Åmot Ungdomsskole

Geir Svehagen – HeadmasterJohn H. Gartland – Coordinating teacher

Briefly about the Norwegian School system

Year 0-6 Kindergarten (voluntarily)Year 6-12 Primary School (grade 1-7)Year 12-15 Lower Secondary School (grade 8-10)Year 15-18 Upper Secondary School (both general studies meant for further studies and

profession directed studies for those that are not studying more after Secondary School)

The county of Åmot

● Located in South-Eastern Norway. ● 2½ hours drive north of the Norwegian capitol

Oslo.● The county has 4500 inhabitants.

Town-hall

Culture-house

Åmot means ”Where the rivers meet”

This is related to the place where Norways longest river Glomma meets the river Rena, which gives the name to our community Åmot with the centre Rena.

The county of Åmot has a lot to offer for those that enjoy the nature:

Rena is the centre of the community

Rena

The Norwegian championchip in ski jumping has several times been arranged in Rena.

Rena Military Camp is one of the camps that has largest development in Norway.

Sports

● Football● Downhill● Cross-country● Golf● Tennis● Swimming● Bicycling● Mountain-climbing● Shooting

Norway has a lot of hunting-terrain. Hunting is very popular in our region.

Åmot Lower Secondary School

● The school is lower secondary (junior high) with children aged 13-16

● 150 students● 15 teachers● abt. 80 student PC's● All teachers have their own laptop● The school has satisfying broadband connection

For several years Åmot Ungdomsskoles website has been one of the most visited school-websites in Norway

www.amot.gs.hm.no

We have had our own website since the schoolyear 1995/96

Strengths

● For several years we have been doing “School-paper-projects” where the children work as genuine journalists.

● Birkebeiner Ski race and Mountainbike race www.birken.no

One of our teachers and the Norwegian worldchampion after finishing the Birkebeiner Mountain Bike Race

Pictures from the Cross Country Birkebeiner

Web-page production/Youth Newspaper

● Youth Newspaper (www.ungdomsavisa.no)● Nobels Peace Prize● These web-based Newspapers have given us

National and International credibility

Kristine interviews Nobel Peace Prize winner Mohamed ElBaradei

Thea interviews President Jimmy Carter and his wife.

Linn interviews HRH Princess Märtha Louise

Andreas with Carlos Santana

Ingeborg with Andy and Simon from Duran Duran

Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg and Bob Geldof

Mali, Kristine and Lana meets Nobel Peace Prize Winner Wangari Maathai

Learning…

As our pupil in 2003 said: ”It’s a bit boring to interview the Norwegian Prime Minister, after having done ”Give me 5” with United Nations General Secretary Kofi Annan.

On our trip to Poland we have learned a lot about Polish history, society and geography that helps broadening our horizon.

Goal

Our goal is to give this knowledge to the rest of our teachers and pupils, by giving them the possibilty to see for themselves and learn how countries and people living in different part of the world really is.

Contact info

Åmot Lower Secondary SchoolPrestegårdsveien 1● N-2450 Rena, Norway

Web: http://www.amot.gs.hm.no

Headmaster: Geir Svehagen tel: +4762434602 geir.svehagen@amot.kommune.no

Telephone: +47 62 43 46 00 Telefax: +47 62 43 46 01