Posts Tagged ‘Fredericia’

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The US Women’s Club of Fyn

Thursday, September 10th, 2009

The US Women’s Club of Fyn is an English speaking organization that was founded in 1984. Although many of our members are American women, the USWCF is an inclusive group – in the best American tradition.

The US Women’s Club of Fyn seeks to:
• Strengthen contact among Americans living on Fyn (Living on Fyn is not a requirement to join the club)
• Provide information and encouragement to English-speaking newcomers
• Create opportunities for sharing American holidays and traditions
• Reach out internationally by supporting organizations that help children

 

You can read more about this club at www.uswcf.dk.  

 

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Danish project in Lower Secondary

Tuesday, September 8th, 2009

Have a look here and see a short summary in English on a review of a novel originally worked with during Danish lessons. Among other things the students were to analyze the novel they had read, and practise their skills in group work.  The most important challenge for them was to find out whether the main character actually had developed personally or just gone as they put it – “from realiable to unrealiable?”

Summary of the novel
“Paradis tur – retur”.
 
 
This novel is about a girl who goes on a vacation with her family to Spain. Her name is Evelyn and she is from Denmark. She has a Danish boyfriend, his name is Adrian and he is the smart guy in their town. He is smart because he thinks about his health because he is a sports man.
When Evelyn goes to Spain she meets a guy, his name is Søren.
He plays a bit with her mind, so she begins to live her life full and do some things she never did before and she likes it.
Later in the novel, Søren tries to kiss her and she doesn’t say; sorry I have a boyfriend so we can only be friends.
In the beginning of the novel she missed her boyfriend a lot, and she was a bit negative all the time but after some days when Søren kissed her, she forgot all about her boyfriend.
At the end of the novel when she is back home in Denmark, she feels that she misses him a bit and her boyfriend Adrian can see that something is wrong, because she didn’t behave that way before she went on holiday.
 
The work in the group:
 
My experience of working in the group was good and I learned a lot of it. For instance discussing different points of view respect other people’s opinions and find out what your classmates expect from a novel.
     
The novel’s point is that a little experience can change some things in your life and lifestyle. pangpangpang Danish project in Lower Secondary
 
 
This short review was made by Nabil, Lower Secondary.

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Cosmo parents-teachers’ meeting

Friday, September 4th, 2009

                                                             Dear parents,

 

We would like to invite you to a parents–teachers meeting at 19.00 in class room 26 September 8 2009 at the school.

 

 

We have enclosed an agenda with some issues that we think we need to talk about:

 

·         Presentation of the teachers

o   Subjects

o   Curricula

o   Benchmark tests and exams

·         The blog

o   Info for parents

o   Photos

·         Homework

·         School parties

·         Trainee services

·         Cosmo net

o   Social network, where the parents can meet other foreigners with children at the same school or other schools.

o   Head speaker at the opening is going to be the newly appointed Ameamerican ambassador Cosmo parents teachers’ meetingrican ambassador, Laurie Fulton.

 

 

 

 

Best regards,

 

Simon Mosekjær

 

 

cosmo Cosmo parents teachers’ meeting

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Souaad moves, if The Cosmo closes

Thursday, August 27th, 2009

 NB. This article is a direct translation from a Danish article and it is by no means an expression of the school’s or the school board’s position

High priority: Souaad Rochdi and her family moved from Morocco to Denmark, because her husband got a job in Esbjerg. They chose to live in Kolding so that the children could attend the international school – The Cosmo.

In the corridor, where the international Primary and Lower Secondary of The Cosmo are situated and occupy two classrooms at Kolding Realskole the air is thick with such stories in both English and Danish.

The corridors on Kolding Realskole hum with voices of students who are eager to talk about the events of the summer holiday with their friends, before the teachers arrive.

This school year the school starts with 16 students aged 5-16. Souaad Rochdi is one of the parents, who has chosen to place her children at the international school.

 

More homework

 

 

Souaad Rochdi has two children in the age of 12 and 14 years at The Cosmo. It is the fifth school that they attend, as Souaad’s German husband travels a lot in his job. And there is no doubt in their minds that the children should attend an international school in Denmark. Yesterday they started at their second year at The Cosmo.

 

The children have mostly gone to a German school the places, where we have lived. But we have heard from friends in Denmark that the German schools here in the country have too low academic standards, so that the students almost never have any homework for example. Therefore we chose the international school.

Focus on each student

 

 

Souaad is happy for the fact that the Cosmo is so small, because it means more focus on each individual student.

