IES Santa Catalina de Alejandría is a state secondary school of the Education Department of the Regional Andalusian Government. It is located in Jaén’s commercial and service area, together with other neighbouring educational establishments. Our school is consequently well integrated in the city’s social and urbanistic structure. Our educational community clearly mirrors local society: a city

with a 100,000 population mainly occupied on the service sector, civil service and trade. Population is quite diverse and middle-class. The family structure, concerning models and origin, is varied. Cultural and academic standards are heterogeneous but we can assume them as mainly medium.

Our educational offer ranges from Compulsory Secondary Education (ESO) to High School and Advanced Vocational Training on Communicative Mediation and Social Integration. Our staff is composed of 80 teachers. Around a thousand students of 14 different nationalities are trained here distributed in 37 groups. The internationalization process has been developed deeply throughout the recent years. Several projects, educational plans and programmes, workgroups and teacher training courses have been successfully implemented. The school actively organizes cultural, complementary and extracurricular activities. Cooperation is one of our school’s most remarkable features – the school facilities are frequently available to local institutions and organizations. This enhances our learning environment with a dynamic and lively atmosphere which has lead to a higher enrolment demand. Families are actively involved in the school life through the School Council, the Parent Association (AMPA), etc. Most of students are highly motivated and are actively involved in all the projects. On the other hand, the school keeps a fluid relationship with all the institutions of its surroundings, public and private. The school, is trying to rise awareness about different essed: overweight and obesity and the distance of the guidelines of the healthy Mediterranean Diet; diseases associated to negative health habits; Globalization and Industrialization and its influence on

trade and our daily consumption habits, as well as awareness of the need of protecting our environment.