A diverse school improving the community around it
The Giner de los Ríos school is not just any school. ‘Our educational project revolves not only around teaching, not only so that our students are looked after, cared for and get a good education, but we also want the school to have an impact on the community,’ says Elvira. In her classrooms there are children with different abilities, nationalities, gender identities, religions and many other traits: ‘We are fortunate to have a very diverse student body’.
For this school, inclusion is a priority, so they work closely with associations for people with Down's syndrome, Alzheimer's, autism spectrum disorders and other groups that help them to address this diversity and show it to their students.
‘Life is diverse, people are diverse and we believe that school has to be a reflection of society,’
Elvira Bravo Principal of Giner School
To reinforce this positive impact on the community, the school participates in several projects with other schools to work on specific topics. It is currently involved in four school clusters: one on emotional intelligence, one on cooperation, one on entrepreneurial schools and one on mental health. Each teacher participates in one of them, which involves working with associations and organisations that come to their classrooms for different activities. ‘Our school is very open, and lots of people come in to contribute with other perspectives,’ explains Elvira.
Clean energy from the rooftop
As part of this positive impact on the community, the Giner de los Ríos school especially believes in protecting the environment. It has projects related to recycling and the reuse of plastics and obsolete technological material, but they are especially proud of the 241 solar panels on the roof of the building. The idea came from the students themselves years ago. In the fourth year of middle school, the students have to do a research project where they try to solve a problem in their community. In 2009, three of them suggested taking advantage of the school's roof, which was underused, to install solar panels.
One of the authors of that paper, then a secondary school pupil and now a mathematics teacher at another school, explains 15 years later: ‘We had to do a group project where we had to analyse various things and what we came up with – because at that time solar panels were just starting to be used – was to calculate whether it would be profitable to install them at a secondary school’, says Pedro Daniel Pajares Galeano. He recalls that it involved a lot of work:
‘We had to take measurements, analyse invoices, even recreate the whole school building with a computer. In the end we handed in a pretty solid project. We learned a lot’.
Pedro Daniel Pajares, former secondary school pupil
What was initially just a classroom project remained an idea that, although not implemented at the time because the technology was still expensive and difficult to apply in that setting, was never completely abandoned. The school asked on several occasions if it would be possible to implement it, until Iberdrola España proposed installing the first solar community in Extremadura, from which not only the school but the whole neighbourhood would benefit. ‘We thought it was a perfect fit for our school, which is a cooperative and we aim to provide more than just education to our community. We got down to work and it was very easy; it was up and running in no time at all’, says Elvira.
Since it was commissioned in 2022, much of the electricity consumed by the building is generated cleanly on its own roof. This considerably reduces the electricity bill, which is important for a school that is open from 7:30 in the morning to 10 at night, is constantly bustling and as such uses a of power. But it also helps cut back on polluting emissions, which is important for this school where environmental awareness is a priority.
Solar panels that drive education
For Elvira, the solar community fulfils several educational functions. On the one hand, it allows them to ‘teach by example’.
‘There is a concern for the environment that we try to transmit, but we also do things as a school to improve it, to reduce our carbon footprint or to participate in the necessary energy transition’.
On the other hand, it helps them to teach about energy, adapted to each educational level, based on curiosity about what they have on their own roof, since it’s not the same ‘to imagine what solar panels look like as it is to walk among them and see the installation itself’, explains Elvira. Even the younger children are so used to the fact that the building's light comes from the panels on their roof that when a lightbulb’s fuse blows, they ask: ‘Have any of the panels gone out?
0 1 , 0 1 2 kWh on average a solar panel produces in a day.
The solar community helps them to raise awareness among their pupils. This is obvious in the case of Nadia XXXX, a sixth year primary school pupil who, at the age of 12, has a clear environmental awareness: ‘I think the environment is important because we are the ones who are messing it up without wanting to. In 2030, there may be more plastic than fish in the sea. We have to stop pollution and try to do everything we can’. That's why she likes having renewable energy in her school:
‘Being able to say “I have solar panels”' makes me happy because I'm helping to make the world a better place’.
