school

Translated article from Finnish newspaper

Rantapohja the 23th of February 2005 (the local newspaper in Yli-Ii area)

Michael Goode (left) and James Addy found a good snowdrift to make snow angels even around the reindeer fence.

Snow was a Big Wonder

Snow, reindeers and the Santa Claus were the most fascinating things for the English guests who were at the Jakku School previous week. The group whose visit was funded by the EU Comenius project were keen to come back to Finland another time.

The group that arrived on Monday to the Jakku School consisted of seven 6-7 years old children, one parent for each child and two teachers, sixteen altogether from the Almondbury School at Yorkshire in Northern Britain. ”This is the first time in Finland for everyone but me. Both children and parents have been enchanted.” This is how Jane Sargent, the head teacher of the Almondbury School, describes the feelings.

The visitors were welcome to the Jakku School in a common celebration with the whole school. The Finnish school practises were described by the pupils of 5-6 classes together with Erkki Tjader, the teacher of English language. The younger pupils presented themselves by singing national Lappish and Finnish songs, e.g. the traditional ”ratiritiralla”. The Moomin troll introduced the visitors to the scool facilities.

The young Finnish and English children get along wery well and they play with each other in spite of the language barrier. The older children in Jakku School act as godparents and interpreters, said Helena Saija, the head teacher of the Jakku School.

The river aroused amazement

Beforehand we wished to have a lot of snow activities and our wish was really carried out. The children love so much playing in the snow that it is almost impossible to get them in, said the parents with a laugh. The biggest wonders for the children were the Santa Clause they met in Tannila’s reindeer hut, the walk on the frozen river, the visits to the Stone Age Center Kierikkikeskus and to the Snow Castle in Kemi. The English also enjoyed snow when sliding down the slopes, riding a snow mobile or in a sleigh drawn be a reindeer and, of course, skiing cross-country.

Skiing seemed be a challenging activity at the beginning. The children first got only a few metres before falling down, told Seppo Jaara, the father of one of the host families. But after the initial difficulties and with some guidance the skiing started to succeed better and better. Paul and James turned out to be champion skiers. They skied more than one mile together.

In addition to snow activities the visitors made Valentine’s day cards together with the Finnish children, got acquainted with lessons and the Finnish school food. Jane Sargent told that there is a significant difference between the Finnish and English school food. Here the food is much more healthful. The other difference is that in England the children start the school at the age of three.

The English visitors packed their luggage on Thursday and the leave-taking was very plaintive and wistful. The children would have liked to stay longer in Yli-Ii. ’We have here so much fun that we would like never to return home’, announced Martin Tones and Joe Mourne, both six years old. Jane Sargent was of the same opinion: we got good friends and were taken a very good care of in Yli-Ii, hopefully these contacts endure. Jakkukyla is absolutely the best place to get familiar with the Finnish course of life.

Within the EU Comenius project also Swedish, Norwegian, Slovak and German children get possibility to become familiar with the Jakku School and its people and life. The pupils of the participating schools in the project, named as ’The Incredible Journey’, introduce with the help of their mascot animals to each other their schools, countries, cultures and environments. The first package left Jakku School the 7th of November 2005. Its first stop is Iserbarg School at Hamburg in Germany. The contents included the Jakku School mascot lynx named ’Leevi’, a video film and a photo collection about the life at the scool, card greetings and small presents.

The goal of the project is to improve the teaching quality, boost the studying of foreign languages, develop the professional skills of the school personnel and increase interaction between cultures.

Susanna Tikka

After some encouraging from the Almondbury head teacher Jane Sargent, Zara Washington and Danielle McCrorie ventured to stoke the reindeer named ’Aino’, owned by Jari Jussila from Yli-Ii

A warm welcome for Almondbury Infants on their trip to frozen Finland!

In September 2005 children at Almondbury Infant and Nursery School became involved in an EU funded Comenius project, managed by the British Council in the UK. Over 3 years, project schools apply for funding to promote learning about life and culture in other European countries. Almondbury is linked with schools in Finland, Germany, Norway, Slovakia and Sweden.

The school was awarded funding for 2 members of staff, 4 pupils and 4 parents to visit our partner school in Finland to experience life just below the Arctic Circle in the Finnish winter. Interested parents were keen that as many children as possible were given the opportunity to travel. Parents agreed to pay their own air fares so that all the funding was available to pay for children’s fares. Early on the morning of Sunday 12th February, 7 Year 2 children, each with one parent, met at school. Accompanied by 2 staff, they set off for Manchester Airport to fly to Helsinki and then on to Oulu in the north of Finland. Our partner school, Jakun Koulu is a small primary school in the remote village of Yli-Ii, 40 km from Oulu, on the southern edge of Lapland.
Preparation for the trip was extensive because of the young age of the children. We were well prepared for the very low temperatures, but the children were amazed and excited when they saw such deep snow everywhere. After a welcome party given by our host families we set off to the various houses where we would be staying for 4 nights. Travelling to school the next morning was an adventure. Some children were driven to school across the frozen river (on the ice – not across a bridge) and others walked across. Some children followed paths cut into the deep snow. Going to school was a lot of fun!
Each morning the Almondbury children worked alongside their Finnish friends in school. Playtimes in the snow were very popular, sliding down slopes and making snow angels. School lunch was served at 11.30a.m. each day, after which we went on local excursions.

