Colégio das Caldinhas
Rua do Instituto Nun’Alvres 54, Areias STS, 4780-035, Portugal
Head of School
Please log in to view
President
Manuela Silva
History
Colégio das Caldinhas: A School of Schools
Colégio das Caldinhas is an educational complex made up of 5 different schools;
- Instituto Nun’ Alvres – Director: Manuela Silva (direcaopedagogica@institutonunalvres.pt)
- Associação Pró-Infância Nuno Álvares – Director: Isabel Correia (isabelcorreia@aproinfancia.pt)
- Oficina – Escola Profissional do INA – Director: António Miguel Sá Carneiro Silva (antoniosilva@oficina.pt)
- Artave – Escola Profissional e Artística do Vale do Ave – Director: José Alexandre Reis (director@artave.pt)
- CCM – Centro de Cultura Musical – Director: José Alexandre Reis (director@artave.pt)
It was back in 1932 that the Hotel das Termas das Caldas da Saúde began to host the exiled Instituto Nun’Alvres, which was wandering between Belgium and Spain, along with the Jesuits expelled by the republican regime. More specifically, on February 6, 1932. Since then, the school has grown, like a house that is built on solid foundations, and in addition to INA, other schools were born: in 1975/76 the Associação Pró-Infância Nuno Álvares – APINA was created; in 1979/80, the Centro de Cultura Musical (CCM) opened its doors; in 1989/90, after having the Primary school and the Vocational Courses at INA opened, INA’s Vocational School – OFICINA, and the Vale do Ave Artistic School – ARTAVE were founded. More than a school, our school is a School of schools, in which this Educational Centre seeks to Educate to Serve.
In a quick tour of our school, we can see the P. Carvalhaes Museum, passing by the Church or the Library, both designed by the architect Fernando Távora, the Herbarium brought from the old school in Campolide, the rocks collection, the butterflies collection, the Saint Ignacio’s gym, the different buildings and corridors, since the history of this house is made of innovation. In their long tradition, Jesuits and laymen, in strict collaboration, never stopped looking for the Magis: the students’ greatest service, their best learning, their full growth as people.
This School, more than a school, is a human encounter of wisdom and the will to learn, of present and future, of wishing and dreaming. Every day, in its different classrooms, some people grow as the trees in our woods: enduring roots, nourishing themselves from the fertile ground of humbleness and service, growing branches and letting the sap of trust run inside their stream. More than Music or Multimedia, Mathematics or English, Cuisine or Portuguese, the approximately 1,350 students of our school seek to master a way of being, discovering the authentic joy of being men and women to others; calcining, through reflection on the experience, an internal skeleton that allows them to creatively face the challenges of the world. This is the mission that daily inspires the approximately 250 educators at Colégio das Caldinhas, in close collaboration with families, to make our educational project a life one. And this is also the motivation that leads our school’s Pastoral to propose activities – weekends and camps, animated by former volunteer students.
At the core of our house, in the central courtyard that unites all the paths, and filled with students during their breaks, lays our patron saint: the image of Our Lady of Lourdes who accompanies our students from the diaspora. It is under the protection of this kind Mother, of so many dear children, that this year we want to express our debt of gratitude to the 40 years of CCM, the 30 years of OFICINA and the 30 years of ARTAVE, schools that make this Educational Centre of the Society of Jesus a richer and more innovative home. Thus, with so many former students and educators, we consecrate to our Immaculate Mother our vows of love.
Colégio das Caldinhas, November 6, 2019
Quick Facts