Vecka tre - School life

It’s not getting and warmer here in Vȁxjӧ it was -20 at some points! But it’s great to still have the snow, everything looks so much nicer.

This week I was enabled to look at elements of professional life here in Sweden. We had the opportunity to visit a vocational high school where we met with the principal who had excellent English and told us many interesting facts. He told us about the school, staff, facilities and courses on offer. In the school there was a bakery, a garage for mechanics a media room, a painting and crafting studio, and a hairdressing and beauty salon. This high school was rather similar to what we would call a ‘tech’. I had never been in a tech before and so I was amazed at the facilities a school would have and we also had the opportunity of watching a number of pupils at work. Some of the pupils showed us some of their work and talked about the college in general. We also got to taste some chocolates which the students were making in the cookery school. They were delicious!  It was a great opportunity for us to view other options for when students finish school.

We also visited a pre-school where unlike Ireland students are of the age range 1-7 years old. In Sweden pupils start primary education at the age of 7, many people wonder how we can start at 4! This visit was a brilliant opportunity to observe the children from as small as 1 year old working and interacting together yet they were still so tiny! This particular pre-school teaches the children through music. We observed a lesson for the class of 5 year olds. I loved watching the children singing and dancing in the lesson, they weren’t even distracted by us students being there which was great! This visit enabled us to observe the pupils in each of the different age groups, we could notice the differences as they got older but it was amazing to see what the youngest were even capable of.

We will also be making trips to primary school’s here which I am looking forward to. We will be able to observe the progress from the pre-school to primary. We will also be able to compare and contrast with primary school’s which we have observed at home.

My sister is coming over to visit next week and so I’m sure I’ll have many exciting stories from that!

Hej dӧ!