Visit to Vammala - November 2003

Visit to Vammala - November 2003
Students and teachers outside the Finnish School

Four students - Grainne Hegarty, Jason Thomson, Sian Ashby and Gordon Dunlop - visited the Comenius partner school in Vammala, Finland from 5-9 November 2003. They were accompanied by 2 teachers - Mrs Armour from the English Department and Mr Davidson from the Business Studies Department (the Comenius Project Co-ordinator).

The students were hosted by the families of Finnish students and the teachers by Finnish teachers. The Finnish hosts made us all very welcome and could not do enough for us. Five German students and their 2 teachers were also visiting and being hosted.

We settled into our hosts' homes on the Wednesday evening of our arrival. Thursday started with some "survival" Finnish lessons followed by some team building involving the Scottish, Finnish and German students. The team building involved a teachers versus students competition to complete a jigsaw of the map of Finland. The students won easily and very kindly shared their prize of a box of chocolates with the "losers".

Later the students were filmed for a "Coming of Age" project which involved each partner country commenting on various aspects of laws affecting their lives. They also commented on the stereotypical views that each country had of each other. This resulted in lots of fun and laughter. The film will be processed and produced on to a DVD at some future time.

On Thursday afternoon, the Vammala school's new video conferencing equipment was given its launch with a link back to Peebles High School. This was attended by the press and a report appeared in the local newspaper the following day. The press photographer very cleverly managed to capture the Peebles Rector, Mr John Brown, on the video screen in the photgraph published along with the article.

Friday started at 8 am with a lesson in Scottish Country Dancing led by Mr Davidson assisted by the Scottish students. This was followed by attendance at English classes by the students. The Finnish students enjoyed hearing native English-speakers in the classrooms. The visiting teachers took lessons in English, German and French and Mr Davidson gave a talk on the local industries of Peebles to a class of Finnish students who reported on the industries around Vammala.

On Friday afternoon, all the visitors were given an opportunity to have a go at cross country skiing at a nearby indoor skiing centre. This was enjoyed by all but with varying degrees of success (Mr Davidson has edited this part!) The students spent Friday evening in a log cabin by a lake where they had a get-together with the German students and many of the Finnish students. The teachers enjoyed a meal with most of the staff of the school and even had an early visit from Santa!

Students and teachers spent Saturday with their hosts and most people spent the day in the nearby town of Tampere where sightseeing and shopping were the orders of the day.

This was a most successful visit with many new friendships being forged. Our thanks are due to all the hosts for their generous hospitality but especially to Hilkka Rajakorpi, the Comenius Co-ordinator at the Vammala school who organised such an enjoyable and varied programme.

Everyone is already looking forward to the next visit in early March which will be to the German partner school in Ostfildern.

George Davidson - Comenius Project Co-ordinator, Peebles High School

Finland in November - the lake near the school

Lessons in "survival" Finnish

Team building game - a jigsaw of Finland. The students beat the teachers and won the prize of a box of chocolates which they very sportingly shared with the losers!