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News | 19 June 2024

Letter from the Principal - June 2024

A few words from the principal about the year that passed and information about the next academic year IES Hässelby.

To all students and guardians,

Finally the summer vacation is here for both students and staff!

This year has gone by in the blink of an eye. Apart from getting to know all the students, some of my time has unfortunately been
spent on very practical things with the school buildings.

I still managed, of course, to watch the traditional match between the students in year 9 against the teachers. It was a great day with great weather. The students in grades 4-8 were there and cheered on! Despite difficult opponents (the teachers), the match ended in a win for the students with 5-3. A big congratulations to this year's 9s!

Academic year 23-24

• This year we started with taking a look at orderliness, routines and other things that were not being followed as we would like in the school. We have come a long way, but there is still much to do. You are all guardians of students at the school because you made a conscious choice to place your children with us. Therefore, we also need help and support from you in restoring the school's ethos where we regain an orderly and structured school environment.
• Our fantastic librarian, Ms Nygren, started a book club and writing club at the school during the year. Our school library therefore now has both a book club and a writing club with students from years 4 and 5 that meet once a week. At the book club, Ms Nygren and the students talk to each other and give tips on books they are reading. The writing club is an inspiring gathering where Ms. Nygren and the students write stories that they read to each other and help each other with ideas.In the future, Ms. Nygren plans to come and start more book and writing clubs for interested students in other grades.
• Not to mention all the fantastic students and staff that participated over the year in our different traditions. Check out our instagram for nice pics of Halloween, Christmas Sweater Fridays, Graduation and so many other fun things!

Academic year 24-25

For the next academic year, I have some news to tell you about.

• The school's leadership team will next school year consist of the undersigned, Assistant Principal Academics, Mr Gavin, Assistant Principal Pastoral, Ms Sorsa, Pastoral Coordinator, Mr Blunn. Right now we are looking for an Academics coordinator who can assist Mr Gavin.
• We are also glad to welcome our former fantastic school nurse, Ms Sagvik, back to the school. Ms Sagvik starts in August.
• In grades 4 and 5, we will mostly use class teachers instead of subject teachers. This is for students' safety and study peace. They will also have home classrooms. Year 6-9 will as usual have subject teachers. News for the coming school year is that the school will return to subject rooms instead of home classrooms. That is, the students are the ones who move around in the coming school year.

#movewithIES

Popular project #movewithIES has grown into a health initiative. This means #movewithIES will now become a part of the IES Elevhälsoplan and the aim for the future will be to continue the expansion to all schools. During the next academic year #movewithIES will open up for 12 more schools to join and we at IES Hässelby Strand are so happy to be one of them. Schools taking part in #movewithies will:

● help students to stay active by ensuring that students have 1-2 brain breaks/day while providing a variety of different break activities during breaks. This will also improve students' social health since it helps to decrease the number of conflicts on the schoolyard.
● strive to educate students on the topic of health. In collaboration with the author Maria Dufva, we have created educational movies and lesson plans connected to the different chapters in her book “Värsta bästa hälsan.” We will also use a web-based mental health tool called “Det syns inte” to educate students on the topic of mental wellbeing.
● aspire to create and establish healthy habits that will stick with the students, giving them the best possible conditions for a happy and successful life

We will dedicate one of our staff members to be a Health Motivator of 20%. We’ll get back to you in August/September with more information about our new health initiative.

 

Finally, I would like to urge all of you to remind your students of the importance of reading. Let the summer vacation be a reading summer vacation!

It is a fact that poorer reading comprehension affects students' chances of succeeding in other school subjects and it thus becomes important for their chances of succeeding in school. Research both from Linné University in Sweden and international research shows that it is therefore very important that students keep up their reading training during the summer holidays.

So, our request is that everyone should read at least 15 minutes in a Swedish book and at least 15 minutes in an English book every day during the summer holidays. Those who are a little younger should read aloud to you guardians, while those who are a little older can read to themselves!

We'll meet again on August 19!

Wishing you all a fantastic summer and a wonderful summer holiday!

Best regards,
Ms. Bertsdotter