We visited the Snow Castle and Ice Hotel at Kemi and enjoyed trying out the beds, tables and chairs made from blocks of ice taken from the Baltic Sea. As our party left the hotel we were fascinated to meet 2 people booking into the hotel for the night!

In temperatures of -20C we visited a reconstructed Stone Age village at Kierikki. We walked through the forest to the shores of a frozen lake, spent time making jewellery in the huts, warmed ourselves by open fires and tried some archery out of doors. The children showed themselves to be very capable with longbows!

Our host families kitted us out with boots, cross country skis and ski poles and we joined the Finnish children for their sports afternoon on the school’s cross country ski track. Our children loved skiing and also enjoyed riding on kick sleighs. The adults provided the power for the kick sleighs, which can best be described as an ice scooter on two runners with a chair on the front for a child to sit on.

Most evenings with our host families were spent skiing, sledging or socialising with other families, but our final evening was a well kept secret. We were driven into a forest to where large fires had been lit for us. To everyone’s delight, out of the darkness Father Christmas appeared on a reindeer sleigh with presents for everyone. For the remainder of the evening we enjoyed reindeer and snow mobile sleigh rides across a frozen lake. After we had cooked sausages over the fires and shared a meal with our hosts the evening and the visit drew to a close.

The benefits and learning from the visit far outweigh all the pre-trip anxieties about organising foreign visits for young children. Ian Kirby, Educational Visits Advisor, gave valuable support to the school during our preparations for the trip. Yli-Ii community is keen to continue the link with Almondbury after the project ends and I have no qualms about organising further foreign trips for our pupils. On the flight back to the UK one of the children summarised everyone’s feelings about the visit – it was awesome!

March 1st 2006

Rather than bombard you with lots of short letters, I have gathered a few pieces of information for you, together with some requests and reminders.

REMINDER – HUDDERSFIELD TOWN MATCH TICKETS
The last date for ordering tickets is Monday 6th March.

Diary dates for the remainder of this term
(Further details to follow)

Wednesday 8th March – The school photographer will be in school to take individual photos. Please let us know if you do not want your child’s photo to be taken.
Family photos will start from 8.30a.m.

Friday 10th March – FAINS Jumble Sale at 6.00p.m.

Tuesday / Wednesday 14th & 15th March - Parents’ Evenings 5pm to 8pm

Friday 7th April – 9.30a.m. Easter Service at All Hallows – please join us if you can.

3.10p.m. School closes for Easter holiday

Tuesday 25th April – School re-opens for summer term
Please note – this date may be different from other local schools.

Toys in school
Please can I ask for your co-operation in reducing the number of toys being brought to school? In particular, teachers are remarking that children are being distracted in class by Tamagotchis which have been brought in. Please can you ensure that children do not bring any electronic toys to school? Any that are seen will be kept by the class teacher until an adult can collect them.

Classes 1 and 2 have a ‘show and tell’ time each Friday. The purpose of ‘show and tell’ is to develop children’s speaking and listening skills. Teachers encourage children to bring one thing to talk about if it is new or unusual. There is no expectation that each child has to bring an item for ‘show and tell’ every week. In other classes, we prefer children not to bring toys if possible because of storage problems. If younger children need the comfort of a toy in school we ask that it is limited to one small item per day. We cannot take responsibility for any items brought into school. If things are particularly precious or expensive it is better if they are left at home.

Sickness in school
We are experiencing a growing number of instances when children are sent to school after they have been sick in the previous 24 hours. School Health advises that children should be clear of any illness for 48 hours before returning to school. Stomach upsets are notorious for spreading through schools rapidly. We have had classes with between 10 and 14 children away at a time because of the spread of such illness. Even if your child appears to be well after 24 hours, please will you help us by following the above advice, so that we can contain any outbreaks.

Traffic on Longcroft
I have received phone calls from angry local residents about traffic congestion and inconsiderate parking on Longcroft. Grass is being churned up because cars are being parked on it and residents have been blocked in and are unable to find whoever the offending cars belong to. There have also been reports of a number of cars being parked on the yellow zig-zag lines outside the school gates. The lines are there for the safety of the children and it is an offence to park on them. The last resident I spoke to was noting registrations and asking the police to take action. Please remember we have an agreement with the landlord of the Rose and Crown to use the pub car park for our Park and Stride scheme. It is probably just as quick to park at the pub and walk than to wait in the traffic jams outside school.

I am sorry that a large part of this letter is rather grumpy, but I hope you will agree that all the issues are important to your children’s health, safety and education.