In our preschool program, students spend half their day inside and half their day outside . . .
We learn everywhere!
For more information about our preschool program:
*(closed blog for student protection – you must ask for a password, only takes one day)
Filed under SSB information
Classes 1 – 3 and our older Preschool students officially opened our new “Hut in the Woods” last week. 
Built by Danish scouts, Class 10 technology students, and dedicated parents, the new Hut provides SSB students a classroom in the forest. SSB is grateful to the Finnish state for providing funding for this project.
It is an exciting time in the forest right now with so much new growth – a perfect background for studying biology, or why not finish your reading homework in this quiet environment?
Thanks to all who have helped to make this area possible for our learning outdoors – we love it!
Filed under Scandinavian education, SSB information
To develop our school, we must continue to critically evaluate our progress . . .
Each year, SSB conducts evaluation surveys among all members of our learning community. Students, staff, and parents are encouraged to participate by answering questions about our school. The questions focus on: Values and Learning Environment, School Goals, Instruction and Learning, School Results, Management & Organization, and Evaluation and Quality. The questions are modified in each survey for the target group. SSB has used similar questionnaires for three years which makes it possible to measure development over time.
The following are presentations of the results of this year’s surveys.
The results of these surveys are studied and discussed by all groups within our community. The Parents Association Board, the School Board, the Student/Class Councils, and the staff participate in this analysis work. The results from these surveys and the discussions form the basis for our continued development. The results are specifically used as we plan for the coming school year.
Thanks to all who responded – thank you for your feedback!
Filed under professional development, SSB information
Gym 2 student, Ellen Merete Mo, took on an ambitious CAS project*. CAS – Creativity, Action, and Service is an obligatory part of the IB Diploma Programme.
The CAS requirement is a fundamental part of the programme and takes seriously the importance of life outside the world of scholarship, providing a refreshing counterbalance to academic studies.
For part of her “service” hours, Ellen Merete scoured the school archives for hidden treasures and 
prepared items for the Parents Association Garage Sale. She prepared mainly old, unused books, unused classroom maps, and older electronic equipment. According to Ellen Merete, the “best sellers were definitely the maps!”
It’s true . . . one man’s trash is another man’s treasure. All in all, Ellen Merete managed to recycle and resell items earning 175 euros. She has happily donated that money to our Preschool for new outside toys.
Thanks, Ellen Merete!
Filed under Uncategorized
“Nature is not only all that is visible to the eye… it also includes the inner pictures of the soul.”
-Edvard Munch
On 30th of April and 1st of May we gave a great exhibition in honour of Edvard Munch 150 years this year! He is still the most famous Scandinavian visual artist today. He was an early expressionist who brought his feelings out in his works with great depth. This is what we went to search for with students on our quest to understanding expressionism, the acrylic painting technique and especially the essence of Edvard Munch.
The themes we covered from Edvard Munch are LOVE, FEAR and LANDSCAPE. With class 2 and 3 we searched for love and worked on creating art works that touch the viewers with the feeling like Edvard Munch´s works dance of life and the kiss. With class 4 and 5 we looked for things that scare us and worked on creating paintings that scare or make the viewer feel uncomfortable. Just like when looking at Edvard Munch´s paintings Scream, Madonna or Vampire. With class 6 and 7 we looked for our perfect landscapes and created expressionist paintings from them like Edvard Munch´s landscape paintings.
Riikka Maunuaho, Arts and Crafts SSB
Filed under Scandinavian education, SSB information
Growing up in the hot city of Managua, Nicaragua, I was seven and remember playing ‘mom and dad’ with my younger sister Elizabeth who was five. While playing, we spoke an invented language imagining that it was fun to use a code that no one could understand. We didn’t even understand each other, but I guess our gestures and facial expressions were enough to play our game.
