The school BG/BRG Leibnitz, founded 60 years ago, is home to 1261 students, making it the biggest high school in the province Styria. Altogether, the students are taught in 49 classrooms, which are located in two different buildings. This school year 113 teachers are employed at the school. The school teaches students from grade 5 until grade 12, the graduation from this school-type allows its students to enrol at University.

Moreover, the school lays a special focus on EAA (the German version of CLIL). This project started in 2014 and it focuses on English as a lingua franca. To allow the students to prepare for life without language borders, all subjects in this project are taught in English. The Austrian Ministry of Education recognized it with the Erasmus+ Award in 2017, as the best project of its kind in Austria.

We also have “SanSchool”, a project that enables our students to get training as a paramedic in the course of their studies. The classes are taught in cooperation with the Red Cross.

Starting in grade 7, the students can choose between a language-oriented program, or a science-focused program, which concentrates on Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics, geometrical drawing and descriptive geometry.

Our motivation to join this project:

The B(R)G Leibnitz has a school canteen in each school building, which offers some healthy and unhealthy snacks. During the breaks, there are huge crowds in front of the canteens; there is always a huge competition for pizza, which can also be “booked”. Students are completely fooled by the colours of snack packages and their tastes without being aware of the calories of the food they consume.

Although medical and health knowledge is firmly anchored in the school’s biology curriculum, the connection of environmental factors, eating routines and lifestyles regarding health is only slightly touched. With more than 1200 students, so naturally, our school has to face different health situations all the time. Some of our students are currently battling cancer, so a project like this would help their spirit immensely and also serve as an awareness raiser for other students.

Additionally, Austria is experiencing a debate right now whether smoking should be banned from bars and restaurants (still permitted) – pointing out health issues would also help our entire scholar community to deepen their understanding of this matter.