I write to you today to relay the exciting news that we have an adjustment of leadership planned for the 2019-2020 school year.
One of our finest leaders, Ms Veronna Pomeroy, has graciously agreed to become the next Vice Principal of Futuraskolan International School of Stockholm.
Veronna's competences are well known across the organization. I was personally fortunate enough to begin working with Veronna when she agreed to become my Student Care Manager after a successful run as the Vice Principal of Internationella Engelska Skolan Täby. It was during this time that I developed a profoundly deep appreciation for Veronna's methods and manner, and I recommended her to become a Principal in our organization. Sadly for me, she assumed the role of Principal of Futuraskolan International Stockholm in 2018 and continued the excellent tradition set forth by her predecessor, Kevin Munro, helping keep Futuraskolan International Stockholm amongst the leading academic institutions in the Stockholm region.
And now Veronna will be taking her immense talents to our Futuraskolan International School of Stockholm.
Thank you Veronna for your outstanding work to date and we can't wait to see what you achieve in your new role.
It is with great pleasure and humility that I write you today to introduce to you our newest member of the Futuraskolan leadership team, Mr. Mike Saphir.
Mike made a name for himself in the greater Stockholm area as one of the initial members of the Internationella Engelska Skolan leadership team. As their Head of The Principals Development Group he was personally responsible for providing both direction and vision during the early stages of their organizational development.
In time Mike took his talents across town to the communal environment, cumulating is his present role as Principal of Ensklílda Gymnasium, one of Stockholm's more prestigious academic institutions.
Mike was inspired by our International approach and by the planned development of our Global Citizenship Program. Having worked as both a school leader and as a member of Amnesty International we are thrilled to have Mike's experience and expertise on board as we sail into the next phase of our evolution.
Mike will assume the role of Principal of Futuraskolan International Stockholm at the beginning of next school year when his term at Ensklílda Gymnasium is complete.
Please join me in extending a warm welcome to Mike. We are excited to have him on board as we continue our aim to be a key innovator in global education.
Have a great day and welcome Mike!!
We are proud to share an article with you that appears today in The Local, Sweden's largest english speaking newspaper, that highlights the outstanding work being done at Futuraskolan International Bergtorp.
We are grateful for the efforts of all of the amazing professionals in the Futuraskolan community and thank you all for keeping such a high standard while ensuring that the learning processes we have in place are progressive, engaging and rewarding. And a special thanks to those members of the community at Futuraskolan International Bergtorp. We are honored to have your dedicated and impactful work on display for the nation.
Have a great day and thank you all again.
I hope this post finds you cozy, warm and inside from the winter chill. The season of solstice brings warm family gatherings, candles and good cheer and a well-deserved, relaxing break for the students in the community.
Festivals of light and winter traditions are amongst the most popular festivals of the year in many cultures.
Pagan Scandinavia celebrated a winter festival called Yule, held in the late December to early January period. As Northern Europe was the last part to Christianize, Scandinavia's pagan traditions had a major influence on the traditional Christmas celebrations we experience today. Many current Christmas rituals emerged during the difficult winters pagans often encountered. Candlelight conquered darkness and evergreens were valued for remaining green in even the harshest weather. Singing, drinking and dancing, meanwhile, reduced isolation and kept people positive.
For Hindus, Diwali is one of the most important festivals of the year and is celebrated in families by performing traditional activities together in their homes. While Diwali is popularly known as the "festival of lights", the most significant spiritual meaning behind it is "the awareness of the inner light". Bodhi Day is the Buddhist holiday that commemorates the day that the historical Buddha experienced enlightenment, while Soyal is the winter solstice ceremony of the Zuni and the Hopi Indians in North America. The main purpose of this ritual is to ceremonially bring the sun back from its long winter slumber.
Light, family, culture and song, these are the common tenants that mark the celebration of the solstice in many global cultures, as well as our local culture at Futuraskolan.
This month we have enjoyed celebrations of song, art and culture both in our local communities and amongst our respective schools. Our Lucia train at Futuraskolan International Bergtorp reached across town and spread to the local community. Our Literary Prize celebration recognized our fine young authors who submitted poetry and essays for publication as a part of our Nobel Day celebrations. Many of our schools are currently working with the theme Traditions as the central theme of their learning units.
A vibrant learning environment based on a celebration of our community. This has been the theme of the term.
Looking forward to 2019 we are excited about what the future has in store for us.
Starting in January we will begin our development process for our International Baccalaureate (IB) Gymnasium which we plan to initiate in 2021. Furthermore, we have a host of community festivals in the works for the spring term 2019.
In March we will all join hands in what I believe is our most festive celebration of the year, The Futuraskolan Music Festival. Here students from all of our schools will treat us to songs, dance routines and instrumentals coordinated by our outstanding music teachers. Please plan to join us, it is a celebration of the creativity and passion that helps define us at Futuraskolan.
