03 Feb Denmark's Collection & Welcome home

Dear reader,

Welcome home to all students and staff. We have had some terrific educational and adventurous trips to 21 destinations in 20 countries. It has been hard, challenging and exciting, as well as an eye-opener to other cultures and ways of life. The trips are the culmination of 3 months of preparation and over the next 2 weeks we will be finalising and preparing presentations for the other students and pupils. You can still follow the cultural subjects' journeys in films, photos and diaries via their own facebooks pages. We are working fast to get the best quality pictures from all the trips. Here is a short selection of some of the travel images.

The trips went well and without serious accidents. In Peru, several students developed symptoms of altitude sickness but coped well. In Hawaii, 4 boys had to be rescued by the local rescue station after climbing up a hill to watch the sunset and they couldn't climb down - in the dark. Fortunately, it went well and except for a lot of jet lag, Nepal and Peru aversions, and a sea of air conditioning colds, students and staff are back on their feet and ready for the next challenges.

Fire in skate and hardball hall.

We already had a big challenge on Sunday evening, when our Hardball and Skatehall burnt down and was badly damaged. The fire turned out to be arson and the police have found the culprits, 3 students from the local elementary school. We are now assessing the damage and both pupils and staff are busy thinking of a new project for the buildings so that skate, parkour and hardball can return.

AFS guest students return home

The January team from AFS Malaysia, Indonesia and Mexico has had a fantastic programme, including a winter trip to Italy and many excursions in Denmark. Unfortunately, we did not manage to go on a host family visit, as this year it coincided with all the students' homecoming weekend. However, they have lived with our students in their rooms and participated in the school programme. It is very rewarding to have visitors and at Skisport their participation has added an extreme element of culture-nature encounter, for no one had experienced snow, ice and skiing before. It even cost one pupil a broken arm.

Mega cool Musical at Fjerritslev Gymnasium

On Wednesday and Thursday evening, more than 150 students attended Fjerritslev Gymnasium's student musical.

Denmark's collection

On Saturday, we had the opportunity to send 48 students and teachers to Copenhagen to experience the big show at the Danish Fundraiser. They will be driving back and forth the same day, so it will be a tough trip, but also a really exciting experience.

We have bought 1000 heart Denmark's Collection pins, which can be purchased for 20, - kr. each on Mobile Pay 23397140 and picked up at the office.

Nepal Friendship School came in DR P4 Nordjylland

We encourage everyone to support Danmarks Indsamlingen, and on Wednesday students from the Nepal Friendship School team participated in a radio interview on DR P4 Nordjylland. Anna and Amalie talked about their meeting with the children in Nepal and the differences between life in Nepal and Denmark for young people.

Social charter is one of the most important tasks of the afterschool form

This week, TV2 Nordjylland focuses on afterschools, and we joined an interview about the work of the Afterschool Association to develop a social charter aimed at getting more vulnerable young people to experience the afterschool experience. In this context, proposals are being made to redistribute grant money for after-school stays, so that the lowest income groups get up to 10,000 extra in grants for an after-school stay. At Ranum, we have for many years supported students who have applied for grants for accommodation and self-payment on study trips, and most of them, in cooperation with their local municipality and Ranum, have found a very good solution that made their stay possible.

This is a good proposal by the afterschool association, but unfortunately it lacks focus on the large middle-income group, which in our experience has the hardest time finding funds or applying for grants to pay for an afterschool stay. We will raise this debate at the Annual Meeting of Afterschools on 4 March.

Photo competition for the cultural tours

The second photo, video and article competition of this school year is being planned. Dates for submission of photos, videos and articles will appear soon on FB, the school timetable and the website. The date for the show itself will follow shortly after.

The lucky winner will receive the latest GoPro Black camera.

This weekend a large group of students will participate in the Jutlander Cup, an indoor football tournament in Løgstør. On Saturday many are in Copenhagen and on Sunday evening or night there is a Super Bowl event organised by a large group of boys.

Many are home to do laundry and sleep in, and next week it's back to work with lots of academic teaching, preparations for Cultural Studies presentations on Sunday 12.2. And then there's the contact group afternoon with mid-term evaluation on Tuesday afternoon. It's going to be a great week!

Best regards and have a great weekend!

Olav Storm Johannsen
Principal