In 2016, history professor Régis Marques heard about it Parque dos Sonhos State School after receiving a call. It was an invitation to accept something the school addresslocated in Cubatão, on the coast of São Paulo.
“I researched the school online and the first report I saw was that it was in an area that was unsafe due to the level of violence. A second report said that someone had entered the school and robbed it,” says the current principal. “And then there was a third report that said that at a June festival Some drug dealers had entered the school and caused a disturbance“.
Given these alarming headlines He was hesitant to accept the position. The school’s bad reputation was such that it was nicknamed “Nightmare Park.” But Régis accepted the challenge.
Nine years later, the public school, which has long faced assaults, robberies and violence, received an international award recognizing its work to change that reality. The school won in the “Overcoming Adversity” category..
On November 15, the director traveled to Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates to attend the awards ceremony Award for the best school in the world 2025organized by the British organization T4 Education.
The Parque dos Sonhos school is located in Jardim Real, a neighborhood created to resettle families living in vulnerable areas who were displaced from the Serra do Mar mountain range in 2013. When the school opened in 2014 to serve the children of the new community, There was a lack of infrastructure in the area: There was a forest, a river and very few houses. For the located in an isolated areaat the back of the neighborhood, the area surrounding the school was frequented by people outside the school community who entered the spaces to consume drugs.
“It was common to find bags of cocaine, used condoms, dirty clothes and sheets, drink bottles, among other things,” says the director. “On my second day as director, my office was stoned”.
At the beginning of 2016, the school had only 116 students enrolled, which was well below the building’s capacity. “Half of the students had requested a transfer because I didn’t want to study here: the violence, the attacks and the consequences of the invasions made it impossible. At that time I knew the school was known as Nightmare Park or Terror Park,” he recalls.
Régis Marques then set himself an ambitious goal: Transforming one of the region’s most at-risk schools into the state’s best in five years.
Maria de Lourdes Amorim, a Portuguese teacher with 32 years of experience, initially doubted that Régis Marques would achieve this goal. “Can you imagine that? It was a young man who came from São Paulo to say that to a group of older teachers who had more experience than him in teaching,” the teacher remembers. “We looked at him and said, ‘Is he crazy?'” he adds.
First he rebuilt the most basic things: walls, floors and furniture. Since the school did not have sufficient resources to solve most of the structural problems, it sought support from private companies. They sent 135 petitions by mail and managed to collect 100,000 reais (US$18,000). In order to get closer to the community, the management and teachers have implemented Preparation courses for entrance exams and competitionsand they also have the school open on weekends.
Ana Gabriela Lima, a resident of the neighborhood, witnessed the school’s rebirth. Her oldest son was part of the first class and she joined the first team of volunteers. “The school needed support. That’s why I asked some mothers for help,” says Ana, who now works at the facility as a carer for students with disabilities. “We went, we cleaned the school, We were in charge of the kitchen and helped the teachers with anything they requested.“.
the schoolThe works full timeexpanded its curriculum beyond the traditional. Today it offers cooking classes and sports unusual in public education, such as badminton and figure skating. “At the same time, we started to focus on listening to the students and taking a more human perspective, really focusing on them,” explains Régis Marques.
For the students, this variety of activities has completely changed their relationship to school and the all-day model. “At first I thought everything was limited to classes, so I didn’t like it that much.”says Ester Silva, 12 years old, who has been studying at the Parque dos Sonhos school for seven years. “But then new projects started and these days it’s fun to go to class because we don’t stay in the classroom.” Ester found her place in theater class, which takes place in the last hours of the day.
The director states this The most transformative project was inspired by a Cuban educational model: Visit families in their homes. Titled “School Comes to Your Home,” the project identifies students with attendance or discipline issues and schedules a meeting with their families over the weekend.
It is a way to understand students’ lives while taking into account the precarious conditions many endure on the way to the classroom. “It’s a way to put yourself in the student’s shoes, See the difficulties you face and know what their home is like,” explains Marques. “There are many problems that teachers often don’t notice.”
School hallways also tell a story. On each classroom door at Parque dos Sonhos School there is graffiti of a historical figure linked to the fight for human rights.
Personalities such as the Indian Mahatma Gandhi, the South African Nelson Mandela, the Pakistani Malala Yousafzai, the Uruguayan Pepe Mujica and the Brazilians Marielle Franco and Paulo Freire. These are names that have already come under criticism in the context of political polarization, including from the movement School without a partywhich promotes the end of “ideological indoctrination” in schools.
These numbers serve as inspiration for one of the school’s most important pedagogical pillars: Week of Non-Violence. The event takes place every October and includes discussion groups, studies of anti-war icons and restorative justice practices.
According to the director, the suggestion goes far beyond “kindness.” “Non-violence doesn’t mean turning the other cheek. It’s questioning the system that oppresses you,” says Marques.
The director assures us that They are not afraid of ideological criticism and defends that the priority of the school is unity. “It is a school that starts from this principle, not of what differentiates us or what distances us, but of what unites us. I listen to everyone, whether they come from the right, from the left, from the center, from the far right or from the far left.”
The news that the school was a finalist for the World’s Best School Award 2025, and later was one of the winnerswere received with euphoria by the students on the school grounds in September. “It was very emotional. There were people crying. I myself was very excited when we realized we were at the top. It made me cry,” said Ester, a seventh-grader.
The change that now gave the school international recognition also affected its academic results. In a decade, the school went from a score of 2.2 on the Idesp (an indicator that assesses the quality of schools in the state of São Paulo) to 4.6.
Although this review In absolute terms, the school does not yet occupy first place in the state rankings It represents – as was the director’s goal – learning progress of almost 100%. For teachers, however, the numbers are only part of the story. Success is often measured by lives saved and future prospects saved. “Our school has evolved. The state asks for numbers because that’s what it works with. But for us it is important how our student is doing today and how he will be tomorrow,” remembers teacher Maria de Lourdes.
The principal emphasizes that the school has become a refuge for social security. “We had four cases where the girls in the tutoring class said they were being mistreated. Getting a girl to reveal a problem at home is very important.”. School must be a place where children feel safe“says Marques. “The exciting thing about this whole process is seeing how school can be a point of transformation.”
The principal recognizes that not everything is perfect and that the school still has room for improvement. But he looks back and realizes how far he has come and assures this The future promises even greater expansion through the merger with the neighboring school. “Imagine a school that was on the verge of closing in 2016 because it had no students, and now starts 2026 with 1,200 students. That’s exciting.”
*By Rod Pina
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