Being a bilingual child forty years ago was a little bit unusual. Elizabeth and I were born in a multicultural family, from a Scottish father and a Nicaraguan mother living in Montreal. Thus, English and Spanish were our father/mother tongues although English was the dominant one due to the surrounding environment. Unfortunately, one day we found ourselves surprisingly immersed into a Spanish speaking world. Nicaragua had become our new home after my parents’ divorce. My mother thought best that English should no longer be spoken at home in order to better integrate in what was to become our new country and culture. It was a difficult experience because part of my identity was taken away. It lasted eight years, when the civil war in Nicaragua forced us to emigrate to Miami, USA. Luckily, we were able to speak English again. But this time it was Spanish that was prohibited in public places, and teachers reminded students how important was to speak English at home. Nothing was mentioned about the students’ mother tongue; on the contrary it denied them their identities.
Now, I understand that ‘assimilationist policies in education discourage students from maintaining their mother tongues.’ (Cummins, 2001:3)
Today, I am an ESOL (English as a second/other language) teacher and I believe in the importance of developing and protecting a child’s mother tongue because it is the one that carries a person’s identity and culture. This is why in 2007 the United Nations Declaration of human rights of Indigenous people declared mother tongue a human right. Cummins, 2009:5 explains how fragile mother tongues are and how easily one can lose them during the first years of schooling. My own family experience shows how difficult it is to keep mother tongue(s) when my husband has Luxembourgish as his first language and I have Spanish/English, and, to complicate matters, we live in a foreign country. When our daughters started school in Belgium, their teachers recommended that we speak French to avoid confusing our children. In spite of speaking Spanish or English to our children, most of the time they will respond in French.
Although mother tongue has been declared a human right, the fact is that in present day societies, people travel much more than ten years ago. Thus, in many cases children find themselves submersed in a foreign language that they adopt as their first one. According to Cummins, 2001:3 any foreign language imposed creates a distance in the relationship between children and parents as well as grandparents. In many cases the foreign language becomes the official other tongue at home.
When it comes to the area of linguistics one’s mother tongue is the one that helps a child build the learning of other languages (Cummins, 2001:3). Cummins explains that children who are taught in their mother tongue are able to transfer their knowledge into another language because they have had a good foundation (i.e. vocabulary, grammar, idiomatic expressions) of the first language at home and later in school.
What can be done to stop children from losing their mother tongue?
Cummins, 2001:5 suggests that parents should practice their mother tongue at home and continue doing the reading and writing activities. In addition, families can create the possibilities for children to practice their mother tongue, for example keeping in contact with a mother tongue community, and visiting the home country; children should meet play groups where they can speak their mother tongue, etc.
If the school does not provide mother tongue education, teachers should promote mother tongue development by giving positive messages about the importance of learning different languages (Cummins 2001:5).
Teachers should encourage communication by all means. If children struggle to respond to a question in a foreign language, they should be able to express it using their mother tongue. In my teaching experience, I have asked another student to translate the response. This practice, I believe, increases the child’s learning confidence.
Children should be encouraged to produce identity texts; texts that can be poems, songs, video clips, using their mother tongue and afterwards the words can be translated into the foreign language (Cummins, 2006:61). It is a way to value the cultural capital of each child.
In sum if we want to have an enriched diverse society and preserve our cultures, it is important that we continue to protect, develop and share our mother tongues at home, school and public places.
Fiona Meyer
English teacher
References:
Cummins, J. 2001. Bilingual Children and mother tongue: Why is it important for education? Accessed on: April 14th 2013 http://www.iteachilearn.com/cummins/mother.htm
Cummins, J. 2006. Identity texts: The Imaginative Construction of Self through Multiliteracies Pedagogy. In Garcia, O., Skutnabb-Kangas, T. and Guzman-Torres, M. Imagining Multilingual Schools. New York: Multilingual Matters.
Cummins, J. 2009. Bilingual children’s mother tongue: Why is it important for education? Linguamon, House of Languages. University of Toronto.
*mother tongue and first language are terms used interchangeably in this article.
Filed under education policy, reading, Scandinavian education
Today we visited the European Parliament. We departed from SSB at 08.00am and arrived approximately one hour later in Brussels. Because of the heavy traffic we arrived a bit later than expected. When we arrived, we met up with 
Mikael Sjöholm (Christina Newport travelled with us from Waterloo) and went inside to get our visitor badges. The parliamentarian from the Swedish Pirate Party, Amelia Andersdotter, was our guide during the beginning of the tour.
