IC "Giorgio Perlasca"
Istituto Comprensivo Statale “Giorgio Perlasca” is a Primary and Lower Secondary public school in Rome, whose pupils are aged between 6 and 13/14. It's situated in the suburb of Pietralata, one of Rome’s "borgate" developed after the ‘30s and originally hosting lower-class / low-income residents.
In recent years, also thanks to the improvement of infrastructures, the area is opening up to greater social diversity.
The pupils attending Perlasca belong to both working-class low-income families, and middle class families. Also, pupils from migrant families, mostly from Eastern Europe and South America, have more recently joined the school population. There are 8% special needs pupils integrated in ordinary classes, with the support of specially trained teachers. Most pupils attending the school follow the longest timetable available.The school’s educational project gives special emphasis to environmental issues and health education and favours cultural diversity and integration. Alongside the conventional curriculum, the implementation of cross-curricular and laboratory activities, as well as the participation in local, national and trans-national projects is the school’s main strategy to enhance student self esteem and motivation and tackle major challenges such as learning problems / dysfunctional families backgrounds/ risks of social exclusion and school failure. Thus, being part of this Comenius partnership is especially important to help pupils widen their often too narrow perspectives, perceive the deep links existing among different countries, and experience the meaning of European dimension through peer contact.