We wanted to improve the school's curriculum in the field of mental health in order to enable better integration of students of different cultures through the implementation of Mindfulness methods and techniques on a weekly basis, using ten techniques during five school hours in classroom and subject classes. To achieve this goal, it was necessary to improve the expertise and abilities of teachers and other non-teaching staff through the project, so that we could provide better support to foreign and domestic students in accepting international culture and deal with different sources of stress present in society and school. Through professional training in different European countries, we have gained knowledge about various techniques, methods and tools in the field of mental health, with a special emphasis on Mindfulness. This enabled us to face challenges in an innovative and creative way.
We are an international school that implements an elementary education program approved by the Ministry of Science and Education. Currently our school is attended by children of thirty three different nationalities, together with a team of teachers who come from more than eight different countries. Despite the professionalism and dedication of all school employees we face various challenges inherent in living and working in an international environment. Adaptation of children to a new environment, and the awareness that they will probably leave the country again and part with friends, be separated from their family, etc, is a challenge for their general functioning. Furthermore, all this adds additional stress to recent events such as earthquakes, pandemics and wars, which children, as well as teachers, are going through. We consider developing the ability to be aware of current living and strengthening self-regulation skills as necessary competencies for our students and teachers. Taking all this into account we recognized the need for teachers to be educated in the field of mental health and Mindfulness methods so that they could pass on this expertise to other colleagues, students, parents and people connected to our community