Some oñatiarras claim that they have rarely seen the town square as full as in the Kilometers of 1989; the parkings surpassed, the bars that ran out of bread for the snacks, Egan put the whole square dancing. Txantxiku Ikastola started offering her high school studies at that time, and to cope with that change, among other things, the festival of Gipuzkoan ikastolas was organized in Oñati. This year the school turns 50 and celebrates it wrapped in the whirlwind of pedagogical innovation.

Txantxiku began his career in 1967 with 28 3-year-old students, in hiding and under the protection of the Church, most of them. After five decades of work, it offers an education from 0 to 18 years and has 978 students, 572 families, 118 employees and 86 workers. Beyond the numbers, ikastola is committed to the challenges and climate of change experienced by the educational world in recent years.

“We all say the same thing: society is moving forward, we have more and more information about how people work, what motivates us… but until a few years ago, classes were taught almost like until 30 years ago, the landscape of the class was the same. In the last ten years there has been a need to break with all this and we are in that moment of change: think, demonstrate and change”, explained the director of the ikastola Zigor Ibarzabal. The past course was incorporated into the boat of the pedagogy of trust, within which they have situated the innovations that have begun to consolidate in all stages of 0-18 years: The Ixutu project, the digitalization of school material EKI, cooperative learning, and Batxi Lab seminars, among others. According to Ibarzabal, “the pedagogy of trust is a general theoretical framework, a way of seeing the teaching of the child and, above all, a way of working relationships”.

Last year at this time of the beginning of the course I was “all dancing”: The Ixutu project, designed by Txantxiku, was initiated within the pedagogy of trust. For the child to develop individually and interact with students of different ages, summer was dedicated to demolish walls, reorganize the space and develop a new architectural project that began with a totally different aspect in Early Childhood Education. The Child Education Coordinator, Pili Urzelai, has clarified that “between 0-3 Ixutu is enriched with the theory of Emili Pikler (sweetness in the treatment, respect for the biological rhythms - coginitive of children…), and between 3-6 influences mainly on temporalization; children have a flexible margin to go to the tranquilizer, parents can see them in.

“We had it very developed in theory, but in practice we had no experience and the first months were hard; there was stress and anger,” Ibarzabal acknowledged. A year later, however, he says that the assessment is very good, that the children perceive the joy they show, even in the parents. It was precisely the parents who pushed for change. Txantxiku is an integral cooperative, and to the Governing Council the fathers and mothers decided to organize the kilometers; as to present the candidacy one has to carry a pedagogical project, they decided to join the pedagogy of trust. “Already before, the parents told us that we had to innovate, that they saw new models in the valley. And we also had that thirst,” said Nagore Altube, High School Coordinator.

They have also placed "upside down" the Council of Parents of Elementary School Students. The parents said that the Council did not like it as it was, and they are making changes in the way of giving greater prominence and greater autonomy. They have also created schools for mothers and fathers to “dress fathers and mothers around pedagogy”.

All Under Change

“Everything was piled up, the new direction was also created at that time, and in the face of the interior it has been a small revolution. The axis of change is the student, but it affects the whole community,” said Primary Coordinator Iñaki Barrena. In his view, the work carried out in Early Childhood Education has called into question at all stages the way in which work has been done so far.

The students of the 5th grade of Primary Education who last year were in the 5th grade of Primary Education will pass this course to the first grade, and in order not to cut the path that was taken last year, the space of 1st will start the transfigured course: “They will continue to have another temporalization and the class space will be changed. We have thrown some partitions so that the classrooms are communicated inside and we have changed the furniture; there will be no table per student, we have prepared group tables and spaces to meet in assemblies”, explained Ibarzabal. The students will have nine proposals for their development throughout the week: three for Artistic Language, three for Mathematics Corners and three for Czech Language. They will have to organize themselves to complete the task by the end of the week. They were also in the ikastola of Lekeitio, to learn firsthand how they integrated the new methodology in Primary. They say, “At the moment there is a great collaboration between the ikastolas in terms of innovation.”

In Secondary School they were already at the wheel of innovation with the EKI didactic material – which aims to include in the didactic material the competences established from Europe. In the last three years the leap has been made to digitisation of EKI and three or four of the six areas where materials are defined are worked. According to Altube, computer learning is more attractive to students: “We are clear that the future will be digital, but we are in a transitional period, and we all need time to adapt it.” This year the sixth grade of Primary will start using the EKI. For next year, school supplies will remain in the fifth year, but not below that level. “From the bottom up we go with the pedagogy of trust and from the top down with the EAST, but in the section 3-4 of the EP we will make the confluence of both”, they foresee.

The Federation of Ikastolas wanted to promote BatxiLab to deepen the work of the competencies for the Baccalaureate, and has shown its interest among the students. Altube explained that there will be interdisciplinary seminars and that the first sessions will be held throughout this course.

Fueling the Auzolan

Txantxiku has on the table to deepen the relationships with nature among the challenges of the future: “Apart from the physical ikastola, we have many natural resources that can also be didactic resources.” In this way, for three years the 4th ESO students have been in charge of managing a vegetable garden. The management team has also referred to two other general challenges: to continue taking steps on the path of pedagogical innovation at all stages and to strengthen the role of the community. “We are increasingly focused on our head, and this year the communicative line has been to extend community work at educational and local level.”

The physical changes that had to be made with the Ixutu project have been carried out as follows: “The structures have been made by the parents on weekends, since painting, cleaning, taping…”. The management believes that this climate of collaboration has brought with it the "high participation" that has taken place at the Kilometroak. “Many people moved and approached the ikastola through the works of trust pedagogy, and it has opened a way to create working groups for Kilometroak; the community has become entangled.” Slogan chosen: Lekaixoka, a scream of auzolan.

In this way the Kilometroak of 89 was made, and so have the citizens this year. But the external changes that have taken place during that time have also influenced. “To say the first ‘ikastola’ was enough to say the Basque, the popular, the national. Today too, but we are not the only ones, there are other models in this line, and it must be borne in mind that since 89 social activation has been reduced in any field,” said Barrena. However, on the verge of the time set in red on the calendar, they were grateful for the involvement of all groups throughout the year (parity, sustainability, communication, human resources, health, prevention…). “They may go out into the street and tell you that nothing has changed – says Barrena – but our effort is there, and that is the point of view: we are changing.”