12 Aug Start of profile, Introuge and colour party

Dear reader,
We have had a good start to the new 1TP5 year and have had a great intro week. The atmosphere is great and there is a lot of life and joy in the new student group. It's going to be a great student team and 1TP5Year!

Welcome gathering

On Sunday, 430 new students started as the 13th student team at Ranum Efterskole College. The sun shone down through rain clouds over the 1000 parents and siblings who came along, while the school's board and management welcomed them on the lawn in front of the large main building.
The settling in process went smoothly and there was plenty of time to enjoy coffee and refreshments in the tents on the lawn or in the dining room. After many and various goodbye hugs, the red rear lights lit up in all directions from Ranum, and back the students gathered around the intro programme. Cell phones are locked for 2 weeks and eye contact is maintained. That's awesome!

See more pictures on our flickr

Introugen

Since Sunday evening, the students have been shaken up and introduced to first their contact group, then the houses, all the rooms at the school, and the next day Ranum town. The circle widened on the "Tour de Nærområde", which took them to Løgstør and Rønbjerg. In the next weeks the students will move more and more at home around the school and the local area and in 8 weeks we will set out on the first journey together in the profile subjects.

See more pictures on our flickr

On Monday evening, the students wrote an expectation letter to themselves, which we keep for the last week of the 1TP5 year. And on Tuesday, we worked with The Good School and took a large group photo in front of the Gable Picture in the banqueting hall. A symbolic act that marks that the students are now the ones who make up Ranum Efterskole College for a year. They are a living pixel in the large REC community, along with the more than 16,000 portraits of former students and staff on the gable image. 

On Tuesday, students also had the first elective and tried their hand at dance, yoga, wakeboarding, SUP, etc. Although the students had been active all day, they went fresh for Girls' Night, which included fashion shows, face masks and fun in the Village Hall. Meanwhile, the boys gathered in the ballroom for an entertaining and educational course in the art of being a proper gentleman.

On Wednesday, the academic subject presentations started and in the afternoon the students went on a hike in the neighbourhood, which ended with a barbecue on the lawn. The weather was almost dry and the school quickly dried off those who were brave enough to swim in the waves at Rønbjerg Strand.

Starting up profile courses

Thursday we had professional presentations and in the afternoon the profile subjects started up in great weather!

The students were introduced to the profile subject and the idea of shaping subjects together in the ballroom and then they tried their hand at sailing, diving, music, etc.
Already on the first day, the sailors were able to practice motor sailing, knots and harbour manoeuvres.

See more pictures on our flickr

A feast of colour in every shade.

Friday is the day of great colours. All students and teachers will work together to create a beautiful evening celebrating diversity, difference and community cohesion. During the week we have spoken a lot of English in all assemblies, because there are about 50 students who do not speak Danish. And on Thursday we had 22 Italians, in total there are students from 19 different countries. We are celebrating the start of a new school year and a great intro week.

This coming weekend on Saturday, the REC Olympiad will see students compete in different and fun disciplines at school. A group of up to 75 students are invited to the Open House at Ranum Asylum Centre where they will encounter even greater diversity and taste dishes from around the world.
Sunday we have brunch and then a beach day with swimming test. Students need to be able to swim, kayak, sailboat and dive on the trips, and we hope the weather will be a bit more summery.

In the coming week we have almost normal schedule. Students have subject lessons in the mornings and electives, as well as profile subjects in the afternoons.
On Thursday they will get their mobile phones back and can go home for a well-deserved extended weekend until Sunday evening after 6pm.
We recommend that students go home for the extended weekend and take personal items back to their rooms.
The school offers a bus service for those students who have poor home travel connections, so that they can reach home in Southern and Western Jutland, as well as Zealand in a reasonable time. And pupils book their own seats on the buses via their School timetable.

In the following 3 weekends there is a close programme with water sports days, friends weekend and family weekend. See calendar and invitations in the School Plan.

There has not been much homesickness, but there were 2 students who did not come to the start of school and therefore we have a few vacancies. If you know someone who wants a great afterschool year, we are ready!

Best regards and have a nice weekend

Olav Storm Johannsen
Principal