  

As a parent I am happy that the teachers are more in touch with the students’ academic skills. And I am also very satisfied with the level of the teaching, she adds.

 

Worry that the school might close

 

 

The small number of students, makes she worry whether the school will exist long enough for her children to graduate and finished their Lower Secondary education.

 

Just the other day I spoke to my husband about what we would do it the school has to close. He said that we would find a solution. But if it really closes, we would listen to the children’s wishes. If their wish is to go to an international school, we would move to make that wish come through, she says.

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International school has challenges getting more students

Thursday, August 27th, 2009

NB. This article is a direct translation from a Danish article and it is by no means an expression of the school’s or the school board’s position

 

 

The international school of Kolding – The Cosmo – still has less than 20 students at the beginning of the second school year. The financial crisis is one of the reasons, says the school.

 

 

 

16 students started last Monday at The Cosmo – the International School of Southern Denmark, which is a department of Kolding Realskole.

 

The school has only managed to get a few students more than last year, which was the first year the school existed.

 

And the school is far from the targets, which its management announced at the beginning of last school year. Back then the headmaster of Kolding Realskole talked about 40 students the first year.

 

During the first school year the school has already used about 400,000 Danish crowns of the three yearly deficit guarantees, which two local companies have given The Cosmo.

 

But the head of department at The Cosmo, Simon Mosekjær, acknowledges that the school’s management was, perhaps, a bit too optimistic when the school opened.

 

0908 cosmo ps1 300x194 International school has challenges getting more studentsA bit too optimistic

The school needs time to grow, and we were perhaps a bit too optimistic. It requires more work than we thought to get students to the school, and our wish is that we get 30-35 students next year. But before the next school year the school board will probably begin to estimate if it is realistic that The Cosmo can continue without deficits after the first three years, where we have deficit guarantees says Simon Mosekjær.

 

He thinks that the financial crisis has a large part of the blame for the fact that it is more difficult than expected to get students for The Cosmo.

 

Companies lack funds

We have to face the fact that a part of the companies which said that they would support the school do not have the financial means to do so.

 

Some of the larger companies have phoned and asked what a student costs on a yearly basis at the school, but even so they have not been willing to use money for it. But we continue, because we have deficit guarantees for at least the first three years, says Simon Mosekjær.

 

It is AH industries and Bjarne Nielsen, who owns Galerie Nielsen and the shipping agency H. Daugaard A/S who each of them supports The Cosmo with a deficit guarantee of one million Danish crowns.

 

It has not been possible to get a comment from the chairman of the school board of Kolding Realskole, Henning Larsen.

 

Facts

The Cosmo – International School of Southern Denmark – is a department of Kolding Realskole. The school collaborates with Business Kolding.

 

All lessons are taught in English, and German and French are taught at all levels.

 

There are students from Germany, Vietnam, Spain, Iraq, Greece, England and Morocco at the school. The school has 16 students in the age from 5 to 16, who are divided in two classes – Primary and Lower Secondary. Due to the small number of students and the large spread in ages the school works with individual students’ plans, which are adapted to the age of every single student.

 

The price is between 2,000 and 2,600 Danish crows a month to have a student at The Cosmo.

 

 

This feature is a direct translation of a newspaper arctile from Jydske Vestkysten, Wednesday the 19th of August.

 

 

 

NB. This article is a direct translation from a Danish article and it is by no means an expression of the school’s or the school board’s position

 

 

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Next School Year 2009-2010

Wednesday, July 1st, 2009

The Cosmo – International School of Southern Denmark is closed from the 3rd of July to the 17th of August.

Should you wish to sign up your child for next year, my mobile phone – +45 20 52 05 49 – is open every weekday between 10.00 and 12.00 Am.

Best regards,

Simon Mosekjær

Head of Department

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Next School Year 2009-2010

Wednesday, July 1st, 2009

Kolding, the 1st of July 2009

 

Dear students and Parents,

 

The summer holiday is approaching, and the teachers and I would like to wish all of you a delightful holiday.

 

The School is closed from the 3rd of July to the 17th of August. Should you wish to sign up your child for next year, my mobile phone – +45 20 52 05 49 – is open every weekday between 10.00 and 12.00 Am. School begins Monday the 17th of August at 10.00 in classroom 25 – it is in the main building on the first floor.

 

The first day the students will spend approximately one hour with their classroom teacher, and they will receive their time tables and various pieces of information about the school year, extracurricular activities, a calendar, dates for parents-teachers’ interviews, etc.