After passing through the security check we took the escalators to floor E1 where we ran into Anna Maria Corazza Bildt. We said hello, and then we went into a 
conference room where we sat down for about half an hour. Amelia Andersdotter talked about herself, the Party and the European Parliament. Then her assistant told her that she had to go for a meeting. We went out of the conference room and the assistant took us on a tour of the buildings. After about an hour of walking through the buildings, we went to the Mickey Mouse cafe and some of us bought something to eat. We sat there for about 20 
minutes and then continued the tour.
It was a very interesting and educational visit. A lot of the stuff Amelia talked about were things that were new for us. And the tour in the different buildings was also very interesting. One thing we didn’t get to do was to listen to the interpreters in an real conference. Lucas and I were the first to go into the conference room, but as I reached the seat the security guard told us that we couldn’t be in there. So close, yet so far . . .
But all in all it was a fun experience and we would like to go there again sometime.
Johan Magnusson & Lucas Dag
Filed under Scandinavian education, SSB information
In addition to evaluation surveys, informal discussions, and the Learning Cycle, Swedish GYM students were asked to express their ideas about SSB in a poetry assignment as well.
The results were interesting and inspiring! Here is a sample of some of their works:
Jag färdas ner mot SSB,
Skolan som efter alla dessa år
Står kvar som en diamant;
Briljerar och glänser i all evighet.
Det gudomliga slottet,
Den vackra naturen,
Har sjunkit djupt ner
I hjärtat.
Jag färdas ner mot SSB,
Mitt andra hem,
Min andra själ,
Du har varit mig så när;
Vårdat mig,
Fostrat mig
Ord kan ej beskriva hur
Jag älskar dig.
Jag färdas ner mot SSB,
Där jag för alltid ska bli kvar,
I drömmen hittar jag mig dit
Till slottets väggar kommer jag;
Om blommorna vissnar,
Om taket faller,
Då kommer jag
Som riddaren i nöden.
Jag färdas ner mot SSB,
Skolan som efter alla dessa år,
Förblir en del av mig,
Ett intryck i mitt hjärta;
Det gudomliga slottet,
Den vackra naturen
Kommer alltid vara
Där för mig.
Dennis Voronine
Filed under Scandinavian education, SSB information
For the last two weeks, Swedish 1-3 students have participated in a reading competition with other Swedish students around the world. The competition was organized by the Swedish School in Riyadh. Learn more about this school, here>>
Students have been reading everyday and keeping up with how many minutes they have read. In two weeks, our students have read an average of 296 minutes/student - wow!
Our top readers were:
Sebastian åk.2-581 min.
Karoline åk.2-470 min.
Hugo åk.2-432 min. (not pictured due to illness)
Alexander åk.1-422 min.
Hjalmar åk.1-415 min.
We now await the final results from the 19 schools who participated. There will be prizes for individual students and the class who rea
d the most minutes/student.
This competition and celebration of learning is in connection with further celebrations of World Book Day .
At SSB, we want to do everything we can to encourage our students to read – Thanks SSR for hosting such a fun competition!
Filed under reading, Scandinavian education, SSB information
April 18th, SSB welcomed Her Royal Highness Princess Astrid of Belgium as our guest of honor in our celebration of 40 years of student success.
In addition to Princess Astrid, we were so proud to welcome our Nordic Ambassadors from Norway, Denmark, and Finland, as well as many members of our Nordic community. Also on hand were many of the persons who have worked to build our school from a small group in 1973 to a thriving school of more than 300 today.
The ceremony led by two students, Astrid Hafvenström and Astrid Bernadotte af Wisborg, included speeches about the history and the future of our school, musical performances by SSB and Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel students. There was also an introduction of our Queen Astrid photo exhibition. Following the ceremony, Princess Astrid officially opened the exhibition and guests viewed all of the photos and artifacts.
The event ended with a reception for all guests. Guests were served the famous Swedish treat, princesstårta. The recipe for this traditional Swedish dessert was actually developed by combining recipes from Queen Astrid and her sisters.
It was a wonderful event. Our staff were engaged as always. Our students were respectful and proud.
Our guests were happy and genuinely kind in their well wishes.
Thank you to all who made this day possible – it was definitely a team effort. A real celebration of our school and -
