School Blog

Dear Parents and Students,

Today we are celebrating our end of school year with our year assemblies for year 4-8 in our student lounge in Senior school. A time of celebration and an opportunity to recognise our students’ achievements and to thank their teachers and mentors for their professional and caring support.

Students at IEST! You do really deserve congratulations for your positive attitude to learning at our school. You are becoming expert and active learners, as reflected in your excellent academic results. Success comes with hard work and perseverance and you have really shown how following our ATLs this year has supported in your success at school this year. Learning is a process and a challenge for all of us and we need to have grit along the way, so you can always have new goals and aspirations and with our support try again in August to achieve your goals and dreams.

We are really looking forward to celebrating the success of our year 9 Class of 2017 at our traditional Graduation ceremony at the Aula Medica on Thursday 15th August. It is time to say a fond farewell, knowing they are ready to move on to the Gymnasium school of their choice in August.

I want to take this opportunity to wish all students and parents a wonderful summer holiday and on behalf of management and staff we welcome you back on August 21st 2017.

Ms. Gina Ericsson

Principal IEST

We are very proud of our school yearbook and I would like to share my letter to year 9 Class of 2017 students with you all:

Dear Class of 2017,

“On the road to success, as IEST celebrates over 10 years of success 2016-17!”

Congratulations on successfully completing year 9 and graduating after 6 years of education at IEST.

It has been my pleasure to see you all grow up and to be able to accompany you on these 6 years of your journey and to be an important part of your individual “ roads to success”

As Class of 2017, you have also been inextricably connected to my journey as Principal and leader of our school. We started at the same time in 2011 and we have together all played a major part in the development and success of our school. A warm felt thank you from me.

Success can be defined in many ways and I believe having high expectations and perseverance to achieve one’s goals are key denominators in achieving success in life. We all have dreams and goals we strive towards, sometimes we need to fail or struggle to learn how to achieve success in our studies and life. At IEST the staff know that our students need to “wobble” as part of their learning process and we are here to support whether with the shock of all the English in year 4 or the move to Senior school with more personal responsibility for your studies.

Remember when you learnt to ride a bike, it takes time and after you practice you learn the skill for life. Learning is the same. To become expert learners at our school we continually challenge you to focus on your weaknesses and improve these to achieve your potential in all subjects at the school. I know that so many of you have shown grit and endurance in your desire to learn and be successful in your studies to have a wide choice of programmes at Gymnasium in August 2017. Well done.

Now it is time to enjoy your success achieved at IEST and to take with you as much as you can to help you on your individual road to success in life. This wonderful yearbook is a great souvenir to have with you on this journey, memories of special people and events that you will look back fondly on in the future.

A warm felt thank you to the students and staff involved in producing such a fantastic yearbook for you. Every year we see such creativity and hard work by everyone involved: True Grit!

Class of 2017, you are graduating in our special 10 year anniversary at IEST. On behalf of all the staff at IEST we wish you lots of success in the future whatever you decide to achieve or wherever you decide to go on the road to success. Remember travelling on the road itself is learning for life and how important it is to never give up. In the wise words of Winston Churchill: “Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.”

Good Luck Class of 2017

Ms. Gina Ericsson

Principal IEST

A grade nine student from IES Tyresö was crowned the winner after 18 bands and solo artists stepped forward to perform during the annual Internationella Engelska Skolan Modern Foreign Languages Eurovision Song Contest.

The popular competition is open to students at all IES schools and sees them perform a song in a language other than Swedish or English.

This year’s winner was Stella Chirinos from IES Tyresö (Pictured above with French Teacher Mr Guerneui, Founder of IES Ms Bergstöm, and music teacher Mr Stones). Stella sang Dernière Danse by French singer-songwriter Indila.

Stella said: “It was a strange feeling to hear that I had won. There was some very good singers from other schools. I knew that I had given a good performance and that I had a strong song but it's always a good surprise to win.

"I started in year 7 here at IES Tyresö so I've been learning French for three years. I like the language, I like how it sounds.”

Stella got the idea of performing the Indila song after a friend mentioned it in a French lesson and she realised it would suit her well.

She said: “I like to sing because it's fun and I can express feeling through songs. There are songs for all occasions, sad and happy.

"I've been singing since I was seven and I've performed on stage on several occasions previously so I have some stage experience but you can't take away the nervosity."

Her French teacher, Mr Guerneui added: “I knew that my student Stella was a very strong candidate for victory but when I heard the singers from Nacka and Gävle I felt that this year's trophy might as well go to one of these schools. The two girls had very strong and beautiful voices. It's my first year at IES Tyresö  and we are still a relatively new school so I am glad that we won with our first attempt.”

Second place was awarded to Paulina Johnson of IES Gävle (pictured, left) who sang Mii Años in Spanish, while the third prize went to a band from IES Nacka made up of Felicia Elding, Louise Andersson, Alva Willers and Annie Wallin (pictured, below, right). Together they performed Colores En El Biento in Spanish.

This year the event was hosted by IES Bromma, other IES schools taking part included those from: Älvsjö, Täby, Kista, Skärholmen, Huddinge, Liljeholmen, Uppsala, Hässelby, Eskilstuna, Halmstad, Lund, Sundsvall, Johanneberg and Hässleholm .

The result means that, according to Eurovision tradition, IES Tyresö will host next year’s contest.

Mr Guerneui is looking forward to putting together next year’s event.

He said: “IES Bromma has set the bar very high this year but we are confident to maintain the same standard next year."

IEST’s PTA sponsored Dragon’s Den started five years ago as a year 8 choice lesson. Seven students signed up and participated. The first year was very science based where students even had the opportunity to explore nuclear physics -- the what and why are alpha and gamma radiation dangerous. Students learned the basics of business plans and marketing plans.