 

It is a tradition at Kolding Realskole that all the students are off at 11.35 each day during the first week as it gives them a gentle start and it also provides the teachers with time for common preparation and various meetings.

 

Should you wish to require a placement of the After School Recreation Centre, please let me know as soon as possible, as we do not have too many places available.

 

We have experienced that some of the students are not very good at remembering to give you written messages from the school and return them with your signature afterwards. We will still hand out written messages, but at the same time they will also be available on the blog – where you can always find information about events, outings, extracurricular activities and other things concerning the daily life of the school.

 

Best holiday wishes,

 

Simon Mosekjær

Head of Department

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New facilities

Tuesday, June 9th, 2009

 

Due to a very positive increase in demands for places at The Cosmo – The International School of Southern Denmark – the international department will move to new and better  facilities during the summer holidays.

 

During the spring semester we have experienced such a large increase in demands for places at The Cosmo that the number of international students attending the international department next year will almost be the double of the number of students, we have had this year.

 

We started the present school year with two classrooms in a building opposite the main building, but next year the international department will have its classrooms on the first floor of the main building together with the international classes from Kolding Realskole; in that way we are aiming at creating an even more international environment for the students – foreign and Danes alike.

 

The interactive Whiteboards, the wireless network and other facilities, which the students have in their present classrooms, will, of course, be moved during the holidays, thus ensuring the same high standards for the teaching in all the international classes, as we have had this school year.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Companies lament lack of international schools

Friday, June 5th, 2009

A lack of international schools are causing major problems for top Danish companies

 

Numerous top business executives are worried that they will have augmenting difficulties in attracting and retaining international employees in the future due to the fact that there are no places in international schools available for their children.

 

The results of a recent survey carried out by Heidrick & Struggles shows that a number of HR managers in some of the country’s leading companies believe the problem of securing a place in an international school for the children of foreign employees is one of the major challenges faced by the Danish companies.

 

 

Foreign employees are not willing to accept a position, no matter how well-paid or how interesting the position might be, if they are not able to get a place at an international school for their child or children.

 

The Economy and Business Affairs Minister, Lene Espersen, said in an interview that it has made a big impression on her that there are problems finding international schools for children of foreign employees, and that she will discuss the issue with Education Minister Bertel Haarder. Hopefully, the two ministers will come up with some kind of solution.

 

Read more about the issue at http://expatindenmark.com/news/Pages/companies_and_intschools.aspx

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Read the blog!

Monday, May 25th, 2009

 

An answer to the problems of communication?

 

As a teacher for 11 years and a Head for almost two of them, I have yet to work in a school where everyone reckons that communication is good and that information is passed on satisfactorily. In the schools I have worked in, I have asked for input on how to improve things from staff, parents and students. Almost inevitably, as if it were some kind of mantra, every time I ask how the school could be better I get the response that communication needs to be improved.

 

Every time I have had this response I have thought long and hard about what can be done, and every time I have started some initiative that is meant to improve the situation. And yet, still, the response from some group or other will be that communication needs to be improved, is not good enough or is inefficient.

 

I know that we are not unique in any way, that most schools do most of all of what we do and that we will all face the charge, at some time or other, of not communicating well. I feel that this is a particular issue in international schools. Parents and staff come from different educational and cultural backgrounds and the international school never fully matches up to what the parents and students have been used to or what they expect…

 

Teachers will be used to one way of communication and find another in operation or will find the language confusing or will find the style of management strange, parents, possibly paying tuition fees for the first time for their children’s education, may expect a greater degree of communication that they had before. International schools have their own, developed, systems which have grown out of their particular and peculiar circumstances and these often do not conform to any institution, parents, students or staff have met before.

 

All of this is a partial explanation as to why; we have decided to have this blog. A blog, for those of you who do not know it, is essentially a web page on which you can write very easily and create a number of dated, sequential entries, rather like a diary. There is also the possibility for the readers of the blog to post comments on it, related to the entry they have just read.

 

We have a common responsibility for seeking information on the blog and the website, which gives us a common ground dealing with whatever issues that may arise. Should the nature of the message in question be of a more personal character, we all have e-mail addresses to which you are more than welcome to direct your questions and individual pieces of information. You will find the teachers’ e-mail addresses on the website. 

 

The inspiration for the blog came from Ann Meier from Business Kolding, who thought that a blog might be a way to introduce a more personal note into the communication between the members of staff, parents, students and other collaborators.

 

Hopefully this blog can alleviate some of the communication gaps which are said to be there!

 

Best regards,

 

Simon Mosekjær

 

Head of Department

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