Rosso di San Secondo School presents

Our school

"Rosso di San Secondo" middle school is situated in the new area of the town. It is quite big: there are 615 students, 72 teachers and 17 people on the staff.

There are 24 classes. Some of them are 2.0 classes: students use iPads or netbooks , interactive boards and very few books because all the subject contents are on the school platform.

Our school is very special because it has been chosen by the Board of Education, together with a few other schools in Italy, to experiment with new technologies. It has joined the national project “Cl@ss 2.0”, thanks to our headmaster who strongly believes that technology may help and also change the teaching-learning process.

Interviewing our headmaster

We have 12 subjects in our timetable: PE, English, Maths, Science, Italian, Music, Geography, History, Spanish, Technology, Art, and RE. We have 5 lessons a day, for a total of 30 lessons a week.

Our lessons start at 08:30 a.m. and finish at 01:30 p.m. At 10.25 a.m. we have a break which lasts 15 minutes. During break we chat and we have a snack outside, if it rains we stay inside.

Six classes have a different timetable or a “long” time: the students have lunch at school and go home at 5:30 p.m. twice a week.

1A, 2A, 3A are musical classes: the students learn to play different instruments such as the violin, the guitar, the flute and the piano. These students make up the school orchestra and they sometimes take part in national competitions with brilliant results.

Our school has got some labs where we can do special activities we can't do in our classrooms, like experiments and researches. There is an Art lab, a Science lab, a Technology lab, an IT lab and a Music lab. 

We have also a canteen, a big library and a very big meeting room. There is a big gym, with a stand and two dressing- rooms, where we play volleyball, basketball, dodgeball or we do athletics, and a small one used mainly for exercise with disabled children.

Finally, we have a big, lovely garden in our school with a big lawn, palm trees, lemon trees, a lot of flowers and three beautiful fountains.

Our school slide show presentation

Welcome to Helsinki with class 6 from Sääksjärvi primary school!

One April morning we (class 6) and two of our teachers took the train from Mäntsälä to Helsinki. This trip was a part of our return ticket project with Rosso di San Secondo school in Italy. We saw and visited many famous sights in the centre of Helsinki and took lots of pictures (over a thousand!) as well as some video clips. So, this was Helsinki on a spring day, sunny but a bit cold :)

Here we are on the train. The train journey from Mäntsälä (Sääksjärvi primary school is situated in Mäntsälä) took 40 minutes.

Helsinki - fast facts

• Helsinki is the capital and largest city in Finland.
• The population of Helsinki is over 600.000, but over 1.000.000 people live in the Helsinki metropolitan area.
• Helsinki is situated on the south coast by the Baltic Sea and there are over 300 islands around Helsinki.
• Helsinki is the northern most capital in EU.
• Helsinki is Finland's major political, educational, financial, cultural and research centre
• King Kustaa Vaasa set up Helsinki in 1550 (Finland was a part of Sweden then).
• Helsinki is one of the coldest cities in the world. The average annual temperature is + 5 degrees (we would like it to be a bit warmer :). In winter the temperature can be as cold as -30 degrees below zero while in summer time we can enjoy +30 degrees in the sun!
• Helsinki was the World Design capital in 2012.

                                                                                                        all photos and videos by class 6

Helsinki central railway station

Helsinki Central railway station is a landmark in central in Helsinki. Over 200.000 people use it every day. It is Finland's most-visited building. 

The Helsinki Cathedral (evangelic Lutheran church)

One of the most famous sights in Helsinki.  For many it is the symbol of Helsinki. 

The church has a tall green dome surrounded by four smaller domes. The building represents neoclassical style. White church and blue sky - the colours of Finland's flag. Beautiful!

Class 6 sitting on the steps of Helsinki Cathedral.

The Senate Square

The Senate Square is the very centre of Helsinki. It is surrounded by a number of significant buildings, such as the Helsinki Cathedral, the Government Palace and the main building of University of Helsinki. In the middle of the square you can see the statue of czar Alexander II of Russia.

The main building of University of Helsinki

 The Esplanade Park  

In the heart of Helsinki there are two famous streets: North Esplanade and South Esplanade. There is a lovely walking path between them.

Around the Market Square

The statue of Havis Amanda. Every year on the eve of 1st of May (Vappu), this statue is a centre for celebrations. Students of the local universities put a cap on the statue in an elaborate ceremony. For many it is a "must see". 

You can take a ferry to Stockholm, Sweden from South Harbour every day.

The Uspenski Cathedral

The Uspenski Cathedral is the largest Orthodox church in western Europe. There is a magnificent icon display inside. One of the icons is believed to work miracles.

After all that walking and sight-seeing, we were ready for lunch at McDonalds.

In Mannerheim street

Kiasma - museum of contemporary art

Kiasma is a contemporary art museum located in Mannerheim street in Helsinki. Kiasma has five public floors, connected by ramps, stairs and lifts. Art Kiasma's collection has over 8000 works of art, both Finnish and foreign.