Sweden

Handing over the manifestos

A sunny day in september, during the school activity-days, student representatives from Morkarlbyhöjden school handed over the manifestos to the superintendant of the schools in Mora.

One group of students started from our school and walked with Southafrican and Swedish flags and posters through the city centre.

Another group, working with the tolerance project started from the other side of  the city. Both groups met outside the city hall, where the superintendant of the schools were waiting.

The chairman, Zilan Isik and secretary, Cyncia Neunherz of the student council together with one of the creators of the manifesto-film, Marcus Karlén spoke, explaining how the manifestos were created and spread to different schools. They also informed the new supeintendent of the cooperation between our schools and about the aim and vision of the manifestos.

After this, the manifestos were handed over.

The students were then invited inside the city hall where they met the Mayor of Mora, who promised to help the students to get in contact with the Swedish School Minister and the Minister of Environment to make it possible to hand over a copy of the maifestos to them.
The Minister of Environment has answered our e-mail and is very positive to our work. She wrote about her cooperation with the South African Minister in monotoring the Climate Meeting.
We will report more after the meeting with the minister, which we hope will take place this spring.

Tolerance and justice starts with the individual person.

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A Manifesto for a better world

A Cooperation between schools

Text: Cyncia Neunherz
Photo: Cyncia Neuherz, Lena Sundberg



It´s Monday morning at Morkarlbyhöjden. As usual there are lots of students, but today many of them are gathered  outside– today it is "activity day".

The handover of a Manifest

The sun is rising over the horizon. A loud constant murmur is heard from the crowd. Friends are gathering in groups, everyone has something to say about the approaching bike tour. The teachers are desperately trying to count the participants. This is the start of a bike tour to Orsa school where the students will hand over the fantastic Manifest that will hopefully help making the world a little bit better.

 

A colorful mixture of students are gathered outside the gymnastic hall. Anticipation is in the air or is it just the patience that has run out?

The Bike tour

The tour is a real success. Everyone can go at their own speed, most of them are  in the front. The journey starts at the school. We take the most direct route to Lake Siljan. After a quite long way along the beach we take a turn over the Bridge in Noret and then right again, towards the hospital. We bike behind the hospital, a turn towards the water and then straight ahead  to Orsa. While we are biking we can enjoy the varied nature and if we are lucky, we can see some animals.

There are many stops for photo shooting, both for memory and for the future story.

A Manifesto for the future

The manifesto is written by students of class eleven from Muizenberg High School (MHS), located in South Africa.  Five years ago a partnership was created between MHS and Morkarlby-höjden. We want to get the cooperation to continue and to develop by working with projects that also reaches outside school. The idea is that the students will get a better view of the world, get to know each other, communicate and learn more about important matters such as sustainable development. The students also get to practice English.

The manifesto consists of different aspects of how we should behave to each other (“Peace and Tolerance manifesto”) and how to preserve nature and our planet ("Nature manifesto"). The manifestos are to be signed by the schools and sent to the parliament of South Africa. A group of volunteer students from Morkarlbyhöjden has also made a short film with similar messages from the students at their school. Along with Leonie Jacobsen, who came here from South Africa especially for this project, we now want to spread our message to as many schools as possible and get to hear what they think.

Through “The Link” which is a bit like an online magazine or blog pupils from both Muizenberg and Mora can publish texts and visuals and keep in contact. Students will also have the opportunity to maintain contact through computers at school time. They will then be able to discuss the issues affecting their lives, in or outside school, and at the same time improve their English in a natural way....

 

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Reports on Mora from the students at Morkarlbyhöjden School

texts and photos by the reoportergroup at the "activity-days"

Life in Mora

It´s a sunny afternoon and we bike down to Mora where we will take pictures of some attractions. It´s very windy, we almost get tears in our eyes. Now we have reached Mora. We are standing beside the lake and a lot of ducks come towards us. We run quickly to our bicycles. Mora is deserted and we bicycle along the lake. The leaves from the red and yellow trees are falling around us.

Vasaloppet

First we go to the goal of the Vasa-skirace. Two people are photographing the goal, they are probably tourists. The first Sunday of March, Mora organizes “Vasaloppet”, a ski race where you ski from Sälen to Mora. The distance is nine Swedish miles and there are many people that come here to attend the race. It´s a big event for Mora but it´s not so good for the climate, because there are so many cars everywhere. Earlier the same week, there are also other races that are a little bit shorter than “Vasaloppet”. In “Vasaloppet” 15 000 people attend and in the other races 60 000 people altogether.

 The Dalicarliahorse

(This is what a Dalicarliahorse look like)

We continue in direction to the lake when we just, by the rails find a huge Dalaicarliahorse. A Dalicarliahorse is a painted horse-shaped piece of wood. The traditional color is red, but now you can also buy the Dalicarliahorse in other colors too. They are hand painted in Nusnäs (a village outside Mora) where the Dalicarliahorse-factory is located. It´s a symbol for Mora and for Sweden and it´s known all over the world. In the end of the 19th century they started to paint the Dalicarliahorse the way it looks today. About 70 years ago the Dalicarliahorse had it´s breakthrough. It´s started like a toy for kids and it´s now a traditional handcraft.

Lake Siljan

We bicycle down to the lake and we really enjoy the beautiful view. The lake is called Siljan and it´s a big lake in the middle of Mora, It´s the 6th biggest lake in Sweden and have an area of 290m2. The deepest part of Siljan is 134 meters deep. About 365 million years ago meteorite fall down in Mora and built Siljan. The lake consists of freshwater.