Now five years later, IEST Dragon’s Den is bigger and more developed than ever! Still with PTA’s support, IEST Dragon’s Den is run by the English Department. All year 8 students have the opportunity to take on and compete in the Dragon’s Den project.

Students work alone, in pairs or in small groups of 3-4 where they have three weeks to develop their ideas and rehearse for their presentation for the class. One finalist from each class is then chosen to represent their class in the Dragon’s Den Final! For inspiration and preparation for the Dragon’s Den Final 2017, our 13 finalists -- Linnea Ejemyr, Moa Christianssén, Johanna Graham, Rebecka Hedensjö, Arthur Harmsen, Florian Randes, Viktor Synnes, Adam Ögren, Ronya Aspelod, Emily Assarson Naess, Isabel Storgård and Caroline Ehrngren (absent: Jack Magnell) -- visited KTH Innovation. 

“Ms Nicole Forsberg explained how things work at KTH and what they strive for in business. Mr Raman Ramalingam explained what they do at KTH. He also give us tips on how to develop products and make money. He mentioned some rare and funny cases like the man who started selling stones as pets -- who managed to make over one million crowns in one year by coming up with a fun and simple idea. The message was that things does not always has to be complicated. It can be simple too,” explained Adam Ögren, one of this year’s 13 finalists.

Tuesday the 21st March was the Dragon’s Den Final 2017 in the Academy at IEST Senior School where our 13 finalists presented their project in front of the three panelists -- Mr Maurice Parry, Mr Ralph Riber and Mr Ari Keinanen. Their presentations were judged on four criteria: Innovation, Business, Sustainability and Communication. They were critiqued on the presentation part: the opening, countdown section and closing statement. The Winner and second place winner will be announced at the End of Year Ceremony on Wednesday, the 14th of June, 2017.

Pictured above is Class 8B's finalists, Rebecka Hedensjö and Johanna Graham, at the Final, explaining the Paxanimi powered by hormonal capsule, the clock that makes sure you wake up ready to start the day -- feeling alert for for the entire day!

“This is now the 5th year we have been running the Dragon’s Den competition at the IEST and seeing the development in these young adults gives hope to the future! The initial reason for creating this annual event is I believe that in the coming years, to succeed one must be an entrepreneur. There will be too many people competing for the same job, as the world is getting more and more populated and the competition is now on a global basis,” explained Mr Maurice Parry, PTA’s Senior Adviser.

“Just having good grades will not be sufficient! Learning to take control of one’s own life, rather than depending on the will of others will be an absolute necessity It is with this though in focus that we need to encourage entrepreneurial processes and is why the PTA, together with dedicated IEST teachers have invested time and funds in the annual 8th grade Dragon’s Den competition. The earlier we encourage students in understanding the various aspects of business, e.g. generating ideas, planning, cost analysis, presenting, etc., the more likely it will be that they succeed in their futures! Let us continue to give this a priority and hopefully other schools and institutes will follow this line of thinking!” concluded Mr Parry.

IEST would like to thank PTA and Mr Maurice Parry for their continued support in Dragon’s Den. We would like to thank our special guests Mr Ralph Riber and Mr Ari Keinanen for attending and participating in this year's event as one of the Dragons!

Man in space

On Friday 13 January Professor Carl Johan Sundberg from the department of physiology and pharmacology at Karolinska Institute visited IEST. He held an informational but interesting lecture on the physical effects on the human body by being in space. At the end of the assembly he answered some questions that the students asked.

One thing he talked about was how the body reacted to having no gravity act upon it. He mentioned that the muscles don’t need to work as much in space, since they don’t need to hold up the body in such a way as on Earth. He explained that the unused muscles start to lose mass, and therefore the astronauts get weaker. There are ways of exercising in space, but they are far less effective than on Earth. The amount of muscles you lose when you are in space for four to six weeks is roughly the same muscle mass you would lose when lying in bed for the same amount of time.

Dr Sundberg also mentioned that when you are in space you lose red blood cells because the muscles do not need the same amount of oxygen because they are not being used as much, so the body doesn’t need to carry as much oxygen around the body. This loss of red blood cells could increase the risk of fainting, among other things.

He spoke shortly about the mental effects of being in space, and they were mostly due to being with the same people in a small space for a long time and having tight schedules with little sleep.

In the end he got some interesting questions from both students and teachers. One of the many question he got was if the astronauts had to drink their own urine, and he explained that they only needed to drink the water extracted from it. 

(Story written by IEST student, Alexander Lundquist 8B)

Physicists from Stockholm University

On Wednesday 18th January, visitors from Stockholm University brought some wow moments to IES Täby with some live demonstrations in physics and insights into the real and wonderful workings of nature. Students wrestled in vain against atmospheric pressure to try pull apart Magdeburg hemispheres; they saw a light bulb turn on without being connected to any source of electricity when held close enough to a Tesla coil; they peered into the invisible world of the Electromagnetic spectrum and saw themselves in infrared; they saw sound waves transmitted by a laser as well as the sound waves of music in flames above a Rubens’ tube; and they ate biscuits that had been cooled down to -196 ℃ in liquid nitrogen.

Early morning at Täby Galopp, everyone is on time and the buses arrive as scheduled.

There were lots of joy, music and singing in the bus, all the way to Romme. As expected, students were in nicely formed lines -- standing in line to get the rented gear.

The slopes were perfectly prepared and everyone had a super time! Lunch is always the best when skiing!

We had a fantastic afternoon, and the sun was shining on all the smiling faces!

Buses were filled and we started the trip back home. It was long day but still some singing along to the movie we enjoyed.
Some incidents happened during the day, but nothing major or out of the ordinary.

What a nice bunch of teenagers! It has been a pleasure to arrange this trip and I ook forward to next year!

Best
Lena Zachrisson