That's why she likes having renewable energy in her school: ‘Being able to say “I have solar panels”' makes me happy because I'm helping to make the world a better place’.
Nadia Holguín, School pupil
The same is true in the secondary school. Bosco XXXX, a 16-year-old student at Giner de los Ríos, shares Nadia’s opinion that we need to act: ‘If we don't take care of the environment, if we don't do our bit to change global pollution, if we don't clean our oceans, we’ll end up destroying ourselves, but if everyone does their bit, we’ll have a ton of solidarity that will help clean up the ecosystem and prevent us from destroying ourselves’. In his case, the rooftop installation was a determining factor in his choice to study here:
‘The reason I wanted to come to this school was because of the solar panels. I was very interested in the solar community and the fact that they produce their own energy and I found it really refreshing’.
Savings for families in the neighbourhood
Javier XXXX, a teacher at the school and a neighbour, confirms the positive reception the solar community is having. His household is one of those using the energy produced at the school. ‘Our electric bill is lower, so it’s not surprising the neighbourhood is happy. Anything that saves a little bit’s better for everyone,’ he says. He also believes that families who bring their children to Giner de los Ríos ‘get a lot more’ from a school that ‘cares about the environment’.
155 residents receive energy from the Giner de los Ríos panels, which reduces their electricity bills: ‘The families who have been able to enter the community are happy’.
Elvira Bravo Principal of Giner school
In addition to households, there are also local businesses that participate in the solar community. This is the case of the Underground hairdressing salon. Its manager, Saúl XXXX, says that they learned about the initiative from a teacher at the school, who is a customer and friend. ‘We were definitely interested and wanted to get involved in the solar energy circle’, he explains. He notes that they notice ‘an average of between 20 and 25 euros’ savings on their bill each month and that the families he has talked to about it ‘are very happy’.
Giner de los Ríos was a pioneer in developing this initiative, but many other schools have followed suit. ‘Often you hear about stuff and on paper you don't know how good or bad it is, but seeing an example of a community that’s working, where everyone’s good, people are happy and there have been no setbacks, well, that motivates people to do the same’, explains Elvira. In addition to being at the head of this school, she runs a federation of schools in Extremadura, which has helped her to encourage some of them to replicate the project.
Giner de los Ríos was a pioneer in developing this initiative, but many other schools have followed suit. ‘Often you hear about stuff and on paper you don't know how good or bad it is, but seeing an example of a community that’s working, where everyone’s good, people are happy and there have been no setbacks, well, that motivates people to do the same’, explains Elvira. In addition to being at the head of this school, she runs a federation of schools in Extremadura, which has helped her to encourage some of them to replicate the project.
Elvira is not the kind of person who just teaches her classes and goes home.
‘It’s very hard to see education as a normal job. It involves not only work at home, which there is a lot of, but also a lot of thinking and sleepless nights worrying about how your students will do’ she admits.
But Giner de los Ríos is also a school where there are activities at all hours for the whole educational community and she herself participates as part of that community. ‘It’s a very lively school and, for those of us who work here, it’s a little piece of our lives. In my case, I'm in a theatre group, a Latin dance group and a ballroom dance group’, says the teacher, so when she finishes work she’s still ‘at school but enjoying it in a different way’.
‘It's a community where you live not only the work part, but also the leisure part, and that’s something very significant at our school,’ says Elvira. For someone with such close ties to her workplace, the achievements at Giner de los Ríos are more than just job satisfaction:
‘All the good things that can happen at the school I experience very deeply. And when there are decisions, like this one by the solar community, that result in something positive, in addition to enjoying it as a consumer, you have that little personal satisfaction of having contributed with an idea, a project or a vision to improve something that’s important to me like this school is, which is part of my life’.
