Members and students of a newly formed international student exchange program between Canadian Rockies Public Schools (CRPS) and teachers and students visiting from Finland spent Friday (Nov. 27) at Banff Public Library to discuss what was learned and achieved during the Finnish students’ 10-day exchange.
Themes identified by the group for creating supportive school culture included positive student involvement, student voice (listening to and empowering students), communication, relationships, motivation, life management, inclusion and diversity.
Two Finnish teachers and three students arrived in the Bow Valley on Nov. 20 to participate in the 10-day exchange. The CRPS, Finland program was led by CRPS international coordinator Annette Young, who has strong, personal ties with the European nation.
“My personal story is that I grew up in Finland, I’m connected to the country as it is, and I’ve also been in Canada now for 20 years,” Young said. “As a program coordinator here, I’m passionate about multiculturalism and having a very diverse program, I think it brings richness to an international student program and we have well established international connections and contacts.”
CRPS brings in about 50 international students each year, but being a Finn, Young wanted to reach out to her native country to build a relationship within the Bow Valley. At the beginning of 2015, she sent out an initial enquiry to a network of schools as a general request to start a dialogue about international students and collaboration.
“There already is a Finnish, Alberta partnership running through the Alberta Teachers’ Association (ATA) and CIMO (Centre for International Mobility) the Finnish counterpart in Finland since 2011, so there have been partnerships engaged in other school districts,” Young said.
Young says there are a fair number of differences between the two country’s school systems, but the positive news is they are both highly regarded on the world stage.
“This is what we’re doing today, we’re talking about the differences and the similarities. Finnish teacher Tiina (Fredriksson), who is here now, jumped on this opportunity, and since then we’ve been communicating on it regularly on how to make it work,” Young said.
“We have a comprehensive system from Grades 1 to 9, and then after that students usually decide if they will go to a vocational school, or to high school, which is three years,” Fredriksson said on the differences found between the two school systems.
“I believe and have heard we are one of the best school systems in the world, Canadian and Finnish, but there is always room for improvement and we want to find the good practices that you have that we could test and maybe apply to our school system,” said Fredriksson.
The program is made possible through grant funding from the ATA and from CIMO (the Finnish counterpart), and also through CRPS’ own contribution to the initiative from its own International Student Program.
Teachers taking part and travelling to Finland in February will include Young, Lee Luders of BCHS and Alanna Chambers of CCHS. Grade 10 and 11 CCHS students are Anita Martin, Desmond Young and Terri-Jo Rider (representing Stoney Nakoda) and one Grade 11 from BCHS, Amanda Rautio. All will be in Finland from Feb. 17-27.
