Our school is located in a small town Brezno, in the middle of Slovakia. Currently, there are 297 student studying and 23 teachers teaching at Gymnazium of Jan Chalupka in Brezno. The state educational programme is divided into two independent programmes – for 1.-4.year of an 8-year study – 105 students aged from 11 to 14 years of age and for 1.-4.year of an 8-year study and 5.-8.year of an 8-year study – 192 students aged from 15-19 years of age. Gymnazium is a school which provides a study of general knowledge and prepares its students primarily for further education at all types of universities, as well as practical use of their knowledge in personal and social life. School graduates are studying at various universities and many of them have become successful scientists, doctors, teachers and managers in top companies.

The aim of school educational programme is to develop students’ key competencies in foreign languages, science and ICT. Education system in Slovakia enables schools to use optional lessons to broaden content and performance standard of the chosen subject or to create an entirely new subject such as seminars or lessons which focus on solving practical tasks in laboratories and support inquiry-based activities done by students. This creates space for project teaching and implementation of cross-curricular cooperation and topics. Our students work on a variety of research projects – water monitoring in the local river Hron belongs among the most successful ones. The Hron is part of our cultural and natural heritage and the objective of the project is to solve the problem of water and raise the issue of sustainable development with an emphasis on three attributes -environmental, economic and social contributions. The long-term cooperation with the University of Matej Bell in Banska Bystrica supports implementation of Inquiry Based Science Education, innovative technologies and methods in the teaching process of natural sciences and it has also become the basis of our school’s participation in the national project called IT Academy – Education for the 21st Century. The aim of this project is to motivate students to educate themselves in the areas that will significantly help them find employment and to support ICT education and ICT technologies in natural sciences.

The interest in natural sciences has recently risen due to building of The Garden which Teaches in the school yard. Particular elements of the garden serve as teaching aids and enable to explore and prove natural phenomena directly in the nature as well as help to develop creative and scientific thinking of students. The added value of the project is represented by development of teamwork skills, critical thinking and financial literacy of students while building the garden. We have been also working on the project We Eat Responsibly within the Green School programme since October 2016. It is an international project which responds to the growing interest in responsible food consumption (i.e. avoiding wasting of food, reducing meat consumption, avoiding palm oil, talking about the issue of importing food…). Our primary goal was to increase the interest of students and their parents in local products and thereby contribute to reducing the carbon footprint.

Joining the SUSDI project presents an opportunity to compare young people's views from abroad on responsible eating and gain new experience in solving this global issue.

The motivation of the school to participate in SUSDI project is:

(1) to improve language competencies of students and their knowledge in natural sciences through an inquiry-based teaching method,

(2) to encourage creativity and entrepreneurship of students through designing and implementation of projects of sustainable development,

(3) to develop critical thinking, to support problem solving of everyday life and to support the involvement of students in global issues,

(4) to provide opportunities for students to practice cooperative working both at national and international levels,

(5) to emphasise the importance of foreign languages.

The key people of the project are PaedDr. Jana Chlebušová, a teacher of Chemistry and Maths, who has a 25-year experience in teaching and has been in charge of all running projects focusing on natural sciences, PhDr. Tatiana Kudrnová, a teacher of English and Civics with 34-year experience in teaching, who has been in charge or participated in projects dealing with global issues and Mgr. Viktória Veverková, a teacher of English who deals with language issues, as this project is international.