27 Nov Fantastic performance show and hectic week

Dear reader,

The performance show and the big Christmas market were a resounding success, and the pictures from the day show a great day with happy students and visitors. This week we have been working hard to set the scene for the next few weeks, when Year 10 pupils will be going on a bridge-building trip away from home. In the cultural subjects, the planning is finally falling into place and students are engaged in shaping their own projects for the expeditions, as well as building the form. We're approaching December and all the televisions are tuned to mega-Christmas calendar cheer, and Christmas cheer and decorations are spreading all over the school. The big Christmas room competition has begun!

Performance and Christmas market.

We filled the house 3 times during the day for a performance, Christmas market, presentation of 21 cultural studies trips and presentation of options for the 3rd profile period. Parents, siblings and especially grandparents had a great day with delicious homemade food in the dining hall. The Christmas market raised more than 14,000 DKK for our friendship schools in Nepal and Malaysia.

See more great photos on facebook.

Choice of 3rd period profile subjects

The first poll of interest showed that just over ½ of the 33 proposals for profile subjects in the 3rd period will immediately go to the ballot. During the week, pupils and teachers have presented their ideas for new profile subjects at assemblies and it is great to see the positive energy this gives, as well as the courage it takes to stand up in front of the whole group of pupils and present your idea.

In this week's sessions, we also had several student presentations by science students, who talked about plastic pollution of the oceans, ocean currents and food chains, among other things. Another presentation was more attitudinal, focusing on world meat production and methane gas pollution, and the message was a call to eat more vegetarian. And it's really convincing when students show a picture of a big male elephant that has grown big and strong without meat and milk.

Preparing for the cultural tours

Preparations are underway for the many expeditions in January. The itineraries are falling into place and the complexity of sending 480 students and teachers to 21 destinations around the world is enormous. A good 70 students took up the offer to be vaccinated by the Danish Doctors' Vaccination Service.

The Nepal teams were on a road trip in the Himmerland Alps Rebild hills, and dinner was outdoor rice and dessert was 10 km more with a full backpack. Follow the preparations for Cultural tours at facebook.

The freediving team Philippines was visited by one of the world's best freedivers Jesper Stechmann, who gave an exciting talk about freediving and the art of finding inner peace and success. These were powerful messages for November-weary teenagers!

Everyday life: in Danish we work with short films

At Danish 10-4 we are currently working on short films. The students have known for a few weeks that they had to bring a prop in the form of a pig. The pig will be part of a poetry assignment. Today the students have been working seriously on their storyboards, and later in the course they will visualize their ideas in the form of a pocket film. We look forward to seeing the finished results.

Thanks for the 8000 likes on Facebook!

At the end of September we hit 7000 likes and now we are fast approaching 8000 likes. That's thanks to all the activities, experiences, great stories happening at the school and of course you, the likers. Thank you very much.

In fact, if you look at it from a competitive point of view, this means that we are the second largest after-school in Denmark in terms of Facebook Likes.

In the coming week & good weekend

All students will have to work outside their normal schedule during the coming week. In Year 10, there is compulsory bridge building and for Year 9, there is project writing. All pupils will gather again after being dispersed to different schools at 5pm for the Community Assembly and in the evening there will be a special focus on getting the Christmas spirit going. In the following week 50 there are final exams and Compulsory Self-Selected Assignment (OSO) for the 10th grade. The different weeks help to break the December darkness and at the same time it is a strong intervention in the afterschool life, which we unfortunately cannot do without due to the legislation for the 10th year.

In week 51, all students are back together and then there will be turbo Christmas fun and follow up on the Cultural Journeys, as well as playing Christmas volleyball, go torchlight parade and be awarded Christmas Room and House of the Year.

This weekend, most of the students will go to their 2nd student party, managed by the Parents' Party Committee. The theme is not Christmas party, but "back to kindergarten" and we hope everyone has a great time and comes back reasonably grown up on Sunday.

Best regards and have a great 1st Advent weekend!

Olav Storm Johannsen
Principal