A Healthy Passport P5

A Healthy Passport has been awarded National Quality Labels in both Scotland and Finland by the eTwinning teams in both countries. Yester Primary's teacher, Michael Purves, applied for and received the Quality Label in February 2008, while Kuvansi's Jyrki Ikonen received the great news that he too had been awarded the Quality Label in June 2008.

The following quote comes directly from the eTwinning.net website:

"eTwinning Quality Labels are granted to teachers with excellent eTwinning projects. The Quality Label is concrete recognition to teachers and schools of the high level of their eTwinning activities. For pupils, this offers a boost to their work efforts, and for the school in general, a public affirmation of their commitment to quality and openness in European collaborative work."

This means that, as both schools now have been awarded the Quality Label, we should shortly receive news that A Healthy Passport will be awarded the European Quality Label, the highest award possible at European level!

Well done to all in both Kuvansi and Yester who have been involved with this project!

Curriculum for Excellence...

Monday 16 June 2008

eTwinning National Awards 2008

Our blog was shortlisted for a prize at the annual UK National eTwinning Award Ceremony, held in Nottingham, on 13th- 15th June 2008.

Mr Purves attended the Conference, and was delighted to learn that A Healthy Passport was awarded 2nd place by the judges!

Baldev Singh, one of the judges said, "This was an outstanding project, which showed a high level of collaboration between the two link classes, in Scotland and in Finland. There was a wide range of skills that were learned very successfully by both sets of pupils and it was amazing to see the sheer volume of work covered by both classes."

Yester Primary was presented with a certificate and £200, to be spent in any way that we consider can further our extremely successful eTwinning work.

Well done to all the children in both Yester and Kuvansi for all their hard work over the year! A special mention also, to Kuvansi's Mr Ikonen, who worked tirelessly throughout the year!

Mr Purves

Monday 2 June 2008

Hyvää kesää- Have a nice summer-We are on holiday

We are on holiday now, however here are some comments.

-It was nice to learn many things about Scotland and Scots. Have a nice summer!
-The blog has been a really nice thing. It has been great to learn many new things. Thank you very much!
- I think this project has been very useful for me. I have enjoyed to read comments on the blog. Have a nice summer!
- It was really funny to teach Finnish to you.
- I think this project has been a great thing. I can use English much better now. Have a nice summer!
- This blog has been very important because I have learnt English.
-Thanks for everything! I have learnt very much. Have a nice summer!
- It has been nice to see great photos from Scotland.
- Thank you for eveything and have a nice holiday! We miss this project! Best wishes.

Mr Ikonen`s pupils

Please click on the comments section to see the Yester children's responses!

Friday 30 May 2008

Finnish baseball

We played Finnish baseball match in Kuvansi last Wednesday. The great match was : The teachers vs pupils.

Hutunkeitto. At the beginning of the match Jari and Rocky were fighting for the first batting period.

Finnish baseball

Jari won!

Finnish baseball

A great pitch and Anna is ready to bat.

Finnish baseball

Anna is batting.

Finnish baseball

Nina is batting.

Finnish baseball

Nina´s batting was poor.

Finnish baseball

Nina is running to the first base. But she is out.

Finnish baseball

Pallo is tossing.

Finnish baseball

Helena is batting. She batted very well.

Finnish baseball

And Hanna is batting. Oh, she missed!

Finnish baseball

The teachers won the match 12 - 8.

Finnish baseball

My pupils were little disappointed, that´s life...but the sun shines and maybe they will win the next match.

Wednesday 14 May 2008

Finnish sports stars visit Yester!

Today, we were really delighted to welcome Hibernian football club manager, Mixu Paatelainen, who played 70 times for the Finnish national team, and speedway rider Tero Aarnio, from Kuusankoski, who races for the Berwick speedway team here in Britain, to our class. They came to see what our two classes have done during the last year. Primary 5 gave a presentation of the Healthy Passport blog to the stars, who then answered questions that had been prepared by both Mr Ikonen's pupils in Kuvansi, and the Yester primary 5 children. It was a fantastic experience for all the class, and Mixu and Tero were very impressed with what they saw!