Later in the spring our amazing leadership group at Futuraskolan International School of Stockholm will hold our first annual Model United Nations Conference. During this event, students will be given country assignments and will go through the United Nations processes of formal lobbying, writing resolutions and trying to get their input to United Nations policy formally recognized in the General Assembly. It's an amazing experience for our students. Last year we sent students to New York and Rome to compete in MUN events. Please encourage your grade 7-9 students to ask their teachers about this. There is no better way to be a global citizen than to ensure that your personal beliefs are interweaved into the discussion about global policy.
Lastly, in May and June we will have all of the grade 9 students from the organization together for a fun picnic in preparation for our annual Grade 9 Prom. Here we celebrate as a community the amazing efforts of your young men and women as they embark on their journey to higher education.
When looking at the results from the year we are grateful for the tremendous efforts of the community to help ensure that we remain, from a grading perspective, the number one free school organization in Sweden (275.2 grade point average).
Along with our good fortune comes an ethic responsibility, and I would encourage you to make this a part of your dinner table discussions during this time of year.
When we celebrate with family and friends this year we must keep in mind that outside our doors there exist less fortunate families than our own.
At both Futuraskolan International Kottla and Stockholm our Global Citizenship projects aim to support the members of our global community who do not have the opportunities that we share. By taking our students to elderly centers to read and play music for their members, or going to local churches on the weekends to feed the homeless, to working with PLAN International in their offices every second week, to raising money for our outreach projects across the global, we aim to embody the spirit of giving that is such a core part of who Futuraskolan aims to be.
Please have a talk with your students about how you too can support these projects. By doing so you help us to enforce one of our core beliefs that when you lend a hand to your neighbor you are standing for the goodness and humility that we encapsulate as true global citizens.
Thank you all for a wonderful and exciting term of study. We are grateful for you having chosen Futuraskolan to entrust with the social and academic development of your fine students. This is a show of faith that we do not take lightly and we are dedicated to honoring your trust in us.
In celebration of Nobel Day I'd like to share for your reading pleasure the complete works of the Futuraskolan Literary Prize.
Sweden has a long and vibrant history of literary greats. Taking inspiration from them, we have constructed a yearly Literary Prize competition so that we can put the spotlight on the creativity and diverse wealth of Futuraskolan's young contemporary authors.
All of the works you will read help to illuminate the vital contemporary issues and demonstrate the transformative power of literature on both thought and culture.
We are deeply honoured that our young artists chose to share their hearts and minds with us in the form of their essay or poetry entries to the prize.
Happy Monday! What a lovely sunshiny autumn day it is.
It is a festive time of the year for us working in the food department. Preparing for next week's Thanksgiving celebration, our Nobel Lunch on Monday December 10th and our annual "Julbord" served on Lucia Day, the 13th of December. We aim to provide a warm culinary experience for our fine students while celebrating our local and International traditions.
As always, working hard to find the right high quality produce and making the extra effort to work with distributors who represent the ethical values of Futuraskolan is a priority for us.
A great example of this is the pork meat and handmade sausages we buy from Svenska Gårdar. All of their meats are coming from farms prized for their animal welfare and the products are made without artificial additives. This is important to us when we choose our purveyors as we aim to serve our students warm and healthy meals that also represent our core values.
Once our students have left us for the holidays, the head chefs and I will start writing the menu for the spring semester. Combining the wishes from our students from the Student Councils (Elevsråd) in the organization and adhering to the guidelines the authorities gives us, we aim to prepare student friendly, healthy choices for our fine students lunch experience.
Have a fantastic weekend everyone and we wish you a warm and family orientated Holiday Season from all of us at Futuraskolan AB.
A spooky day has been had by all at Futuraskolan International Preschool Danderyd.
Pumpkins, ghosts, spooks, witches and ghouls we're out to fright and delight!
It is with excitement and joy that I write to you today to formally introduce the newest member of our Futuraskolan Leadership Team, Ms. Rachel-Ann Björk. Rachel will assume the leadership of our Futuraskolan International Gåshaga school effective December 1, 2018.
Rachel's work was first introduced to me when she was named Head of Mathematics at Internationella Engelska Skolan Bromma in 2010. During our time working together she constructed a sound set of academic processes that helped place IESB among the top 20 academic institutions in Sweden.
In time Rachel was entrusted with an expanding set of leadership assignments. She was a member of the team that opened IES Liljeholmen in 2013. As a result of her exemplary work there she was assigned the task of opening three other schools over the coming years, concluding with her accepting the Principal role at IES Alvsjö in 2016.
Rachel brings a dynamic and progressive set of leadership processes to the organization. We are thrilled that she has chosen to honor us by agreeing to work alongside us in our pursuit of excellence.