The 2nd Gymnasium of Trikala is situated in the city of Trikala (70.000 inhabitants) in Thessaly and was constructed in 1976. 300 students attend our school at present. Their ages range between 12 and 15 years old. Their parents’ socioeconomic backgrounds are of mixed types: civil servants, workers, farmers, financial immigrants from neighbouring countries( Albania, Romania, Bulgaria etc.). For 3 years now, there is also a special class for refugee students (20 students of ages around 12-15) coming mainly from Syria due to war and the resulting humanitarian crisis in this country. Our school is particularly sensitized in educational issues about immigrant and refugee students. In recent years we have managed to prevent these students from leaving school prematurely.
The basic principal of our school is to provide all students the same and equal opportunities, regardless of origin, colour, gender, religion and race. Our school is always pursuing the development of innovative actions and good practices which will serve this basic principle, looking forward to our school’s internationalization. Trikala was among the first cities in Greece which sheltered refugees in our country.There are around 20 refugee students mainly from Syria and Iraq. Also, there around 25 immigrant students from Balkan countries and China. Refugee students are vulnerable for many reasons including economic and cultural factors too. We have realized that we should make a decision to work towards social inclusion of immigrant students to promote equality, social cohesion as well as active citizenship. Also, their living standards, health and education should be improved. For this reason they should also develop their communication skills. We should give motivation and provide the proper environment so that they keep attending school.To create a classroom environment more tolerant and more effective aim at the educational success of all students. Also, to adapt to the culture of the host country without losing their own culture so our immigrant students develop both the host country’s language as well as language skills in English. Finally, this project will help us prepare the proper infrastructure. Most teachers are not qualified so there will be a development of personnel’s qualifications. Teachers will be trained and approach the refugee students in order to develop new teaching approaches in methodology and adopt good practices.