Mixu answers questions from the class, and from Kuvansi

Mixu took part in a question and answer session. He answered a selection of questions from both classes. Some of the questions, especially those from Kuvansi, were very interesting!

Questions we asked Mixu, which came from Kuvansi:

1) Do you ever miss Finland?

Mixu answers this in English, then in Finnish.
2) What is the most challenging aspect of your job?

3) How many hours a week do you train?

4) Is it more difficult to train Scotsmen than Finns?

5)And finally, what's it like living in Scotland?

Thank you very much to Mixu for answering these questions for us!

Mixu's present to the children

Mixu very kindly gave the class a Hibernian shirt, signed by all of the team!

Presenting Mixu with a gift!

As a thank you for coming to visit us, Mixu and Tero were presented with a silver quaich each, as well as some other presents. Here, Dekker presents Mixu with his bag of goodies.

Finnish superstars in the class!

Tero and Mixu relax with some of the class, after seeing the blog presentation.

Tero shows off his bike to the class

After the presentation was over in the classroom, we went outside where Tero showed the children his speedway bike. This was a real highlight for the children.

Gathering around the bike!

Tero spent some time explaining to the children how he rides his speedway bike.

Very happy children, posing with Tero!

You can read all about Tero's racing career here.

Finnish sports stars visit Yester!

In the sunshine outside the school. Tero Aarnio and Thistle with Mr Purves

Mixu and Tero's thoughts on their visit!

Listen to what Mixu said about his visit, in both Finnish and English!

Like Mixu, Tero really enjoyed his visit to Yester. Listen to what he thought, in both Finnish and English!

Tero answered questions for us too!

We asked Tero some questions too.
Here they are, along with his answers.

1) Do you ever miss Finland?
Yes, but this is my first year racing in the UK, so I have been very busy and that helps to stop me missing my friends and family in Finland. My dad will come to stay here in July, as well as my mum and sister, to see me race, so I am looking forward to that.
2)How fast do you go when riding speedway?
That depends on the size of each track, but it can be up to 80mph. (120kmph)
3) Have you ever fallen off your bike?
Oh yes, many times! Too many times! Every speedway rider falls off his bike sometimes.
4) What's it like living in Scotland?
Well, I actually live just over the border in England, but it's great. The people here have all been so friendly and helpful to me since I came here in March. I'm getting used to it now!

Thanks to Tero for answering these questions for us!

Wednesday 30 April 2008

The Spa Hotel Kuntoranta

We visited Kuntoranta in Varkaus on Monday 28th of April. We cycled 15 km from Kuvansi to Varkaus and then we raked the dead leaves off the grass. We worked 4 hours and after that we went to the spa. You can see water slide behind us. At spa we enjoyed water bubbles and massaging showers and we played basketball in the swimming pool. It was a really nice school day.

Wednesday 16 April 2008

Yester Primary School is 40 years old!

This is the cake which all pupils will enjoy a piece of, to celebrate 40 years since our present school opened.

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History...

International Education is something that Yester Primary school staff are very interested in developing. Early in 2007, two of the staff, Fiona Edwards and Michael Purves decided to look at ways of linking Yester with schools from other countries. After researching the idea, the school registered with eTwinning.net, an international organisation that helps schools from different countries make links with each other.
It was always hoped that we would make a link with a Finnish school; as Finland is top of the list of countries that the Scottish Government recommends for links. As Michael Purves had also spent a highly enjoyable family holiday in 2006 in Finland, it seemed a natural choice.
By June 2007, we had found a partner- and Jyrki Ikonen from the Kuvansin koulu school near to Varkaus had agreed to join us in our project, which we are calling “A Healthy Passport”. Over the course of the next school year, until June 2008, we plan to get children from both schools to exchange information on a range of subjects, allowing them to find out as much as possible about each country’s schools, villages and the cultures of Scotland and Finland themselves.