We define ourselves as a learning community that seeks to foster mutual support, learning and respect among all its members. We offer a respectful and motivating way to learn and develop, while seeking to create a supportive community for families, reconcile, promote relationships of equality and respect and provoke social change from the basis of education.
- Active pedagogy with focus on Montessori, inquiry-based learning and forest school.
- Accompaniment and Pedagogical Coordination by Eureka, a project born from the experience of Jardín Pirata (free school in the North of Madrid for 17 years).
- Infant and Primary School (3-12 years old)
- Bilingual Spanish-English.
- Systemic accompaniment resource for family processes and special learning needs.
- Commitment to continuous training for families, staff and the community.
- Coworking space
- Non-profit project
- Foreign center certified by NEASC (New England Association of School and Colleges).
- Programmed family activities
This school has three fundamental objectives:
- to encourage and accompany the learning needs of children;
- to be a reference centre for the training of teachers (school and external) in relation to the emotional well-being of children and to establish peaceful, horizontal and respectful relationships with children;
- to be a tool for conciliation and the creation of support networks for families, both in the school and in the municipality and beyond, through play groups, workshops, support groups, etc.
To this end, the school offers the infant and primary cycles based on Active pedagogies with a focus on Montessori, inquiry-based learning and forest school. This means that in addition to the general classrooms where all areas of knowledge will be taught for children from 3 to 12 years old, the school will have specific workshops that will consolidate this learning (e.g. other languages, mechanics, robotics, etc.). At least one day a week there is forest school where children also learn about their immediate rural environment and its history.
The school is certified by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges (NEASC). It is a bilingual English-Spanish school, also meeting the requirements of Spanish content and Spanish language and culture required by the Regional Government of Madrid.
As a project that seeks to create a change in the educational paradigm, we have a training program in active pedagogies and respectful accompaniment for the teaching staff. Each year we provide scholarships for at least two teachers from a public school to be trained in these methodologies.
In our school for families we deal with relationships with children in the family environment. We seek to provide families with tools to raise children in a serene, respectful, egalitarian and free way.
We also have many activities to support the conciliation and encourage the creation of a supportive community such as extracurricular family activities, a mountain group, family afternoons, etc.
Every day there are more and more schools that seek to promote respectful relationships with children, in addition to a context of healthy learning and growth.
For us this is something fundamental, but we did not want to stop there. We also want to be a base from which to promote social change, putting the needs of children, families and individuals themselves at the center. To this end, we have a teacher training program, with scholarships for civil servants, a school for families, weekly activities that aim to promote family time, conciliation and the creation of a supportive community.
We like to think of our project as a family of families, committed to a sustainable world for everyone and where relationships between us are based on respect and care.
La Matriz began its journey as an association of families in 2020, although a group had already been developing before that, seeking to form a supportive group and offer their little ones a respectful accompaniment in their development. During all this time, the group has cohesioned and has come to create an association that promotes a peaceful parenting and a respectful and equal approach to childhood. La Matriz has received advised by educational professional groups and individuals like Eureka, Madrid Active School, Origami Senbazuru, Ivana Vallenari and José Manuel Rodríguez (Txelu). The team has visited many reference schools such as Wayra, Alavida or Roura. Currently, the project is located in Soto del Real, in a house with a capacity to accommodate up to 30 students and with a coworking space to facilitate the work/life conciliation for families and the bonding process of the little ones with teachers and the space.
Eureka is in charge of the pedagogical accompaniment and coordination of the school. Eureka Centro Socioeducativo is a project formed by four advocates of pedagogical innovation, with more than fifteen years of experience in El Jardín Pirata (an active school that was based in the Sierra Norte de Madrid until 2020).
Our teaching team is made up of:
Silvia García Martí is an Early Childhood Education Teacher and Psychopedagogist. After working in private centers as a tutor of Second Cycle of Early Childhood Education, in 2005 she started El Jardín Pirata, where she has developed professionally for 17 years as an early childhood and primary educator and as a trainer of educators. She is currently training in Primary Education with a specialization in Therapeutic Pedagogy.
María Llorente Martínez is a teacher in Primary Education. Her professional educational experience has been focused on schools with Montessori methodology. She has spent the last ten years combining her pedagogical knowledge in El Jardín Pirata with learning as a livestock farmer, building a collective project with eight other people.
Kalifa Augustus is a journalist and teacher, with more than 12 years of experience in different schools in Spain and the United States. She is from Trinidad and Tobago and at La Matriz she is in charge of developing the curriculum in English, her mother tongue.
Rafaela Rayo Martínez is an Early Childhood Education Teacher, trained in Montessori and Bosquescuela, as well as a children's yoga instructor. Her motto is "You can't teach a seed to grow".
Víctor Ferrón is a psychologist and teacher, with more than 10 years of experience in schools in the Community of Madrid. He is a forest school monitor and complements the curriculum not only with the learning that takes place in nature but also with the local history of the Sierra Norte de Madrid.
Our psycho-pedagogical team is composed of:
Nuria Hernando García, psychopedagogue and primary school teacher specializing in special needs.
Leticia Domínguez is a primary school teacher with a specialization in music, music therapist and psychotherapist in bonding systems.
The team also includes Ana Fraile, economist and cook, with extensive knowledge in nutrition.
It also includes Aurora Martín Barroso, who is Early Childhood Education teacher, with a very extensive experience in active pedagogies and respectful accompaniment. Aurora and Leticia are in charge of the School of Families and the development of the training for teachers.