19 APRIL 2018 1

Hej alla Hej

INVITATION TO A MEETING ABOUT FÄLADSGÅRDEN'S EXCHANGE WITH RINGE, DENMARK AND INFO FOR RECEIVING FAMILIES IN OUR ZARAGOZA EXCHANGE

Hello caregives in grade 04!

Where do we go? Fäladsgården has cooperated with a friendship school in Ringe, a city outside Odense in Fyn, Denmark, for four years. Nordagerskolen is a 0-9 school. Ringe is a small town of about 6000 people and a great part of the students are bused into the village to go to school. Many of the students live in a rural environment. From Ringe it takes about a quarter of an hour by train into the central city of Odense, which is one of Denmark's largest cities with approximately 200,000 inhabitants.

With whom do we cooperate? We are mainly in contact with their “överbyggnad”, secondary school, ranging from grades 7 to 9. Before students start high school, they choose one of three different profiles. Depending on their orientations, they are divided into three different classes; one with international profile, one with science profile and one with sports profile. The classes participating in are the classes with international profile. It is worth knowing that these classes often have a majority of girls in class, but that many of these girls are prepared to receive boys at home. Our aim in this exchange, as in the rest of our exchanges, is to create couples of either girls or boys. However, as the classes look the way they do, more of the Swedish boys than in the other exchanges will have to decide if they can imagine staying with and receiving a girl, and more of the Danish girls if they can be prepared to receive and live with a Swedish boy. In Ringe, they know which students will be included in the exchange. In Lund, the group composition can vary because students from all future grade eight can apply.

Nordplus The schools have co-operated for a number of years, and last year we received a scholarship from Nordplus, the Nordic Council of Ministers largest program to facilitate 19 APRIL 2018 2 cooperation between different organizations in the Nordic region. Receiving the scholarship means that we will be able to offer free exchanges for a group of 25 students / year for a number of years to come. We have been granted the money to work with different things with the students, but the main focus will be to compare the different countries' history in different ways and see how history has influenced, among other things, our views on migration issues in the different countries. During the exchange weeks, we will focus a lot on social science issues, but of course, we will also get to know each other's countries, cultures and languages from a broader perspective. All costs are covered by Nordplus and the students only need to bring pocket money.

When will this happen? The plan for the autumn term is that the Danish students will come and live with their Swedish host families in September the week starting 10/9. They will live in Lund from Monday to Friday. The Swedish students will then visit Ringe in October with the start of the week starting 22/10. Also then the students travel om Monday and come home on Friday. We will travel from Lund to Copenhagen, then from Copenhagen to Odense and then between Odense and Ringe. Students will have contact with each other both before, between and after the trips.

Who can participate? The exchange will be open to all those who start year eight. The students who did not previously travel to Nevers or Zaragoza have a priority over the others who have already participated in an exchange. As with the other exchanges, it is only possible to bring students who are good ambassadors for the school and that the responsible teachers can trust. The pupils must be able to participate full time during the weeks of the exchange and therefore can not have missed too much in their schooling earlier. They not need to have high grades to go with, but their previous schooling has to make it possible for them to do things other than the rest of the students for two school weeks in grade eight.

A broadened group of students We want to emphasize that part of the idea of exchange is to broaden the group of students participating in an exchange. From the school's point of view, you hope that in this trip there are different parts that make us reach other students than usual. The journey is not as long as the other exchanges. We are gone between Monday and Friday and the journey to Ringe does not take many hours. It is possible to participate using Swedish and English and there is no need to study any other language. We will stay in a small town, and the trip will be free.

Read more on Our blog about the exchange program Our homepage with more info (also in English) 19 APRIL 2018 3

Information meeting On May 3rd all parentes with students in grade 04 are invited to a information meeting about the exchange with Ringe. The meeting will be held in Swedish. Directly afterwards, we’ll have a meeting for all parents who’ll receive a student from Zaragoza this spring.

Place: Fäladsgårdens assembly hall Date: May 3 2018 Time: 6.00 pm.

Best regards,

Ann Stjernqvist Ingrid Tidvall

Teacher in charge of the exchange with Ringe & Zaragoza Assistant Headmaster