 GENERAL
INFORMATION
 Gymnasiet
i Petalax was established in 1971. It is an upper secondary school
situated in the countryside, about 40 kilometers south of Vaasa.
Our school district includes the municipalities of Malax and Korsnäs.
The language of instruction in our school is Swedish (about 6 %
of the population in Finland speak Swedish as their mother tongue).
It is a small school (about 100-120 students) and since it is non-graded,
students can pass their matriculation exams after 2- 4 years.
INTERNATIONALISM AND LANGUAGE ABILITY
 International
contacts are an important part of our activities. Our school was
one of the first upper secondary schools to participate in Socrates
Lingua E projects. The planning for our first project started in
1996 and was carried out 1997 - 1999.
The project included a student exchange with an Irish school. The
documentation (a cd and a book) made by the students have received
positive feedback on a national level.
Since this
successful start there have been a long list of projects. In 1999-2000
a group of students participated in a project that focused on enterprising
and business. The project included a visit to London.
In 2000-2001 Finland’s relations to Europe (past and present)
were studied. EU-institutions were another important part of the
project. At the end of the project year, the participants visited
The Euopean Central Bank in Frankfurt, The European Parliament in
Strasbourg and the Commission in Brussels. This project was partly
financed by Euroscola.
In 2001-2002
all the second-year students took part in a project called
“Britain – As You Like It”.During the school year
different aspects of British culture were studied, and in May the
whole group went to London and Stratford. The same year another
group of students went to Poland and Germany to study concentration
camps as part of a course called “Förintelsen”/”The
Holocaust.
In 2002-2003, we had seven projects altogether going on. Gaudi
was carried out in the autumn term. In this project students studied
the well-known Spanish architect Gaudi, and visited Barcelona to
study examples of Gaudi architecture.
Another group studied churches and bridges in Prague, and paid a
visit to Prague in the spring. “The Holocaust” wasl
also on the schedule.
Each project includes a documentation in the form of a small booklet
or a multimedia CD.
In 2000 we started a a series of projects called “We and Europe”
– which means
that different aspects of a European country are studied during
the school year. This is then followed by a trip to the country
and a documentation. In this way we want to make our students aware
of the fact that Finland is an integral part of Europe, although
a bit “on the outskirts”. We also think that it is important
for students in a small school in the countryside
to be able to travel and broaden their views of the world.
Read more about our projects …
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