About Us
Our Story
Los Alcaparros is a bilingual, co-educational and secular school that forms human beings aware of their environment, with the self-confidence to develop their potential and the capacity to imagine and create a better world.
Brief Chronology of Hacienda Los Alcaparros
1992-1993
Hacienda Los Alcaparros was founded in Bogotá on April 10, 1992 by Rosa Cecilia Caro Restrepo, her sister Constanza Caro de Casas and María Teresa Botero, a mutual friend. The three of them, educators at heart, driven by their will to serve and by their conviction that education is an indispensable source of human and national development, started the school based on the close relationship between academic education and training, with emphasis on learning through doing, feeling and thinking, respecting human values and with special emphasis on music (Suzuki Method) and the arts.
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The school begins operations with 36 students and 11 teachers, with preschool and three grades of elementary school in the hills of Suba, north of Bogota, with Rosa Cecilia Caro Restrepo as Director of the Educational Project, and Marta Cecilia Gomez as Principal.
Today Hacienda Los Alcaparros is located on a 10 hectare site in the mountains of the municipality of La Calera, Cundinamarca and has more than 800 students.
Mission
To contribute to the development of the potential of each of our students in their intrinsic commitment to others-in-community and in harmony with the natural world in its various forms.
Vision
We are optimists in the Latin sense of optimus: we expect the best from ourselves and our community, embracing uncertainty, pointing the way, opening it, clearing it so that each of our students can fulfill their dreams in intrinsic connection, sensitivity and care with others and with all other forms of life and thus contribute to the construction of a future full of hope.
From this point of view, we propose to promote in each of the students Alcaparros Student Profile:
The exercise of freedom responsibly
Enjoyment for learning
Analytical thinking and sustained argumentation.
Sensitivity that opens the imagination, thought and creativity Appreciation, valuation and expression through music and the arts.
Appreciation of the diversity and multiplicity of forms of human and natural expression Recognition and listening to others to manage differences and solve difficulties Individual initiative as well as collaboration and co-creation with others
Sensitive, honest, truthful and relevant expressions.
Conversations to understand the whys and wherefores and the hidden meanings of human actions and dialogue to transform ourselves.
We believe that this is the basis for living life in connection, with equity and in a sustainable way, committed to the country, as global citizens who recognize what we share and what constitutes us as humans.
Pedagogical Pillars
There are four pedagogical pillars for the realization of our mission:
Conception of human development as a process in itself that recognizes the differences and individual processes knowing that everyone is fully competent in each of the moments of their development. Level of learning is geared to stage of development.
Option for active learning understood as the processes by which students ‘do’ to understand through meaningful, relevant and pertinent experiences that lead to key learning for their development.
Horizontal and systemic encounter between teachers and students where one with the other and with knowledge are continuously transformed.
Creation of environments appreciative of the needs, interests and rhythms of students that generate a climate conducive to learning in which students feel safe and welcomed.
School governing bodies
Los Alcaparros Corporation Board of Directors
The highest governing and management body of the activities of the school Hacienda Los Alcaparros. It is in charge of defining, guiding, directing and evaluating the general functioning and development of the school.
Board of Directors
It is formed by the Director of the Educational Project, the Principal, the Executive Director, the Administrative and Financial Director, the Academic Director, the Director of Human Development, a representative of the Educational Corporation Los Alcaparros, two representatives of teachers, two representatives of parents, a representative of students, a representative of alumni and two representatives of the productive sector.
It is in charge of advising on decisions regarding all aspects of the operation of Hacienda Los Alcaparros.
Academic Council
Maximum authority in academic aspects and advisory body of the Board of Directors, formed by the Director of the Educational Project, the Principal, the Academic Director, the teaching directors and a teacher from each area or grade.
It is in charge of studying, promoting and supervising the programs and activities of the institutional educational project, curriculum development, institutional self-evaluation and continuous improvement of the school.
Student Council
Collegiate body of student representation formed by a representative from first through third grade, a representative from each of the fourth through eleventh grades, and a teacher appointed by the Director of the Educational Project with voice but no vote.
It is in charge of proposing, listening, analyzing and interpreting proposals in favor of the students and electing a student from eleventh grade as student representative to the Board of Directors.
Personeros
Elected by direct vote of the students, as follows: one in eleventh grade, and two representatives in training who accompany the process in the following grades: one in eighth grade and one in fifth grade.
They are in charge of promoting the fulfillment of the rights and duties of the students, being spokespersons for the students before the higher instances of the school, and organizing activities to contribute to their formation.
Parents’ Council
A body that ensures the participation of families in the school, made up of one member and one alternate, both parents for each grade of the school, elected by the general assembly of parents.
In direct coordination with the Director of the Educational Project, it is in charge of promoting training activities for parents, participating in improvement processes and collaborating with the development of community activities.