for learning in the middle of a big
shopping mall. Adults and teenagers
who do not thrive in “traditional”
learning environments can participate
in the “ PopupCollege” where they
can learn hands on skills and partner
with local businesses on real projects,
the students also have mentors on
hand to guide them through their
time at the college. When we visited
we found groups of young people
working on social media projects for
stores within the mall. The students
were predominately young men in
their early twenties of ethnic minority
backgrounds. They were busy creating
the graphics, videos and posts for a
fully-fledged social media campaign.
There were other students working on
various projects, but all the projects
were in association with a business
or government organisations. This
idea I believe would do very well in
other countries. I could think of quite
a few. To find out more about this
programme visit the following link:
https://www.popupcollege.fi/
and tested over the years. In Finland
the curriculum has to stay in place
for at least 10 years before any major
changes are introduced. school. During our visit to Kalasatama
Comprehensive School (age group
7-15 and Day Care Centre Kalasatama
a school which specialises in new
learning environments and special
education), it was vegan day and we
saw the students indulging in various
vegan meals. What struck me was
the fact that the students all seemed
willing to try something new. I know
this might be a minor point but if you
have spent any time in this region,
you will understand why I found it
refreshing that the students cleared up
after themselves, from the youngest
to the oldest, they took their trays to
the kitchen and made sure that their
tables were left clean. All students
have healthy and hot meals every day
in schools. One lady I had a casual
conversation with at the hotel told me
that it took the strain off her having to
pack lunches for her children daily or
worry that they are indulging in very
unhealthy foods. The Finnish school
meal system is so successful that other
European countries have started to
copy their model.
The legacy and value of free
high quality school meals Teachers are held in high
regard
You know a country is proud of its
school lunches, when you are invited
to learn all about it and sample it
during your visit. Sini from Elo-Säätiö
,who we met for lunch is an expert on
Finnish School meals and she gave us
a brief history of how the whole thing
started. She told us that originally
the introduction of school meals
was in a bid to encourage poorer
families to send their children to
You may have heard this before as it
is well publicised, teachers in Finland
are among the best and the best paid
in the world, so with my journalistic
hat on, I set out to talk to as many
teachers as possible to find out if this
is really true. On every school visit ,
in conversations with people on the
street and every chance encounter I
had with teachers, I wanted to know
one thing, Are teachers really as
The best school is the school
closest to home
I don’t know about your country but in
my home country England, people sell
and buy houses based on the schools
which their children will attend. It was
a relief to hear Finns talk about the
fact that they feel confident in sending
their children to the school closest
to their home. They know that the
quality of education their children will
receive will not be vastly different from
a school in another neighbourhood.
This is down to the quality of the
teachers and the impact of having a
stable curriculum which has been tried
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