficult for them to pay attention, concentrate, and feel motivated to learn,” the teachers explained. The reception classroom must promote an open admission process, at any point during the school year, that is flexible, tailored to individual needs and dynamic, as part of the school’s pedagogical approach.

Reviewing assessment models

The professionals stressed that the assessment models of the Department of Education and Vocational Training should be reviewed. “They are useful tools that often allow us to compile statistics, but they were designed some time ago and need updating to better reflect the current reality of classrooms,” they highlighted. Despite the challenges faced by teachers today, they insisted that families “greatly value” the work carried out by schools. “Our families are very appreciative and deeply value the education their children receive, as it offers them opportunities that they themselves may never have had.”

The school’s educational project views multiculturalism as an opportunity and addresses diversity to guarantee equal opportunities for pupils and prevent any form of marginalisation or exclusion.