Colegio Mas Camarena Reviews (6)
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Awful experience This is about the school's international IB programme delivered in English. The larger Spanish language section may be different. We started the 23/24 year in Mas Camarena but took our child out because the experience was just so bad, emotionally and academically. Too many of the teachers have a very poor level of English, lacking basic correct grammar (e.g. instructions saying 鈥榙oes the homework鈥 not 鈥榙o the鈥︹) or correct vocabulary (e.g. not knowing English place names in Geography and instead using the Spanish ones, such as writing 鈥楾erranova鈥 in place of 鈥楴ewfoundland鈥 etc.) for the subject they are teaching. So, the students are learning mistakes, from people teaching in a language they do not themselves speak, read or write correctly. Our child found many of them quite hard to understand and had to ask them to clarify or repeat; some (insecure) teachers attacked this as impertinence. Too many of the teachers find it difficult to understand their own students, particularly the native ones; in some cases, they try to blame this on the students themselves, saying the student鈥檚 accent is bad, they speak abnormally somehow, etc. In other words, the instructors put the blame on (i.e. 鈥榞aslight鈥) the students, for the teachers鈥 own inadequacies. Where to start on why this is the wrong approach to education? To be fair, the teaching of the Spanish language is good; this was a bright spot. Effectively, a lot of the students seem to transfer quickly to classes in Spanish. Initially I thought this was because they taught Spanish so well (great right?). Then I realised it was also because the classes in English were so bad it encouraged the students to make the effort to switch over to Spanish-delivered courses. There is a constant turnover of teachers, as they leave with great frequency (presumably the conditions are unattractive to them). In two months, we had a number of teachers leave and be replaced. This is very disruptive. The staff on the bus were very nice, the bus was well maintained and had a useful app for tracking it. The facilities are quite nice.
The school has awful rules that make no sense and the children have to pay for it even though they don't know what they did wrong. Almost all the teachers here don't care about the students and don't help them out, only if you pay more of course. I recommend you don't send your children here the food and education here is just awful. Hopefully this school improves even though I don't think it ever will.
M谩s Camarena has a good reputation for facilities, equipment, subjects offered etc, but it is a business first and foremost. They have smaller schools in Valterna and Canet. Canet is a beautiful town, near the beach, really pretty. The school itself is fine, the students are nice to work with and it has up to date technology. Like all M谩s Camarena schools there is a culture of every teacher being out for eachother. Telling tales about staff members is the norm to a really large extent. In general those who tell the most tales are favoured by the management. Being a good teacher is not at all what they want, they want robots who will simply follow a plan made somewhere else. If you want to be an amazing and creative teacher, go somewhere else. They don't have any time for weaker children and will deliberately leave them fall behind unless parents pay for support classes, this the reason for mediocre teachers, it's better for business. The management team is comprised of sycophants, crawlers and people who are generally incompitant at anything other than bowing and scraping to the owner. The principal of the school, which is a primary and secondary multilingual, has never taught in either level, nor does she speak anything other than Spanish. She is unqualified, ignorant, arrogant and a horrible person. Most of the time she has the appearance of a crow looking into an empty packet of crisps when anything to do with education is mentioned, she has no idea, again a sycophant and supplicant. In general management policy is 'act now, look for facts later' which leads to disasters that they never acknowledge or apologise for. In one sense it is fine if you just want to get experience and move on, in another sense it is a microcosm of Spanish society, you can really learn a lot about how it works here. As far as exams are concerned they are terribly easy. Children also do Cambridge exams for a grade lower, so they all pass. Although it is a Cambridge Preparation centre, none of the teachers are trained by Cambridge. If grades look to be too low, they are increased to keep parents, who are essentially clients happy. There is a secondary level and the same happens there routinely but this depends on the students. It is a Spanish school so they don't do GCSEs as in the UK. Teachers complain about the weaker ones but offer no solutions. There is no CPD or any other training of real quality. Other petty things playground duties, the amount you do will depend on how you are viewed by the management. If you come from the UK to work here, bear in mind Spanish working culture, ignorance towards workers rights and a toxic work culture.
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, in the last week
Estimado L gracias por su rese帽a: El equipo psicopedag贸gico de Mas Camarena, se compone, adem谩s de psic贸logos de una logopeda, un orientados de ciclos de FP, dos orientadores universitarios. El resto son psic贸logos para trabajar los programas de atenci贸n a la diversidad, el programa de incorporaci贸n al biling眉ismo. Se apoyan adem谩s con los profesores de apoyo y los profesores de espa帽ol para extranjeros. Todos son coordinados por la Jefa del Departamento.
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, 6 months ago
Don't be mislead by socalled reputation and lists. This school has a lot of status, but lacks education quality and most of all integrity. If you are not Spanish, I can highly recommend you to go elsewhere. They WILL treat you bad and take advantage of the fact you may not know all the rules. They will take your money if they can. This is not about education, but about maximizing profit at the expense of kids. Looking for high level education? Go for quality not the perception or status of quality.
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, in the last week
Mala experiencia con este colegio.Todo es un buen marketing montado alrededor de este centro.Te prometen que tu hijo va a tener un super nivel pero aqu铆 el que vale vale y si no fuera (son muy humildes y en las reuniones te dar谩s cuenta).Eres una matr铆cula entre tantas.Ahora ya responden a rese帽as 煤ltimamente porque hay padres hartos que les sacan los colores.Si decides inscribir a tu hijos ya os dar茅is cuenta como se las gastan aqu铆.Es 茅poca de matriculaciones, claro son pomposos y humildes.Hasta incluso quieren mejorar.Cuando inscribas a tus hijos ya convivir谩s con esta dulzura. Nosotros ya nos dimos cuenta y los quitamos.Nada recomendable.Venga..ahora responderme que vais a mejorar y que lo sent铆s mucho.Que cara.