The first snowflakes of the season began to drift from the sky as I walked briskly towards Seminaarin koulu. I took this to be a good sign; the beginning of something new.

My escort informed me that: “This is the type of glitter we have here in Finland.” I smiled; he had obviously looked into my background.

As we walked, I was provided with a few key facts about the school: over 700 students; around 90 staff members; three optional language programs for students in Fourth Grade onwards and that this site was previously a teacher-training college.

It was a lot to take-in as we hurried through the multitude of staircases and hallways.

Thankfully I remembered a key statement which I later learnt is paramount to the school’s core belief: “We are a school for all students.” I didn’t understand the significance of these words until the conclusion of my two days.

There are also eleven special education classes. Team-teaching occurs between the mainstream and special needs teachers and all students have equal opportunities with the resources throughout the school. The learning needs of all students are recognised and there are several classrooms which have been designed with the needs of these students in mind.

For example, there is the ‘White Room’ which students can attend when they are feeling overstimulated and stressed. It contains a bed and many kinaesthetic and auditory resources which their teacher and/or carer provide to them as needed. It’s lovely. Extended teaching, ‘Explorers,’ is provided for those students who excel in their regular classes. This includes language classes and this for me, is where things became extremely interesting.

I attended several language classes whilst at Seminaari; English, Swedish and German classes. All wonderful, all effective and all engaging. In fact, the German Teacher proudly informed me that; “Class doesn’t start for another fifteen minutes, but they all come in from lunch earlier because they want to start this.” 

She is referring to her Kahootz German quizzes. Ah Kahootz, such a fabulous tool for language teaching and learning! I joined a fifth grade German class and whilst my knowledge of German is limited to perhaps just four phrases, I was able to follow the lesson easily enough thanks to the students. These clever multilingual kids set-up a laptop and logged me into the Kahootz quiz, explaining to me in English what their teacher had asked of them in German!

Speaking of English, I attended several classes including a maths class where the students were working on long multiplication. This was true CLIL! I watched in awe as these students not only completed the questions but explained how they reached their answers – in English – to the rest of the class! I asked their teacher about this, wondering if she ever needed to switch to Finnish to explain complicated processes; “Maybe at first I used a little Finnish. But now they pretty much understand everything – it’s very rewarding!”

It sure is! Consistency is key and rules supreme as the main factor for student-success. Other subjects throughout the school are also taught only in English: Art, Religion Studies, Science and History. My goodness!

I also observed ‘Language Showering’, a term given to describe the gentle introduction of English for young students; those in kindergarten and preschool. I was in a first-year classroom and I initially thought that the teacher was doing this for my sake since I didn’t understand Finnish… But this wasn’t the case at all.

Language Showering is a process whereby the teacher begins to include basic English words and  short phrases as part of his/her teaching. Greetings and the occasional use of basic vocabulary are ‘showered’ into these classrooms; consistently and with the support of the Finnish language.

No stress and no fuss – for either the students or their teacher. Simply learning another language through subconscious immersion. I liked it, a lot.