IES Uppsala’s success stems from the school’s ingrained procedures and the close cooperation between its teachers. “The culture of the school is characterised by openness; everybody is seen, everything can be discussed, no problems get swept under the carpet, and every student is everybody’s student,” says Hilde Allen, principal.
This middle and high school opened in 2011, in a district of the city that has long been home to the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences. Aside from academic success, the school’s other defining features are that there are many students with siblings at the school, and that there is a low teacher turnover. Indeed, some teachers have worked there since it opened, including the principal, Hilde Allen, who has led the work of IES Uppsala for seven years.
“This proves we have created a school where everybody likes to be, which stems from the fact that we never abandon anybody – we don’t give up on a single student, and we never leave any teacher alone with a heavy burden,” she says.
All students receive fair grades
Cooperation between the teachers is one of the major success factors of IES Uppsala, where a substantially greater share of students than the national average qualify for upper secondary school. This cooperation has been beneficial in ensuring integrity in grading. Teachers sit together in subject or work teams, which allows for close and down-to-earth discussions about students, teaching, results and grades. Since many of the teachers have worked at the school for a long time, they become ambassadors for the school’s well-established procedures and processes for grading, and can share these with new teachers.
One example that illustrates this cooperation is that the teachers in the four classes that make up every year jointly draw up a plan and content for the term, which they all follow, regularly review and evaluate together.
Experiences, successes and failures are shared and discussed. Furthermore, the teachers co-teach certain lessons.
“There is scope for each teacher to adapt their teaching according to their own personality. But the important point is that each student receives the same amount of knowledge, regardless of teacher, and in the end they are given fair grades,” says the school’s academic manager, Mary Dimopoulos.
William Hedgepeth, head of department for mathematics, testifies to the lack of prestige amongst the teachers in that nobody is afraid to ask for advice, or needs to feel alone.
“We have climate of openness to new ideas and for discussing both successes and setbacks. The amount of cooperation we have between teachers is fairly unique. It also means everybody enjoys being here,” he says.
Weaker students identified quickly
The school’s recipe for success also involves quickly identifying weaker students and implementing measures to help them in the best way possible. Monthly tests mean those who do not meet the requirements for a passing grade can be given extra support. If the test shows that the student hasn’t understood a certain concept they can study that area more, and then take the test again – and thereby see proof that hard work delivers results.
“But we also evaluate students regularly in a more informal manner. This enables us to see which students need greater self-confidence, which is enormously important for their performance, and which easily become bored and need more stimulation to develop,” says William Hedgepeth.
According to Hilde Allen, IES Uppsala has been very successful in recruiting teachers who are passionate about their subjects, and teaching.
“They are fantastic role models and send a clear message to the students about the importance of knowledge, and of trying hard,” she says.
IES UPPSALA - Numbers as per September 2024.
752 Students
87% of parents had confidence in the school leadership
36% students with origins outside Sweden
100% students qualified for upper secondary school
87% students achieved the knowledge targets in all subjects