On the website of this Catholic integrated school in Barcelona it states (translated):                                                       Our school is committed to what we call “global” education in as much as we aim at shaping both the minds and the hearts of children and youngsters from a very early age on. We give them all the tools they need for them to achieve human, physical, intellectual, spiritual and global excellence.

What a privilege it was to visit this 90 year old school, established in 1926 by the congregation of the Holy Family of Nazareth. .

The congregation has spread out across the world and has 54 educative missions in 9 countries.  Col.legi Montserrat is their flagship school, where ideas are tested out and new pedagogies and ways of working are trialled and developed before being share with other schools.

The atmostphere of learning is palpable the minute you enter the school buildings. Bright high quality displays of learner's work are interspersed with motivational displays explaining how this work ties in with the  school's vision for learning.

After three hours of walking through the school, talking with students and teachers alike, from the kindergarten babies to the seniors in high school, I felt the alignment, so strongly, of theory in practice.

Montserrat Contreras Head of English Dept, kindly hosted me for the morning. She has been on staff here for over 13 years. I asked her, what was the secret of C. Monstserrat's success. (They currently hold top place standing on the "league tables" in Spain, and talking with the students, viewing the quality of the project work undertaken in collaborative working teams,  I could see the depth of thinking their children were operating at).

She believed that the secret to the success of this school sits in its strong leadership. The current leader,  Sr. Núria Miró has a Degree in Business Administration and a Professional Music Diploma (Piano). She finished the Leading Schools Program at High Tech High Graduate School of Education in San Diego and has completed courses at Harvard Project Zero, the National Center for Teaching Thinking (Newton Center) at the University of Massachusetts and the Key Learning Community in Indianapolis.

She has been teaching for more than 20 years and has been leading schools for 10 years. In one of those schools she led innovation and change to completely transform the school in two years. At present, she is the Principal of Col·legi Montserrat (Barcelona, Spain). Twitter: @nmiro

Montserrat Contreras explained that Sr. Núria Miró provides a clear path for everyone to buy into. She has made it really clear for staff what the school stands for and what their  core purpose is.

This is what we believe, this is what we do, if you want to work here you must want this too.

It was this alignment in purpose that came through so strongly as I listened and observed. Strong themes and beliefs emerge as I talk with the staff. The school’s pedagogies have been drawn from the latest research in the fields of neuroscience, psychology, and sociology.

The founding belief is that every child is intelligent and can learn. The school’s task is to develop multiple opportunities to educate students (for students to learn) and underpinning much of the teaching and learning rationale is Howard Gardner’s work on multiple intelligences.

Another strong belief is that learners will develop the confidence and ability to learn together and develop life long learning skills.

The nuns have literally searched the world, visiting many leading educational institutions/universities to find the best and most effective theories of learning.

I left Col.legi Monsterrat with a vision of how project based learning could produce excellent results for learning,  both in terms of process and product outcomes. Planned  by teams of teachers working collaboratively together, from a place of sharing personal expertise, and learning further developed and enhanced by collaborative teams of students each responsible for their part of the challenge, each essential for ensuring the success of the whole group. 

It was inspiring!