In Lumiar schools, students are at the center and actively participate in their learning process. By taking their interests into consideration, we offer an environment that invites them to commit themselves to their own development, learning with will, purpose and pleasure.
Thus, throughout their school life, they have countless opportunities to build their autonomy, becoming able to mobilize what they have already developed and learned, and to identify what still needs to be explored.
LUMIAR METHODOLOGY
Our original methodology proposes the concept of competency-based learning – developed through projects that work on a combination of skills and content. Our commitment is to prepare students for an agile and collaborative world, so that they can act in society in an authorial, responsible and conscious way.
OUR SCHOOLS
WHY DO STUDENTS WORK WITH PROJECTS IN LUMIAR?
We work with projects because we believe in the promotion of meaningful and contextualized learning journeys. By studying based on their interests and real needs, identified with the support of the educators based on the learning expectations for each cycle, the students
find meaning for what they learn, create hypotheses and strategies, expand their repertoire and build, also with the support of the pedagogical team, their own knowledge. Furthermore, active methodologies are fundamental if we really want to have a curriculum focused on skills and competencies.
Pillars of Lumiar methodology
Lumiar organizes its curriculum in a way aligned to the national parameters, but in a non-linear way. This means that all the planned contents are worked on, but not in a specific and predetermined order. By choosing to do projects and have a personalized look at learning, we increase the possibilities of working in a meaningful and contextualized way.
Working with projects is an exciting experience that favors critical thinking and student engagement. Besides allowing the development of skills and abilities, it also opens the way for the work of contents in a practical and contextualized manner.
At Lumiar, the educators responsible for working with the students are called tutors and teachers. Together they work on the creation, monitoring, and evaluation of the different projects that will be developed by the groups. It is up to the tutors – teachers or graduates – to map out the students’ interests and learning needs, and ensure that both points are contemplated in the projects. The teachers are professionals from different fields, with knowledge and passion for a theme, who help the tutors in the development of projects and workshops.
For us, evaluation is something quite profound, because we understand that there are a number of instruments that make an integral evaluation of the students possible.
At Lumiar, besides self-evaluation, which allows students to reflect on their own learning, the evidence of development is recorded by the educators using different procedures and languages. With this, we form a rich individualized portfolio, ensuring intentionality and offering constant feedback.
The entire history of the student’s development is recorded on our platform.
The choice for multietarity is related to the possibilities of learning and socialization that a diverse environment promotes in the students’ development process. There is also the school’s intention to create environments that dialogue with life in society. In the projects, it is natural that a division of roles occurs, facilitating cooperation and creating opportunities for children and young people to achieve specific learning expectations.
At Lumiar, pedagogical practices, social relations, and the organization of daily school life are managed in a participatory way, involving all the agents of the school: students, pedagogical and administrative staff.
Relations are managed based on dialogical exchanges in the Rodas, which involve the whole school and approach guidelines that are of the greatest collective interest; in the Group Rodas, that manage specific issues of each cycle; and in the Committees, which have as their objective to contribute to the school (with the planning of events, discussions about school meals, organization of spaces etc.), and can be made up of students, collaborators, and people in charge according to their interests.
Knowledge management is also participative, since the students play an active role in the construction of their routines, having their interests, abilities and needs taken into account in the creation of projects and other practices. Moreover, active methodologies are used to guarantee, also, the protagonist role of the students in the meetings.
CONSIDERED BY UNESCO
ONE OF THE MOST INNOVATIVE
SCHOOLS IN THE WORLD
In 2007, nomination by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and in 2018, nomination by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).
Projects
They are our main practice. They aim to develop skills and work with content in an inter or transdisciplinary way.
Workshops
Are flexible practices that seek to develop skills and different subjects pertinent to the group, usually with more practical meetings.
Modules
They work to systematize the contents or skills that will support a given project. They are composed of didactic sequences that are more similar to the “classes” in schools, but are always related to the class projects.
Circle
A moment that involves the whole school and approaches topics of collective interest.
World Reading
A modality in which students have contact with their surroundings, current affairs, and news (through videos, interviews, reading, outings, etc.). It is an important moment to bring new references, stimulating new interests and inviting them to reflect and discuss, expand their sociocultural repertoire, and work on the construction of a critical and questioning sense.
Lumiar
Practices
Individual Project
Moment in which students choose a theme to research, deepen, and create, structuring the planning and defining their own objectives and the path to be followed, with the support of the tutor.
Reading Moments
Opportunities for the development of autonomous reading.
Committees
Groups whose objective is to contribute to the school.
Group Circle
Moment to manage collective issues of a given group/cycle.
Study Periods
Moment to carry out tasks, study and deepen the themes that interest and pedagogical needs that need attention.
Example of a ROUTINE (Fundamental 1 – Full-day)
At Lumiar, we believe that sharing the learning and experiences of our students, honoring their achievements and the daily work of educators, is a very powerful way to further strengthen the partnership between school and families.
OUR SCHOOLS
MOSAIC PLATFORM
OUR TEACHING-LEARNING MANAGEMENT TOOL
Conceived with the objective of organizing and documenting the experience of our methodology, the Mosaic platform enables personalized monitoring of each student’s learning.
By accessing the platform, managers, educators, and students can record, monitor, and evaluate pedagogical practices, such as projects, workshops, modules, and World Readings. Parents and guardians, on the other hand, have access to the routines and practices developed by their children in the current school term and in previous years, and can also view reports produced by teachers and tutors, evidence of learning, and evaluations.
Our entire curriculum was revised in light of the Common National Curricular Base (BNCC). This means that all the contents and competencies foreseen by the BNCC are covered and can be viewed on our platform. When designing each proposal, tutors can list the skills and contents of the BNCC that are relevant to that cycle.
Testimonials from former Lumiar students about what it was like to experience our methodology and what were the impacts of this experience in their lives.
Alice Mondin
Enzo Fioretti
