Square-Eyed Students

Gislev Friskole is a free private school situated in a rural area. The school was founded in 1872 and its ideology is based on Grundtvig and Kold. We have112 students within the age of 6-16 years. We teach from Kindergarten to 9'th grade at the school. We are 9 teachers, 3 pedagogical employees, 7 kindergarten teachers and 4 practical workers at the school.

In addition to the school is an affiliated private Kindergarten "Solstrålen" with 44 children in the age of 2,5-6 years old.

The school and the kindergarten are about to unite in the spring 2017, with the school headmistress as the leader of both institutions.

The cooperation with Erasmus+ has been approved by the leader of both institutions, Gitte Jørgensen from Solstrålen and Maja Kvist from Gislev Friskole. Rikke Balle Rasmussen will be the responsible coordinator of the project. Mrs. Maja Kvist will be the legislative representative of both organisations. Since we are uniting, as one organisation, we look forward to involve the Kindergarten in the Erasmus+ work.

It is crucial to us, that our students experience ethnic diversity and develop tolerance towards other cultures and origins than their own. Traditionally children from our area doesn't travel much, which gives some of them lack of understanding of conditions and cultures, that differs from their own.

Every morning children and staff at our school gather at a morning assembly to sing songs, say prayers, give messages and tell stories. It is a uninique tradition that gathers children and teachers across ages. In this project we will implant the feeling of uniting different people at different ages around music and singing.

 The key persons such as the Coordinator and the Headmistress have experience in writing applications and reports and organizing international project meetings, due to our previous and present and future projects.
Gislev Friskole is a school with a strong International profile, that is highly valued and incooperated in daily practise in classes and curricula.

International experience:
-Every year, the school arranges 1 week student visits in Germany.
-Pupils in the 5’th and 6’th grade writes letters and communicates with our European friendship-class in Catalonia, Spain.
-Pupils in the 7’th and 8’th grade writes letters and communicates through e-twinning with our Turkish friendship class in Trabzon, Turkey. The english teacher in Trabzon is Serap Sensoy, the turkish coordinator of project "Square Eyed Students".
- Gislev Friskole has succesfully finished a Comenius project EUROPEAN LINKS THROUGH E-T@LES.
-We are about to finish a Nordplus Junior project “Small schools, big opportunities”.
-We are having an Erasmus+ KA2 project “Coloured by the Sun, United by the Sea” that ends in 2018. The project is created in the e-twinning platform and Twinspace is used to publish results, communicate and dissiminate our activities.
-We send our teachers on development courses. The latest 2 teachers at KA1 "Improvement of intercultural and project management skills, European development of the school", March 2017.
-Gislev Friskole offers professional outdoor teaching for the primary school. From partner requests through e-twinning and KA1 courses, we have realized that this special Nordic way of teaching is very interesting and attractive for potential partners in the EU.

We are working hard on engaging all teachers at the school, for the benefit of students and parents.

The experienced teachers at Gislev Friskole, have actively participated in the last years in Comenius, Nordplus and Erasmus+ projects and study-visits, greatly improving the quality of the teaching, and bringing an European dimension to our small school. The new teachers have learned from the dissemination techniques and the training, how to include their colleagues experience into the curriculum. Under the effect of this change, the quality of the education has increased, with visible results in the results of our pupils, their openness, courage and interest in education and their duties and rights as equal European citizens.

As we cannot take all our pupils and their parents outside their community, we want to take the World to them, by means of project and activities designed to make them see the reality beyond their community and their daily struggles. An international project well written and adapted to their needs, could truly break barriers and make a change in their lives and their perception of things they can and cannot achieve in life.

Our purpose is, that of delivering modern quality education, adapted to the needs and learning abilities of our pupils. The search of the best educational techniques has been our number one priority. But this has never stopped us from understanding that we cannot make a clear limit between the intellectual needs of our target group and their spiritual and cultural needs. We have always considered that teaching is about addressing all those issues together, not only to our main public, the pupils, but also to the entire community because such an action cannot be one-dimensional in order to have the desired effect.

Areas of specific expertise: Besides the usual set of skills and expertise, we obviously have as experienced teachers, our staff has a very diverse experience, that can only wait to be put into good use. Ranging from artistic talents (guitar playing, singing, painting, acting), to experience as computer-expert, trainers of trainers, project coordinators and a physical-education within the outdoor area.

During the years our school has had various ecological, sports and health clubs for the youth, a strong tradition of gymnastics, and a popular football club. We have organized local festivals, shows, international themed fares, all for getting the locals acquainted with the diversity of Europe and the beauty that this diversity ensures.

We are ready and anxious to have new projects and activities into which we can put our creativity, energy and dreams for the future.