03 Oct Success at Parents' Day and Open House - now we're off!

Dear reader!
The weekend's Family Event and Open House was a great success with many happy parents and siblings on Saturday and a record number of visitors on Sunday for the Afterschool Day. The students worked hard both Saturday and Sunday to make activities, tell about the school and their activities. The many visitors gave high praise to the students and we got many registrations for the following school years. Thank you to everyone who recommended Ranum and to those who visited us during the weekend!

REC Girls' football became North-West Jutland champions! In the run-up to the weekend's big events, students prepared presentations and papers on their subjects. On Friday, two boys and one girls' football team had the opportunity to participate in the Nordjy after-school championship. And even though we are not a sports afterschool, you have some tough football girls who won the tournament and only let in one goal! They now go on in the tournament, while the boys take another training session.

It's really nice to feel that pride and energy the students showed in preparing for the weekend. It certainly impressed both the families and the many guests. Already on Friday evening a group of parents and siblings arrived. We gathered for a pleasant evening in the dining room, including Nepalbanko and a parents' café. On Saturday there were parent talks, and although this can be stressful for the students, there was mostly positive feedback and constructive ideas for further development.

We have a fantastic student team and this strengthens the social cohesion of the camaraderie, which in turn strengthens the academic programmes.
After dinner there was a presentation of the profile subjects and after a few hours of activity parents and students could visit different Cultural subjects and hear presentations before the final choice on 1 October.

Open House. Sunday we had invited to the International Breakfast already from 10 am - as last year we were almost overwhelmed by the many guests. It turned out to be a very good idea, and we never imagined that there would be more than 1000 guests within just one hour. The kitchen and gastronomy teams were very busy, but everyone enjoyed breakfasts from different nations. Throughout the school, the students had created exhibitions and activities for the visitors, and of course there were also presentations about the school's values and the international line. We also saw that more families had time to visit several schools, which is important when choosing an afterschool, and practical when you have driven all the way from the border, Zealand or Bornholm.

Throughout the week we have been very busy with the preparations for the upcoming profile trips, as well as the final choices for the 2nd period cultural subjects. The profile subjects have been training and packing for the trips. Adventure went on a long-distance hike and slept in a bivouac in the school meadow on Wednesday evening.

In the collections we focused on travel and learning, and staged a photo, video and article competition for all teachers and students. Through this motivation, the goal is to encourage individual reflection and awareness of the professional trip's content and experiences, and to share these in the school community afterwards. We have put some pretty big prizes up for grabs and you can follow along on the FB page Photo, Video & Article Competition - Ranum Efterskole College. The candidates' photos, films and articles will be published here in weeks 42+43.

Wednesday our Thai guest students from AFS. They will stay with us for 4 weeks and participate in an excursion to Copenhagen, where the Gastronomy team will also be staying for the coming week.

In the choice for cultural subjects on Wednesday we had a tussle between the subjects that didn't stand to get enough votes. The students concerned gathered in the ballroom and debated the situation, and over the next 12 hours it turned out that South Korea, Thaliand and Nigaragua were unfortunately not created. This is unfortunate, but it also reflects the seriousness of open student democracy, which allows for the shaping of new cultural subjects and the risk that well-tried subjects will not be voted back in. The pupils concerned were given the opportunity to choose again and, out of 404 pupils, very few have had to resort to their second priority. This ensures a high level of motivation and ownership of the cultural subjects.

The cultural subjects in the 2nd period will be:
Brazil - Rio culture and nature
Philippines - Culture and diving (Manila-Tabu)
Jamaica - Music tour with Reggaekultur - (Montico Bay)
Japan - Culture, Nature and Youth (Tokyo)
China - Culture and friendship school
Morocco African Performance (Marakesh)
Nepal 1 Friendship school visit
Nepal 2 Cultural trek
Nepal 3 Adventure Trek
New York -Washington Road trip
New Zealand Culture and school visits
Oman - Middle Eastern and desert culture
Peru - culture and school visits 17
South Africa Cape Town - Culture and Apartheid
USA high school exchange San Francisco
USA Miami American ways of life
Winter sports in the Alps with AFS students

Cultural Studies is described in The cultural magazine for the 2nd period. Now that the choice has been made, the subjects will be developed up to the start in week 44, and the students will have a great deal of influence on the content, their own projects and their ideas for cooperation with friendship schools, etc. It will be very exciting to follow the brand new student-initiated proposals including New Zealand, Brazil, South Africa and Jamaica.

We are in the midst of a very exciting time and the learning curve is pretty steep for most students. And today, Friday, the students have started their departures to Austria (horse riding), Turkey (Waterperformance) and Malta (diving), as well as Norway (diving and ploughing) - Tonight the sailing flies to Croatia and Adventure heads to Sweden on Sunday, while Dance, Drama, Street Performance, Media and Visual Design leave for Berlin on Monday morning very early. Guide and Event also leave for London on Monday, just as the new Fit for Fight goes on a training and school stay on the German mudflat island of Sild.

Follow the travelogues and stories on our website and facebook page. The different profile subjects also have their own facebook groups, for example, Sailing, Dance, Media, Adventure Ranum Efterskole. Search for profile subject + Ranum Efterskole, and you will be taken to the FB pages - Like and read along!

In week 42 there is an autumn holiday and then all students and teachers gather again in week 43 for a new chapter in the afterschool year. Ahead of the students await their first student party (registration email has been sent out by the parent group) and last weekend there is the opportunity to book professional talks on Friday 31.1- the same weekend there is a sibling weekend, so follow the School Plan and remember to register. The office is open on the phones both week 41 and 42 between 8-15.

Best regards and have a great weekend.
Olav Storm
supervisor

We bought a second hand surf simulator for Water performance, so we can dry train Wakeboarding and wave surfing. It was of course tested at the Family Day and Open House.