Fuengirola
In a log school In Fuengirola, Spain, it smells like a Finnish summer cottage. Normally here it would reportedly look like this: a rocking chair in the corner, carpets and seat cushions on the floors.
Now the classroom is decorated with a plexiglass tuned between the teacher and the students. The teacher’s desk has a basket of cleaning supplies.
The Finnish school on the Sunshine Coast must obey the Finnish curriculum but local coronavirus rules. The distances of the desks standing in rows are ensured with a tape measure.
“We have gone from two meters to one and a half meters, and now it has been reduced to 1.2 meters,” says the principal Saara Ikonen.
The rules, he said, were made for a Spanish school. According to Ikonen, the restrictions on schools have been like a return to the 19th century.
Finnish school on the Sunshine Coast
The Finnish school on the Sunshine Coast consists of several buildings.
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A private school that provides basic education in accordance with the Finnish curriculum in grades 1–9 and in upper secondary school. There is also pre-school education.
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Founded in 1991.
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Works in Fuengirola on the Spanish Sunshine Coast.
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The school currently has 311 pupils and high school students.
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Pupils and high school students must have a home municipality in Finland
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Other Finnish primary schools operating abroad are located in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Tallinn and Tartu.
Principal Saara Ikonen says that no Spanish interest rate rules have been made for the Finnish school world.
In Finnish for years, the school was no longer just about desk rows and teacher lecturing. There has been a shift from so-called frontal teaching to a more student-centered way of teaching.
“Those rules come from above to a completely different kind of school world,” Ikonen says.
Strange situations have also been caused by arts and crafts such as handicrafts and household. They are not taught in Spanish primary school.
“We have to apply to the restaurant side for interest rate rules for the rush hour. It is still under investigation. ”
The rules are decided by the Autonomous Community of Andalusia and the local school inspector. Cooperation in their interpretation has been established with the neighboring Swedish school.
Plexiglas behind her work is done after school day by a class teacher Annaleea Rantanen. His class is divided in two as a corona act on a partition, and Rantanen teaches both sides. There must not be too many students in one room.
Implementing Finnish pedagogy in the midst of constraints requires creativity, but the pandemic has increased work in other ways as well.
“When computers are used almost daily, they should always be disinfected. And no item is allowed to move from one student to another without an adult disinfecting it in between, ”Rantanen says.
Triangular desks could normally be arranged in large circles, for example, but now Fuengirola’s coronavirus constraints do not allow it.
There is a plexiglass between the class teacher Annaleea Rantanen and the students to prevent the spread of droplets. The teacher is not allowed to leave behind to roam the classroom.
In Finland too the corona activities of schools have varied by region. In particular, it has been desired to prevent the groups from mixing with each other, and seen in Helsinki the so-called song ban.
However, the public debate has been dominated by talk about learning disabilities and children’s coping. Distance school was no longer supported by just anyone this year. In Spain, too, there has been a desire to give priority to children, Ikonen says.
“Kids first thinking is here, too, but it’s more about disease protection and protecting children’s families.”
Some would like more of this in Finland as well. For example, the Ombudsman for Children Elina Pekkarinen wrote on Twitter that he would have liked to have restraint in lifting the restrictions.
Read more: OKM and THL recommend opening schools in contact teaching, the ministry also supports the efforts of higher education institutions to increase contact teaching
Students most in need of communality at school in the Sunshine Coast and getting to know other students.
“Almost everything has changed,” says the fifth grader Okko Merikanto, who has lived in Fuengirola since kindergarten.
“It is used to do everything different that is not necessarily done in Finland’s big schools,” continues the eighth-grader. Rosanna Rantanen.
As examples, students cite the annual Spanish Days, morning openings, various celebrations and the students ’own kiosk, which has now been closed.
Livia Lehtimäki, Rosanna Rantanen and Okko Merikanto would also like to get to know other classes than their own.
Okko Merikanto, a fifth-grader, says that technical work, for example, has changed to learning robotics during the Korona period. His own favorite subject is history.
For corona operations however, students are accustomed quickly.
In Fuengirola, the use of a face mask was still mandatory until the summer for everyone over the age of six, even outdoors.
When Merikanto visited Finland in the summer, her mother had to remind her that a mask is not needed when walking on the street.
“It starts going automatically when you’re used to it.”
The use of a mask is still mandatory indoors and outdoors if a safety distance of one and a half meters cannot be maintained.
Perhaps the most difficult moment for the school was when some of the student credits had to be canceled in the spring of 2020. At the time of the curfew, the school was not allowed to come.
So how have the actions worked? Have there been any cases of corona in the school?
“Quite little. Yes, these have been effective, ”says Rector Ikonen.
Since the beginning of August, no cases have been identified this school year.
Finn the school is popular. Due to the coronavirus, students have been able to take in about 15 percent less than normal to maintain safety distances.
Without it, the school would already be full. There has been a queue for a long time, and the return migration that is just beginning is thinking about Iko.
“We’re starting to have walls banging here.”
According to teachers, before the pandemic, it was estimated that there would be a need for facilities for 600 or even 800 students. Without corona restrictions, the school would now accommodate about 350 pupils and students.
Those students who do not have enough places can visit, for example, a Finnish home school while waiting.
Crosses marked on the ground indicate safety clearances outdoors. In the main building, one class at a time is allowed to spend breaks outside and one is allowed to be on the outdoor stairs. One class is inside the hallway and the rest in their own classes.
Ikonen believes that in Spain, corona restrictions will be the last to leave schools. Restrictions when they may not have even changed the schooling of locals very radically, Ikonen ponders.
He cautiously estimates that a better time could come in the spring. Ikonen himself moved to the locality and did not start as principal until August.
“I can only imagine how wonderful this school is.”
This year, the Finnish school on the Sunshine turns 30 years old. Not much to celebrate yet, but hope to live on the last weekend of the school year in May.
The school has reserved a party space, and according to Ikonen, the dream is to invite people from Finland as well.
“Yes, we have a little fire here. Hope lives and things are planned. ”
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source https://pledgetimes.com/hs-on-the-costa-del-sol-restrictions-on-schools-seem-to-go-back-to-the-19th-century-the-principal-says-finnish-school-had-to-adapt-to-spanish-corona-rules/
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