The moose

Now we see a little moose running towards us. In Sweden, especially in Dalarna we have many moose. The moose is very ordinary and you see them very often. It´s a shame that so many moose dies in car accidents every year. They are very big animals and they can weigh around four hundred kg. They live in the forests and eats leaves, twigs and grass. Their nickname is “The king of the forest” mostly because they have big crowns. In Dalarna we have moose hunting one week every year. It´s because we can´t have so many moose´s in the forests.

The pink house
In Mora we have a youth center called “The pink house”. There you have the chance to meet new friends, have some coffee, tea or whatever you like. You can also be a part of changing Mora through the youth council. If you like to sing, play theater or play music you get the chance to do that too. In “The pink house” it’s us, the youths who decide what to do. We asked some young people if they think there are lots of things to do in Mora. Two answered that there are many things to do, but another answered that there are not so many things to do.

The Dance school
In Mora we have a dance school called “M&M”. There are many people who are dancing at “M&M”, both young and old.
They have good teachers, who are nice and professional. They have many different dance styles like street or ballet. We asked some pupils what they are doing in their spare time. Two of the girls dance at M&M, and one of the boys plays soccer.


Sports in Mora
(This is Gustav Vasa)
In Mora there are many fun sports, like soccer, track and field, floor ball, gymnastics and ice-hockey. People who live in Mora like to do sports. Skiing is also a popular sport here. There is a sport for everyone.


Young in Mora
We asked some pupils if they feel safe in Mora, and most of them sad that they feel safe.

Autumn in Sweden
(Autumn leaves)
Right now we have autumn in Sweden. It gets darker and colder each day. So cold that we need mittens and scarfs. The leaves get yellow at first, then red and then they fall of the tree and get brown. When the spring comes the tree get new leaves again.

Written by: Lone and Johanna. 9th grade.



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Life at Morkarlbyhöjdens school

It's Monday morning and activity days at a secondary school in Mora, Sweden, and the classroom is a hive of activity. Students are writing, cooking,doing carpentry, sewing, playing instruments, and a lot more. The students are excited and engaged.
It's the first October, It’s cold and the leaves on the trees are shifting color. But inside our school it’s warm and bright. The technology hall is commissioned to build a vessel without a motor, made of junk.

 

In the home economics room, a three course meal is being arranged. The grade 8s make the appetizers which is bread with chicken mix, the grade 9s make the main course which is potato gratin with butterfly chop, and for dessert the grade 7s make ice cream.

In the handicraft-room students are hammering, pounding or sewing and knitting. These students may choose freely what to do.

 

Music

In music-class, the pupils learn to play various instruments and learn new songs. Inside, you will hear a lot of laughter and playing and everybody seems to have great fun.

Sports

In sport-class they´re doing lots of different things: dancing, boxing, trying fun and different activities. Today the sport group and our journalist group are bikeing to Orsa, a small village in the same area on the other side of the lake Orsa, to hand over the nature- and peace and tolerance-manifestos to another school.

 

PatchesPatches, is a group of students who need to get schoolwork done. But they can also just do their homework or prepare for tests.

 

 

Tolerance-project

Grade nine works with a tolerance-project about how people are to each other. They're going to Poland to visit the concentration camps to understand what happened during the second world war and make sure it will not be repeated. The students must during these days learn about everything from bullying to genocide and plan their Poland trip. The purpose of the work is to become a better person, spread the knowledge and make sure that the holocaust not will be repeated.

Morkalbyhöjden is a fairly new school. The building was originally a nursing home. And that’s why the school doesn´t look like all the other schools. The school is at a good height and has a beautiful view. It is located in a residential area with almost no traffic. There are approximately 300 students, 54 staff, 34 teachers and all the students are divided into 16 classes. Each year, the students have five activity days, three in the fall semester and two in the spring semester. During these days, students may choose what to do. So we have no regular classes in those days.

We have no school uniforms, we dress how we want to, which also applies to the teachers. Although we do not have school uniforms, there are many who dresses similarly anyway. Jeans, leggings, tank top, hoodie and Converse shoes are the most common outfits among girls. But for guys, it is usually sweatpants, T-shirts, thick sweaters and baggy jeans. They often have quite colorful clothes.

 

And a lot of students have an iphone. It is a very popular phone.

 

The food

We get free school meals but all may not really appreciate the food anyway, some go to the ICA - a shop near the school instead of eating school meals.

What do you think about the meals in the school? -The school meals are quite good, and not everybody get’s food in their school so we think that we ought to be happy.

We asked one of the students what he thought about the school

 

What do you enjoy most in school?
- Breaks!

What do you do at the breaks?

- I play ping-pong with my friends.

What do you enjoy most besides the breaks?

- To travel with the class. Last week we went to the Copper Mine in Falun and it was really fun.

 

 

We also asked a teacher what she thought about being a teacher at Morkarlbyhöjden.

- It feels good, I have fun and nice students and colleagues. The job is varied and interesting, so I never have a dull moment.

How long have you been working as a teacher?

-Four years.

 

 

Interview with the headmaster

Anders Kronberg is 43 years old, lives in Noret and he is principal at Morkarlby school. Kronberg has been headmaster for 2 years and before that he was a teacher for 13 years. 

We asked him how it feels to be a headmaster.
-Great.

Why?- Because there are nice students and teachers here, but it is also such a good atmosphere between the adults and the students.

  -What do you think about the activity days?
-Well, it is important that students can try new things and learn stuff that can be useful later in life.

-What is the hardest thing about being a principal?
- To be sufficient,. You have to be in so many places all the time and sometimes there is not time enough.

-What are your goals for the school?
-That the students and staff feel safe and that they will develop.

Text: Frida Lekander, Kerstin Jönsson, Filippa Eriksson.

Photo: Frida Lekander and Filippa Eriksson