Instituto Educación Secundaria La Rosaleda

ES La Rosaleda was established in 1947 and was at the moment the only organization in the province of Málaga, Spain, where young people could get vocational training. The next academic year, we are going to celebrate our 75th anniversary with cultural and educational activities. Whenever you mention IES La Rosaleda to people in Málaga, you realize how deep it is the affection they feel for our school. Generations of “malagueños” learnt a craft in our facilities that enabled them to make a living and feel useful and respected. La Rosaleda is located next to the main football stadium in our city and we even share the same name. In 1947, we were on the outskirts of the city. Not anymore.It takes just 25 minutes to reach the city centre on foot and new quarters surround us. However, it is also true that inequality is also visible since we are just five minutes away from La Palmilla, one of the worst-off neighbourhoods in Málaga, with deep socio economic problems that obviously also affect our school community. From the very beginning, we have a hall of residence next to our school. Nowadays, it has its own governing body but we are still very much in contact and collaborate in many aspects since quite a big number of our students stay during the weekdays there while leaving home at the weekend. The academic offer at La Rosaleda is enormous. We can offer our community basic vocational training and specific vocational training for students with special needs. We also train technicians and higher technicians in many crafts, from carpentry to welding, the hospitality industry to I.T and machining. We also have our A-level students, adult education and we offer blended and online studies in the field of tourism, for example. Lately, La Rosaleda is also adopting the dual system by which students spend more time at a company, training, and visit our school maybe once or twice per week. Every year, more than 2,000 students enrol in both our morning and afternoon shifts. We open at 8 am and close at 22.15 pm. There are more than 250 staff ( maintenance, concierges, teachers, cleaning service workers) at La Rosaleda. We are particularly proud of our hard of hearing students and supporting staff, mainly sign language interpreters, because they are a perfect symbol of what La Rosaleda strives to be, an organization where everybody, no matter the barriers and difficulties, can try to reach their own goals, going further and beyond what anybody could have imagined. La Rosaleda has been very active in the world of Erasmus+ projects. We have our ECHE charter and we have our accreditation as a VET centre that makes things easier when applying for European projects. The European Solidarity Corps in our school has only enhanced and facilitated our goals: offering our community equal opportunities, sending a message of collaboration and fighting for the European values of democracy and freedom.