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Setting the Beat: Mr Fyles during a music class at Internationella Engelska Skolan Uppsala, now celebrating the success of its first school year.

The end of the academic year is always a time of great pride.

At our schools across Sweden, year nine students put on their distinctive blue gowns and throw their hats in the air as they celebrate their achievements over the past several years.

As always they will have to work hard to achieve success, but their time in our schools has prepared them well for what lies ahead. We have given them the tools that they need to succeed at the next level and as they move forward in life.

The graduation, or avslutning, events are always thoroughly enjoyable for the year nine classes and all involved. They are also very significant for those in year eight, who carry the torch of knowledge forwards, as they become the leaders in their schools.  Younger years will now look to them for guidance and inspiration.

At our school in Uppsala, the event will have had even greater significance as they mark the achievements of their first group of year nines.  It was only in August 2011 that the school opened and now their first students have stepped forward into the world, well-prepared by their education.

The end of the year is always a busy time. Since I last wrote I have seen Felix Konstenius, Colin Eriksson and Hannes Gidlöf win the Modern Languages Eurovision song contest for Internationella Engelska Skolan Gävle, which will now proudly host the popular event in 2013.  The three boys from Gävle delighted a packed theatre at Parkens Zoo, during a fantastic competition arranged this year by Eskilstuna.

We have also seen the boys’ team from Enskede and the girls’ team from Nacka win our junior school football tournament to lift the Turf Moor Cup.  They beat challengers from throughout the organisation during an enjoyable competition in Sollentuna.

Meanwhile our charity art auction raised a total of 17,000 SEK.  The works, seen by more than 300 art-lovers, included a beautiful piece by Elsa Thunander from Täby which raised 1 500 SEK on its own.  Since I was the winning bidder, it now adorns a wall at head office and is admired by those visiting for a wide variety of meetings.

From August our new schools in Västerås and Halmstad will open their doors to pupils for the first time. These schools, their principals, staff, students and parents have an exciting journey ahead of them, as anyone who has opened a school before will testify.

One month later in September, International English Schools UK will open its first ever school in Brandon, Suffolk, IES Breckland.  The school in England represents a great step forward for the company. We have been working closely with the Government of the UK, as it undergoes its own free school reform.

Quite aside from the three new schools that we will be opening next year, our existing schools continue to grow. All in all, next year there will be approximately 2,000 more students learning in our schools.

Two of the largest internal expansions will be in Bromma and Karlstad, which will each take on an extra 210 students, while after one year Uppsala will be taking in an extra 180 students.

We already have the three largest grundskolor in Sweden, Our schools in Täby and Gävle have 1,093 and 1,099 students respectively, while our school in Eskilstuna has 1,104.  They will be solidifying their position next year as Gävle takes on another two classes and Eskilstuna takes on one more.

There is a lot to be proud of and a lot to look forward to.

Keep on keeping.

Peter John Fyles,

CEO of Internationella Engelska Skolan