Our NMS (these letters stand for “Neue Mittelschule – new form of secondary school”) is situated in Trofaiach in the Austrian Federal State of Styria, close to the city of Leoben. Surrounded by mountains that reach up to about 2.000 metres, Trofaiach has a mainly rural character. Nevertheless, many of our students’ parents work for one of the big industrial companies, which are situated in Leoben, mainly VOEST-Alpine (steel company) or ATS (the world’s leading manufacturer of printed circuit boards e.g. for mobile phones).

Our students are from ten to fourteen/fifteen years of age (so they may be among the youngest participants in this project) and have different background – the variety reaches from genuine local to first generation migrant and even asylum seeker – but all of them are well integrated and there is neither social nor ethnic or religious trouble. Being a secondary school we see our task to either prepare our students to face the challenges of higher education (about 30 per cent of our students ) or to make them fit for their future professional life.

For several years now our school has been in close cooperation with BHAK/BHAS Eisenerz. Teachers from that school teach at NMS Trofaiach and there is a constant flow of information and knowledge between our insitutions.

Recently these partner-schools participate in an ICT project by the Austrian ministry of Education on the implementation and use of tablet computers in school lessons.

NMS Trofaiach also is a partner institution of both Styrian "Pädagogische Hochschule" (pedagogical universities), providing supervised training to future teachers. One of the reasons why we’d like to participate in this European programme is to encourage co-operation among nations and intellectual exchange, thus reinforcing the European dimension of education and intercultural awareness among students.

Moreover, this partnership will motivate students and teachers to use English as working language, improving their level of proficiency; as well as improveing the quality of education. We believe education is not limited to school or the local community - it should be part of a greater community as The European Union. The contact established among teachers and students of different cultures and languages will allow the exchange of information, knowledge and experiences, making us better professionals, better citizens and human beings. By comparing our reality with the reality of others, teachers and students will be more aware not only of their own reality, but also of their European citizenship.

Our school has an ERASMUS+ core team with a permanent teaching position. If by any chance one or more members of the core team leave, the other members will ensure that everything will go as planned.

NMS Trofaiach has experienced and trained teachers, with expertise in teaching and pedagogical methodologies. They have experience in the implementation of innovative teaching methods.