I’ve been studying in IES 9 Valles for six years now. I came here initially because in my school, all students were moved here, so it was not a personal choice. I’ve been taught by many teachers, and I’ve learnt a lot since I started. IES 9 Valles is placed in Reocín, and teenagers from different villages study here. It is also known that this is one of the high schools with higher level in Cantabria, and it is probably because many teachers are very demanding, but also good educators.
Talking about installations, it is not so good. The gym is very small, and many times, if two groups have physical education at the same time, one group in sent to a class, or, if the weather allows it, they take their lesson outside.
On the other side, we have two ICT rooms with computers enough for each group.
Our technology classes are very well equipped and we have many materials to work with. Besides, many classrooms are now digital classrooms, with a video projector and an interactive blackboard, but, they are not usually used… We also have an auditorium, but it is not big enough, and it is not good enough either.
We are very proud about our cafeteria, because only a few high schools have it; it can provide us with coffee, coke, all kind of sweets and sandwiches. There is also a library, where you can find the compulsory books for every year.
Now let’s talk about teachers. In IES 9 Valles you can find many “species” of teachers. It is true that it happens the same in every high school, but the contrast is peculiar.
You can find a university teacher in a class, and a schoolteacher in the other, working in the same conditions but with different methods. As I have said before, there are very good educators, but only a few of them are active enough. Only a selected group of them try to develop the school and make something for it, the others just go there for working, and don’t want to hear anything about “activities”.
On the other side, but with a point in common, we have the school rules. We, students, are supposed not to do many things, and to do others, but real life is very different.
Rules are not always followed, and we are not usually punished for that. And in other cases we are unfairly punished, and we can’t do anything.
Anyway, if you are a normal student, you won’t have any problem, but if your behaviour is not correct, you’ll pay for that, sometimes fairly, sometimes unfairly.
Finally, I have to say that students here are usually well-behaved, the level is higher than other schools, but we have good teachers to make it accessible, and we may not have a good gym, but we can compensate it with our ICT rooms and our digital classrooms, and also our cafeteria.
Normally you can have a great experience here, but get ready to study!


by Jaime Herrero

This is my sixth year in the IES 9 VALLES. Now I am going to value these years and the school:
In my opinion this school is one of the best in Cantabria in all aspects and one of these aspects is that it is demanding. Recently I read in the newspaper that this school is the fourth in the top grade in Cantabria. Sometimes being so demanding is good (for example for the PAU) but other times it’s bad because you have to study hard and more than in others schools in Cantabria.
The facilities of the school are great, because we have got a lot of things like: three laboratories, a library, a cafeteria, two ICT rooms….and more things.
I have to say that during six years I have had many teachers and each of them are very different, but in my opinion I can’t complain about anyone.
Finally, I have to say that these six years at this school have been great because I have made a lot of new friends and I have spent a very good time.

by Mario Laguillo

Let me start by saying that our school has changed in many ways in the last three years. A lot of students complain about different drawbacks which involve the current situation.
On the one hand, we think that the fact of having to eat outdoors is not fair because we can see teachers who don´t follow this rule and they aren´t punished as we are. Besides, we have to keep out of the building during the break although it´s cold…but that depends on the mood of our head-teacher.
On the other hand, we suffered different consequences last term because the toilet of the second year of Bachillerato was closed, so we had to waste a lot of time going to the other building,
Moreover, we think we have been very relaxed during the four years of ESO and when we are in Bachillerato we suffer from high pressure because we don´t have the habit of studying every day.
To sum up, we think that we should use our power to solve these disadvantages, which sometimes become a real problem for us.

by Sonia Cubillas