When I got my acceptance to Galicia, they told me I would be teaching at IES Rosais 2. I had no idea what that even meant, younger kids, older kids--I had no clue. Other people had been posting on facebook that they got CEIP. Was IES an elementary school, middle school, or high school? I prayed that it would be the younger crowd, but I came to find that I was very wrong.
So IES stands for Instituto de Educación Secundaria and consists of compulsory secondary education or ESO (Educación Secundario Obligatoria) and non compulsory upper-secondary education or BACH (Bachillerato). ESO is like the equivalent to our middle school of 11-15 years old age group while the BAC is their high school of 16-18 year olds. 1st ESO is the youngest class of 11-12 years old so that would be like 6th grade while 2nd ESO would be the next age up or 7th grade. Each grade, like the U.S is split into more than one class. 1st BACH, for example, is the 15-16 year olds and they are split into 4 classes, 1st BACH A, B, C, and D. When you enter BACH, a teacher told me you have two paths you can take--one more humanities focused and the other more scientific heavy. She said this was helpful in guiding kids towards what they were interested in and what they could then take up as their studies when they went to a university. At my school, 4 of the classes I'm teaching will be the bilingual section meaning they are learning another subject in English. So other than teaching English, I will also be teaching History, P.E, and Information Technology in English. Another difference between Spanish and U.S schools is that the former is graded on marks, a number scale, while the latter uses letter grades. 5 is passing so I'm going to assume that would be the equivalent of a C while 10 is acing it. You refer to students 6-16 years old as attending colegio while the 16-18 years old go to an Instituto.
Hope this all makes sense!
Yours truly,
TLT
So IES stands for Instituto de Educación Secundaria and consists of compulsory secondary education or ESO (Educación Secundario Obligatoria) and non compulsory upper-secondary education or BACH (Bachillerato). ESO is like the equivalent to our middle school of 11-15 years old age group while the BAC is their high school of 16-18 year olds. 1st ESO is the youngest class of 11-12 years old so that would be like 6th grade while 2nd ESO would be the next age up or 7th grade. Each grade, like the U.S is split into more than one class. 1st BACH, for example, is the 15-16 year olds and they are split into 4 classes, 1st BACH A, B, C, and D. When you enter BACH, a teacher told me you have two paths you can take--one more humanities focused and the other more scientific heavy. She said this was helpful in guiding kids towards what they were interested in and what they could then take up as their studies when they went to a university. At my school, 4 of the classes I'm teaching will be the bilingual section meaning they are learning another subject in English. So other than teaching English, I will also be teaching History, P.E, and Information Technology in English. Another difference between Spanish and U.S schools is that the former is graded on marks, a number scale, while the latter uses letter grades. 5 is passing so I'm going to assume that would be the equivalent of a C while 10 is acing it. You refer to students 6-16 years old as attending colegio while the 16-18 years old go to an Instituto.
Hope this all makes sense!
Yours truly,
TLT