Lauritsalan School - Lappeenranta (FINLAND)

   Lauritsala School is situated in Lappeenranta, which is a smallish town in the southeast of Finland with 70 000 inhabitants. The town is located close to the Russian border, which has had a significant effect on our cultural values as well as on our economy, especially due to Russian shopping tourism in the past decades. Our school consists of pre-school grade along with grades 1-9. Our youngest pre-school students are six and sixteen-year-old 9th graders the oldest. Altogether we have about 750 students and 90 teachers as well as 20 other staff members. The secondary level of the school is planning to participate in the cooperation. Students’ ages are from 13 to 16. On average, there are more students with special needs in Lappeenranta than in other parts of Finland. We are always trying to find ways to teach students with special needs in regular classes. We also have students with different ethnic backgrounds, most typically Russian, and students from socially disadvantageous background who we try to ensure equal opportunities. Lauritsala school participates actively in many school developing programmes. Our staff is also widely educated in matters like Flipped Classroom, DOP (design-oriented pedagogy), neuropsychiatric and team coaching to name but a few of the most essential ones promoting a new kind of thinking in classroom. Therefore we feel that we have some fresh approaches to offer. Furthermore, learning outside classrooms and learning by using technology are of great importance in Lauritsala school today. International project work is, and has been, a great practise to enhance both. The secondary level of our school has had a chance to cooperate in five different Comenius/Erasmus+ projects, which have turned out to be very beneficial to all involved: students, staff and families. Our earlier projects have covered wide variety subject areas, but we feel that we haven’t had chance to explore our common European heritage, to compare its similarities, differences and explore the latest developments like we are planning to do in this project. In our previous projects our role has been that of a partner, and it still is the role we prefer. Nevertheless, we have always been willing to offer support to the main coordinator and taken charge of some designated project tasks. The most active members of our school’s team consist of English teachers, other foreign language teachers, a Finnish teacher, a history teacher, a science teacher, an arts and crafts teacher and a school counsellor. In other words we have a wide variety of expertise in different subjects combined with enthusiasm to collaborate with teachers and schools internationally. In a group as big as ours there will always be someone to assume the role of the school coordinator in case she should leave the school. Our administration supports international cooperation and sees project work like in Erasmus+ important as students are active performers throughout the project.