Sääksjärvi primary school presents

Our school 

Our school is situated on a hill in Sääksjärvi. Sääksjärvi is a part of Mäntsälä municipality which is located some 60 kilometres from Helsinki, the capital of Finland. We are in the middle of nature and you can see fields and forests all around you, and Sääksjärvi Lake is near, too. Our school has a long history and lots of traditions as it has been operating at the same place since 1891. The old main building has been there from the very beginning and the two other buildings have been built later.

Our school is quite small. There are 102 pupils, six class teachers, an English teacher and a special education teacher as well as two school assistants, a school cook and two cleaning ladies. There are six classes (1,2,3,4,5 and 6) and a preschool class which operates together with class 1. Most of our pupils come to school by bus or by taxi. Some of them cycle or walk.

Welcome to Sääksjärvi primary school! 

Interviewing our headmaster

We study Finnish, English, maths, physics, chemistry, history, biology, science, art, music, technical work, textile work, PE and RE in our school. We usually have five lessons a day and 24 lessons a week. We don't have any after school activities but this spring we had a band club. 

During the school year we have different themes. One of the themes this year was "tradition week" when we learned about the history and traditions of our school and village. Pupils from different classes gave presentations and some elderly people from Sääkjärvi came to tell about our school in "old days". We also have an active student body which organizes different events such as "Talent Day" and "Colour week". Every now and then we have school bazaars and discos to raise money for our school trips etc. There are lots of festivals, too like Christmas and spring festivals.

Our pupils often take part in sport events between different primary schools in Mäntsälä such as football and ice-hockey tournaments, skiing competitions and track and field games. 

Playing games at break

Class 6 sewing and doing pattern cutting in textile work class. Manual skills are a very important part of our timetable, too.

Class 6 sawing and planing in technical work class.

Interviewing class 5's pupils

Class 5 in their home class studying with their class teacher

Interviewing class 5's class teacher

Interviewing our school assistant

Interviewing our school cook

School canteen. Our pupils have a free lunch every day.

School bazaar

Selling lottery tickets

PE gym

IT class

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.