At School in Finland

---

MONDAY 21s APRIL 2008, Helsinki
I'm spending just one week in Finland and, in that time, I wll be visiting Torpparinmäki (r-r-r-roll the r's) Comprehensive School in Helsinki. I hope to find out what it is that makes Finnish educational standards as high as they are and whether what I learn can benefit our practice back in Birmingham (England, not Alabama).
Much of what I discover will come not only from observations and experiences that I am priviliged to obtain but (and probably more importantly) from the conversations I have with adults and children alike.
I came with a number of questions and, in just the first two days, some of those questions have been answered and have been replaced with more - different and more complex - questions. I started with questions like: Why is educational achievement so high? How much of this is due to the quality of teaching and school leadership? What other influences must be factored in to get a true picture? What contribution to standards is made by factors such as family background, the value put on education, the media, societal flux and stability, government initiatives (or interference)? What are the external pressures and expectations put on schools?
Having spent a day walking round Helsinki and a day in my host school, I have other questions like: Is Finnish society really any better than British society? What are the challenges that Finnish society faces that are not made as public as their educatonal standards? Are Finnish teachers really any better than British teachers and Finnish learners any better-equipped than British learners (in the main)? What difference does our testing culture make to the capacity of our learners to achieve? Should we have a more relaxed (and realistic) approach to education?
My head is full of what I have picked up in just few hours and, over the next few days, I hope to make sense of all this as I try to make this blog make sense. Meanwhile, I am looking forward to returning to the UK to celebrate what we clearly do well and to share lessons I have learned that will benefit our practice. Watch this space...

---