School detectives - visit from West Kirby Grammar School, UK to Iittin Lukio in Finland

In March we visited the Iittin Lukio school in the village of Iitti, an hour and a half outside Finland’s capital, Helsinki. The school caters for around one hundred students across three ‘grades’ (equivalent to Years 11 – 13 in the British secondary school system). The size of the school meant that we were able to get to know the people and the place fairly quickly. It was also apparent that there was a real sense of community amongst the students – everyone knew everyone else, meaning that there was a very inclusive atmosphere, and that although there were individual friendship groups there did not appear to be cliques. Despite its size, the school had excellent facilities, including a fully-equipped language lab; a basement ‘breaktime area’ (closed during exam periods) with pool and table-tennis tables, sofas and a television; a library, and an auditorium with a piano (the auditorium is used for exams and social events). Facilities were conveniently placed; the canteen was on-site, sports lessons took place at a sports centre a short walk away from the school building, and music lessons were taken in the lower school. The school year is built on a system of five different timetables (called periods) – students change subjects after each period. This creates scope for a much broader range of subjects (and in particular languages) to be studied – alongside the compulsory subjects of English and Swedish, students may take options such as Russian, Finnish, French, Spanish, Italian, German, History, Applied Mathematics, Pure Mathematics, Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Music, Geography, Art, Physical Education, Psychology and Philosophy. At the end of each period there is an exam week in which students take assessments in each of their subjects; this model of continuous assessment means that students are used to, and relaxed about, the exam process, and do not face disproportionate pressure. Final exams are taken in the autumn and spring of the last grade; students must take exams in a minimum of four subjects to achieve their certificate, but the most able take up to eleven. The flexibility of this system allows very high-achieving students to stretch and challenge themselves but also supports the less academically-inclined. From speaking with the students about this topic, we found that they appeared to truly believe in and support this schooling method, and were perplexed when we told them of the single timetable method of British schools. Lessons at Iittin Lukio are slightly shorter than those at WKGS, lasting 45 minutes instead of 50 minutes; this allows for seven periods per day rather than six, with a 15-minute break in between each lesson. These breaks mean that students are able to concentrate better in lesson time, and as a result lessons are more focused. The students also do not use these breaks to work further; instead they take the opportunity to relax with their friends almost every time. Card games seemed to be a very popular choice of entertainment and relaxation for them. Students are expected to be punctual, and it is uncommon for the teachers themselves to be late; there is, however, quite a relaxed working atmosphere, with both teachers and students casually dressed (there is no school uniform or strict dress code at Iittin Lukio), students allowed to answer mobile phone calls in lessons, and teachers addressed by first names rather than title and surname. Classes are small, so each student gets the help they need from the teacher – there were 12 students in the Physics class, and 19 in English (although this was an unusually large class). The lunch break, which begins around noon, is 30 minutes long and as such represents less of a disruption to lessons than a longer lunch break. Students eat in the dining room, where a meal is provided for free – there is a set dish each day with variants for vegetarians, the lactose intolerant and other groups with specialist dietary requirements. The food is healthy and of an excellent quality, and the dining room – like the rest of the school area, in which the students obviously take pride – is clean and pleasant. There is a ‘tea break’ at about 1:30, during which students can buy tea, coffee and snacks in the dining room to keep them going until the end of the day (school lasts from 08:20 to 15:05). Once school ends, the students have plenty of time to pursue their own personal interests and hobbies, or to meet with friends, since they do not seem to feel too pressured about their workload. It also appeared that they kept their day very 'full', planning activities up to and perhaps beyond 8 o'clock at night, yet despite this their sleeping schedules remained healthy. Our visit to Iittin Lukio was an enjoyable and illuminating one; we were made to feel very welcome by staff and students alike, and discovered the benefits of a school system that was almost entirely new to us. By Gwen Baines