The Junior High School with Senior High School classes of Kerasohori was founded in 1976 and has worked continuously for the cognitive, mental and physical development of its young pupils ever since. It’s a three-storey building, built on the edge of Kerasohori and surrounded by a forest. Apart from the regular classrooms, it boasts a multi-purpose room, a natural sciences laboratory, a computer lab, a library, and a gym. It’s a small school with only 26 students who need to be transported by bus from nearby villages.
Every day students need to make an hour’s journey in the morning and after the end of classes. For this reason, there is a school canteen offering free breakfast and lunch to students and staff. The staff team consists of 15 teachers: An English Language teacher, a teacher of French, two mathematicians, 5 philologists, 2 physicists, one IT teacher, one teacher of economics and music, and 2 physical education teachers. The teachers of the Junior High School with Senior High School Classes of Kerasohori have been implementing interdisciplinary Environmental Education programs in cooperation with local authorities, athletes, scientists, members of associations and organizations related to the subject of the programs. In the last three years we have organized a number of events which are open to the public, some of them related to music, tradition, sports and health education.
The people living in this area are mainly farmers and stockbreeders. Old women spend their time performing traditional activities and preserve the knowledge passed on to them by their mothers and grandmothers. Such activities include operating the loom, knitting clothes for their little children and making beautiful embroideries. Due to the cultural richness of the area, all teachers and students are very culturally aware and interested in finding out about cultural traits of different parts of the world.
Cultural diversity and preservation of local traditions are very important for the participating teachers and students who have lived in this part of the country with the old stone bridges, the old mansions and the traditional villages. Our teachers are very well qualified with university degrees. Most teachers have IT certificates, they are quite proficient in foreign languages, and some of them have a second university degree. All teachers involved have previous experience in cultural programs with school students and have participated in educational school visits. Some of the participants have lived and worked abroad and have come into contact with students from a variety of cultural backgrounds.
Although the participating students and staff lack significant experience in European programs, this lack of relevant experience is what motivates us to participate with all our energy in what we consider new territory for us. It is a territory that all of us are very keen on exploring and gaining new insights and experience.