School Blog

From the Principal

Information from Principal

Dear students and guardians of IES Skärholmen

Time flies when you are having fun and the routines are settling in school. We are grateful that many parents, especially in junior school, came to our parent meeting. We talked about our goal of the year to create more peace and calm in the school. Our survey from the evening showed that parents considered tha 86% of the lesson were peaceful and calm so far! We have also started asking students every week and we get similar results from them. This week, students report that 90% of their lessons are peaceful and calm. The surveys give us important feedback about which subject and year groups where we need to be most focused to get the right work environment.


 

School Photograph

We are looking into if we can have our school photograph in October. The reason for the delay is the new data law(GDPR) but we are in the process of arranging school photographs whilst maintaining compliance.

 

Study day on Friday 5th Oktober

 

On Thursday 4th October all staff in school are taking part in a conference. Ordinary teaching finishes at 15.00 on this day but mother tongue lessons continue as normal, as does Junior Club. The school is also closed on Friday 5th October. During the conference, we will be discussing how we can promote and establish good behaviour in our students, effective teaching routines and how some departments in school can be more service minded. All are area where we are looking to develop in response to feedback from parents and students.

 

Reading Week 44

Week 44 is a reading week for all students and teachers. Some students in grade 9 will be invited to ‘holiday school’ during this week to support any subjects where there is a risk of not reaching the goal. Those students and parents will receive information individually if they are to be involved. From the Spring term, students from Grade 8 will also be invited to holiday school.

 

School Yard

The students have been wonderful and have written letters to the council to help hurry along the plans for the expansion of the school yard. This will still take time and as such, we will be making an investment in the small area we have right now, even if it is only for a short term. More information to follow shortly.

 

PTA

 

During week 40, I will start calling all those who registered to be part of the PTA. Each member will be contacted three times every semester and the results of which will be published as part of my Monthly Letter. I hope that this proves to be a good start in moving towards a more active partnership where more parents are routinely involved. This will be evaluated over time.

 

As normal, you are most welcome to meet me or Mr. West between 7.30 and 8.20 if you have questions or ideas.

Alexandra Ohlén, Principal IES Skärholmen

House System 2018/2019

Our new House System continues in the 2018-19 academic year and so far is off to a great start! We kicked off the return to school with our House Days events and had a blast participating in four activities dedicated to the four A’s - Academics, Aesthetics, Athletics and Attitude. Like last year, the students who earn the most House Points will receive monthly awards in each respective area. What’s even more exciting is now their achievements will also be shared with their families - we will mail home certificates celebrating their success as students who are going above and beyond! Parents, check your mailboxes!

Something else that’s new is two of the members of our team. Please welcome Mr. Byström as the new leader of House Sahara and Mr. Biernat as the leader of House Everest. We’re very excited to have them serving on our team and helping to promote a positive school culture this year!

Please stay posted for updates on events and competitions happening throughout the year. 2018-2019 will be the best yet for celebrating our incredible IES Skärholmen students!

Year 5 Boggle Board

Year 5 students have been competing weekly by putting letters together to form words with this boggle board. Our year 5 boggle board has been inspiring friendly competition amongst the students while helping to generate language skills and building students English vocabulary.

Staff Training - 5th October

Friday the 5th of October the school was closed for staff training.

During the conference, we discussed how we can promote and establish good behaviour in our students, effective teaching routines and how our help teams: Reception, Care and Development and Student Care Team can become more serviceminded in their approach to parents.

The result was great and we hope that you will see it reflected in our work in the future!

Year 9 students compliment our Teachers and the Peace and Calm in National News

On Sunday October 30th, three of our year 9 students commented to Svenska Dagbladet about the teachers and peace and calm at IES Skärholmen. 
If you would like to read the full article you can click on this link:

https://www.svd.se/lektionerna-ar-tystare-an-pa-min-forra-skola

Otherwise, here is the short version of the article.

Calmer environment and better teachers. The reasons for school choices differ. SvD asked students at a municipal and a private school about what they like about their school.

The teachers are the best

Ibrahim Alrashedi, year 9, International English School in Skärholmen:

How did you choose school?
- There's nothing special, in my previous school the teachers were bad. We searched around and found this school.

What is the best and worse things about your school?
- Det worst part is the school yard and the best part is the teachers who can actually teach. I have become a lot better since I started here and my grades have gone up a lot. It's important to me that I learn in school, my whole life I have learnt that school is important and it comes first.

What makes a good teacher?
- A good teacher  is someone I can understand, who can teach and who helps when needed. It's good when they know both English and Swedish. We have a few teachers who only know one of those languages.

The lessons are quiet

Hampus Bergholm, year 9, International English School in Skärholmen:

How did you choose school?
- My previous school was bad with many troublesome students, the school in general was pretty bad. So I switched to this school because it's better. It's less troublesome and it's bilingual too.
- The lessons are the best, they're quieter than in my last schoool. The worse part is the spaces we have, we don't have that much, and we don't have a very big school yard.

What important qualities makes a good school?
- Teachers, that teachers can understand you and you can ask teachers a lot and they can explain in several different ways.

All my teachers believe I can grow and reach my goals

Dyllan Chandraratne, year 9, International English School in Skärholmen:

Why did you start at this school?
- I go to this school because I learn a lot, and because I have better teachers (compared to my last school). All my teachers believe I can grow and reach my goals.

What are the best and worse things about your school?
- The best thing is the food and the worst is the schedule and that the teachers don't keep an eye on the younger students who misbehave.

What important qualities makes a good school?
- That teachers respect students and students respect teachers. But teachers need to be more responsible for the younger, less disruptive students.

What makes a good teacher?
- A teacher who plans the whole academic year. It's also good that teachers teach in a simple way, that they hand out homework and provide good advice.

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