The 13th Gymnasium of Heraklion constitutes one of the largest junior High Schools of our city, since 420 students approximately study in it divided in three grades. There are 40 teachers and 5 teachers of special education for students with learning difficulties as well as 2 teachers who have taken over the responsibility of assisting the main teacher in case of parallel teaching in the classroom. Apart from the main body of the disciplines various environmental and cultural projects are carried out every year in our school such as projects for the respect of diversity issue, e-twinning projects, health and education activities, meetings for job orientation and car accidents, focusing, in this way, on the development of transversal skills and communicative competences of all the students.

We have identified two main project teachers who will work with the project, but there are also three other “back up” teachers who will also work with the teachers and students.

The participation of our school to a European project seals its multi-dimensional profile and provides an added value. More specifically the project “Bon appetit” is a topic of great interest for our school since the importance of food is significant especially for the students. That’s why, over the past years, several health education activities have been run in our school. Within the subject of domestic economy, students of the first grade are taught the importance of the nutritional value of foods and ingredients, which is why students prepare by themselves their healthy breakfast and hey share it in the classroom with their classmates. Likewise, during the subject of French language, students prepare French dishes and taste them in the classroom in order to learn in an experiential way and more easily the French vocabulary of food. The importance of healthy food is also mentioned within the subject of history of first and second grade. One of the main topics for the ancient and byzantine times is food. Over the past years, students of our school have visited museums and have attended lectures about food during the ancient times. And last but not least, Cretan and Mediterranean diet are often mentioned in combination with the importance of exercise within the subject of physical education. As the percentage of obese children has risen in Greece, a lot of talk is made about the importance of Cretan diet. The school has placed an emphasis on international projects and takes part in them in order to further the knowledge of our teachers and increase motivation of our students. The school has placed a high importance on students and teachers working with other European schools, which will provide an excellent platform for students to gain new transversal skills and knowledge outside the classroom.

Previously the 13thGymnasium of Heraklion has been an Erasmus+ KA219 project partner and the title of the project was “Keep on shining: a project on lighthouses.