Education Prize for the Ironi A and Naut Peres elementary schools in Haifa

Ironi A and Banaot Peres Elementary School won the education prize

Two schools in Haifa celebrated today, Friday 21/1/22, when they received a message from the Ministry of Education that they won the education prize for schools. The winners from Haifa are the six-year school in Kiryat Eliezer Urban XNUMX, directed by Yiffit Cohen, and the elementary school in Banaot Peres, directed by Esti Azoulai.

The director of the district, Dr. Sa'ar Harel, accepted the recommendations of the Outstanding Educational Institutions Award Committee and published the list of winners for the year 2015.

Dr. Harel expressed his appreciation to all the education teams and congratulated the local authorities that are partners in this achievement,
as well as the supervisory and training teams for the professional accompaniment of these educational institutions. At the end of the work of the national committee, a district ceremony will be held for all the winning institutions. Dr. Harel thanked the members of the district award committee, headed by Rami Ben Gra, the center of the committee and the members of the committee for thorough and comprehensive work.

Banaot Peres Elementary School

One of the winning schools is the elementary school in "Naot Peres", which was established about 5 years ago. "The school opened 5 years ago," said the school's principal Esti Azoulai today with great pride, "it currently has about 500 students studying in 20 classes. The school is very special and is a central community anchor in the neighborhood. The students learn through games in the core subjects, At four different levels of thinking, and in ten different and diverse active spaces: math space, English language, makers, research labs, outside the box and more.

Once every two months there is a pedagogical record day with the cooperation of the parents. For the upcoming high-profile day on the subject of space, we prepared an active, special and very high-quality escape room. Every day like this involves parents who invest their time and come to take an active and educational part.

Champion teachers, guides and other great partners on the way

All of this would not have happened without 35 champion teachers, district instructors and other partners who invest their all in the students and our special way of learning. It is not easy to create learning days that provide adapted answers to the heterogeneity among the learners. Beside them there are 20 assistants, therapists and field experts who give the soul to the special education students and the differential students included in the classes.

An involved and caring community

We were blessed with parents and an involved and caring community. On the peak day before, the parents were the ones who prepared all the activities. The partnership between us is special and a relationship of trust was created between the educational team and the community.

On the one hand, the school building is new and very well invested, on the other hand, we work and work hard to give the children a "different" learning experience.

"We were very excited by the visit of the Education Prize committee. We decided to let the children lead the tour and present the committee members with the work at the school and indeed it was. The children are our best ambassadors. We are very happy and proud of the win.

This is a complex period, and it is precisely during this period that it is especially important for us to give the children an inclusive and enriching environment and to see that they have an optimal emotional, pedagogical and social experience at school.

"No one falls"

Yiffit Cohen, the director of Urban School A, says that the activities at the school are very broad and focused on each student:
"There are students who have a harder time and we never give up on them. On the other hand, we also have excellent students with 15 realistic credits. Part of our working method is that we are constantly mapping and in control. We have so many safety nets, so no one falls. We understand that if the emotion is not treated, the potential cannot be reached either. In all the meetings and in all the mappings, the emotional part takes place and is also taken into account, as part of the complete picture. We constantly hold round tables and everyone related to the student sits down and gives their point of view and their part in the discussion about that student, and together, with joint forces, examine all the possibilities to help him.

We were asked if it was real

"We established a distance learning school in conjunction with Microsoft. Each group had the student's and the class's notebooks. We worked properly, not with zoom links, we are completely in the 21st century. Even today, when we study as usual in the classrooms, some of the lessons are with laptops. The advantage of this form of learning, that all the materials that the students upload to Teams - are saved, so they don't have to start from the beginning every time, like in Zoom.

This allowed us to reach an amazing figure - we have 0 corona patients. When we submitted the report to the Ministry of Education, they asked us if it was real and the answer is yes, we have no dropouts at all.

Invest in our teachers

We are constantly taking care of teachers, too. They are listened to and nurtured. We believe that an unhappy teacher has nothing to give to the students, so it is very important for us to dedicate ourselves to the teachers and make sure they are satisfied and know that they and their work are appreciated, so they can also be excellent teachers.

"This award is thanks to the teachers"

"We reached an amazing achievement in the last academic year, in every parameter. 95% eligibility for matriculation, we are among the 50 best schools in Israel in terms of the percentage of recruitment to the IDF, the percentage of eligibility for matriculation and not dropping out. The aspiration is as high as possible and the soul is not given up either. We have 140 teachers and this award is due to them. Of course, we owe a lot to the principal of the middle school, Orli Bar-David, and the principal of the upper school, Racheli Boganim, without whom none of this could have happened.

We are here for the children 24/7, 7 days a week

In addition, without the support of the Ministry of Education and the municipality, also in financial and professional resources, we would not have reached these achievements. The teachers, even if they have to stay until 22 pm, they will do it. The school is open 24/07. We tell the children that we are there for them all the time, even on Yom Kippur.

Give a lot and get a lot

We donated end devices to children and no one was cut off. We received a lot of budgets from the Ministry of Education and the municipality and we also gave a lot. Every time I ask for something from the Ministry of Education in the district or from the municipality, I get it, and they know that the best use will be made of every budget that comes to the school. We built more computerized rooms in the school, the students learn in computerized pedagogy and the teachers also get paid for it."