Our student council

Our school has a new student council with 14 positive and smart students full of ideas. The council’s number one priority is to arrange all kinds of happenings and events to make studying more fun. It also makes sure that our school looks nice, and everybody wants to come there every morning, even on those dark, rainy autumn mornings when motivation is at not so high a level. The student council has a chairman, actually a woman, vice chairman, secretary and the student who looks after the money. There are also many other things to do so everybody has their own job. The student council is the link between teachers and students.

The student council has a godchild in Vietnam, and two members write her letters and send some gifts for example at Christmas time. They also decide every year where to give the money from our working day collection and arrange money collection for developing countries. Sports days are also a part of the student council’s operations, as well as all kinds of dressing up- days.

The student council’s latest project was to re-decorate the second floor’s hall and students' room. They bought flowers, sofas, posters, pillows and all kinds of other things to make our school more cosy. The results are amazing! See for yourselves:

 Written by Eeva 2B

                                      The grand opening of the newly redecorated students' room.

First-Year Students' Welcoming Party

Friday 7th September

The every-year tradition of FES is to welcome the new first-year students to the school. This new semesters' students were welcomed on Friday 7th of September. Normally the welcoming party is orchestrated by the second year students and basicly their aim is to make the new students (more commonly known as "the Skins" on that day) embarrass themselves by doing weird stuff during the schoolday and by showing proper respect towards the second-year students.

 

                                                                          Class 1B

 The first-year students also had to wear costumes that were decided by the second-year students and this year's "theme" was Disney's "The Hunchback of Notre Dame". What this meant was that the boys were dressed up like Esmeraldas and the girls were dressed up like Quasimodos, and personally I have to admit that everyone was dressed up well in my opinion. Of course you didn't have to participate in the event if you didn't want to, but a good thing is that usually nearly everyone participates.

 

 The first-year students' day started with practising the dance that they were supposed to perform to the second-year students later that day. There were also designated areas for the first-year students where they could not tread. Also, always when a first-year student encountered a second-year student on a hallway they had to bow deeply and say the following mantra: "Oh you great second-year student, you are like a royalty and I am not your equal". Since every first-year student was wearing a large paper nameplate over their chests, the second year students were able to draw smiley-face symbols or minus symbols on it according to how well the first-year student performed the mantra.


                                                               Practising the dance.
 

 

 In addition to dancing, the first students also had to sing a song to praise the second year students.
                              

                                               The special areas reserved for the new comers.
 

 Overall, the event was great fun and I'm sure that everyone who participated in it had fun. At some times, though, it seemed that the second-year students had a little bit too much fun during the schoolday. 

                                                                                        The royal ones.

                                              The second year students also served a drink to the first year ones.

  After the healthy drink, the new comers had to complete an agility track.  To make it a bit  more complicated, the participants were tied together.

                                                                              The winners of the day.

Written by

Ismo Vulli, 1B

New school year

Straight on towards matriculation examinations

A new semester has begun in our high school. The seniors of FES Upper Secondary School are just now preparing themselves for the autumn’s matriculation exams. Most seniors have decided to spread their exams into both autumn and spring. This way it may be easier to concentrate on each subject and to get better results.

We talked about this autumn’s exams with a few of the seniors. Here are some of their thoughts:

 Veera, 3a

 What subject are you going to take this autumn?

- I'll take religion.

Are you feeling very nervous yet?

- Yes! I almost feel like panicking a little. I regret not starting to prepare properly already in the summer holiday. I also feel a little envious about my friend who doesn’t have to have any stress about the final exams until the spring..

Henna-Riikka, 3b

What subject will you take?

- I'll take psycholochy.

What technique have you found the best when preparing for the exams?

- Well, my ability to concentrate properly is so low that I need to schedule my reading. I need to read a little at a time and many separate times in a long period of time. I also need to underline sentences and make notes besides reading.

Are you still happy with your decision to spread your exams into autumn and spring?

- Absolutely! I knew I could do this among the other work and it has gone very well.

Are you afraid of the matriculation examinations?

- Well, maybe I’m a little afraid of forgetting everything on the spot or that I have highlighted the wrong points. But complete failing scares me the most.

Aleksi, 3a

What subject will you take?

- I'll take health education.

Do you expect the exam to be especially difficult or easy?

- Average, I guess. It depends on the assignments and questions.

If you could change your mind now, would you still take health education? Or would you prefer to leave it till the spring, too?

- I wouldn’t like to take another subject or to  leave it till the spring.

Are you going to start the preparation for the spring’s matriculation examinations right after the autumn’s  exams?

-  Well I think I should but we’ll see what happens.

What is your main feeling about the matriculation examinations right now?

- I’m just a little nervous, that’s all.

I, the other author of this post, am also going to take part in the matriculation examinations this autumn.  I am going to take only mother tongue but I have to say I regret it a little. It was really hard to realize early that this subject needs studying just as any other subject you are going to take. Shortly, this means I may not reach as high grades as I was planning.  Luckily I’ll still have a chance in the spring, but this doesn’t mean I’m going to leave the final preparation entirely this time, I just want to leave some alternatives open.

Written by 
Maiju 3A ja Janette 3B