A school radio, a representation of the unique and unique fiesta of King Paixaro or a school that has Valencian as the vehicular language for all the activities they promote. These are the three winning projects of the second edition of the modest, but inspiring Carme Miquel Awards that the Valencian Language Academy, AVL, is giving today to encourage the use of Valencian in schools in a time complicated by its increasingly low use social of the own language.
This Saturday, the AVL will present the awards in the Monastery of Sant Miquel del Reis to those responsible for the three initiatives that have earned the recognition of the jury, made up of academics from the Section for Promotion of the Use of Valencia.
The winner in the classroom project category is the CEIP Mirantbò of Callosa d'en Sarrià, with its proposal to create a school radio. Miquel Marín, its coordinator, explains to La Vanguardia that the idea was born from the need to make Valencian visible and normalize in the midst of an offer – that of the media – where it is barely present.
“Our students consume YouTube, Tik Tok, platforms, television and everything is in other languages.” Furthermore, the creation of the radio, says Marín, allowed them to tell their own stories, talk about their closest environment without shying away from current issues that interest children such as social problems, LGTBI rights, mental health or violence against the woman.
For this reason, they bought four microphones, a sound card and with the help of a computer they created their own audio studio from which they produce Ràdio Mirantbò.
On a linguistic level, the tutor says, the radio has allowed them to work on prosody and correct oral expression. In a world of continuous stimuli and marked by immediacy, the creation of podcasts allows reflection, rehearsal and polishing the language used.
They make a program every two months with up to six sections - sayings and riddles, stories, music, opinion, a humor space and interviews - that can be downloaded in a QR that has previously been provided to the businesses of Callosa to reach the neighbors. . “We have tried to ensure that the project does not remain in the classroom and we have invited families and townspeople to participate,” says Marín.
These, sometimes, become the protagonists and thus a blacksmith, a mother who plays the tabal or another who is a psychologist has been interviewed to talk about mental health.
Leo Sanjuan is the tutor of the 5-year-old group of the CEIP Mare de Déu de Gràcia de Biar, who has won in the classroom project category for her work “Festa del Rei Pàixaro”. It is a festivity exclusive to the Alicante municipality of Biar that commemorates the time when the king came to the town, after the harvest, to collect taxes. Leo Sanjuan's class dramatizes this performance at school a week before the one celebrated in the streets of Biar and works on all the components of this celebration to encourage the little ones to "value and esteem" the party, she explains.
Once again, the people get involved in the school; “a dressmaker helps us with the costumes, a family leaves us the pony that the king rides on, and the group of dolçaineres does the fencing.” Before the final performance, the children visit the town museum, the jesters teach them the traditional dances to welcome the king and the president of the festival commission (and father of one of the students) explains curiosities and interior details of this celebration. which last November was declared a Festival of Local Tourist Interest in the Valencian Community.
The third of the awards - stage project - goes to the Escola Infantil Ninos de Meliana, for its proposal "For a school in Valencia from the start". This school for 0 to 3 years old is committed to Valencian as the vehicular language for all the initiatives that are promoted, as well as in communication through social networks and with the entire school community.
"The information we send to families, the authorizations, the dining room menu, as well as the activities, stories or songs are all in Valencian," explains the center's coordinator, Ana Felguera. “100% of the material used in the nursery school is from Valencia,” she reiterates.
As the person in charge of the center explains, "we have always opted for the recognition and defense of our culture and our language, also taking advantage of the multicultural wealth that this offers us."
Three different proposals that directly affect and try to encourage the use of Valencian by students and also by the entire educational community, including families.
