Mellomhagen secondary school is situated near the town of Larvik. It’s in the southern part of the country – 13 miles south of Oslo. The school has 293 students, 26 teachers. The students are organized in 12 classes - four on each level from 8th to 10th grade, age 12 to 16. The school is open for all students in this area. We have students from foreign countries, students with special needs, students at risk of social exclusion and main stream students. Each class has two teachers. The teachers are in charge of 13-15 students each. The administration consists of four persons - headmaster, school deputy, secretary and one adviser. The teaching staff consists of 26 persons. They are organized in three teams. Each team is led by a team leader. The team leader is the connection from the administration to the teachers and the other way around. Mellomhagen is a partnerschool in this project.
The subjects at Mellomhagen are science, languages, philological subjects, handcraft, music, physical training and cooking. The school has two computer-rooms consisting of 30 units each. We use the computers in most of our subjects.
Mellomhagen secondary school has participated two Comenius projects earlier – one as coordinator in 1994 and one as partner some years later. Through these projects the students have learned a lot about being an European. They have practiced English – both oral and written. They have met students from several foreign European countries and learned a lot about culture, geography, history and much more. Some of our earlier students still have contact with the students they met.
There are several reasons to join this project:
-Practice languages – oral and written
-Learn how to use the new technologies when you communicate with foreign countries
-Share knowledge about Norwegian sites at the Unesco list and learn about other sites in Europe
-Learn to know other European students – how they live, what their schools are like
-Learn how we relay on each other – that we are connected together. The way Norwegians live influence other countries
-The possibility of travelling in Europe is a motivation itself
-To possibility of hosting strangers is a new and useful experience for our students.