Congratulations class of 2020!
The graduation ceremonies 2020 were a great success with a total of eleven separate and socially distant graduation ceremonies! Enjoy photos and video from the live stream. Material from the scholarship prizes and awards ceremony will be posted next week.

According to new government directives, high school students no longer need to study remotely from 14 June.

Therefore, we are very pleased that our high school students may return to school after the summer holidays, when the academic year of 2020-21 starts for all students on August 24.

We intend to hold our high school teaching in place at school again from the start of autumn term 2020, provided that Swedish authorities’ recommendations remain unchanged.

Spring term of 2020 goes to history as a very different term. Especially high school students have had to struggle, since they have had to study from home for months.

This has been a very different spring.

Spring term at SSHL is normally filled with festivities, and on graduation day the school would be filled with hundreds of guests from all over the world.

Regrettably, this year we won’t be able to celebrate our End of Year and Graduation Day the way we usually do. Still, we are planning for an uplifting, smaller celebration while adhering to the recommendations of the Swedish Authorities.

• Our Graduation Day will be held in small groups, with only the students and a few, close relatives present.
• The Scholarship Day with prizes and awards for the class of 2020 will be held for the awarded students only, unfortunately no guests can be invited.

We are grateful for your understanding that only invited guests may visit campus during this years’ celebrations, and look forward to restoring our traditions next year.

Two of our students talk about studying from home.

In response to recommendations from the Swedish authorities, our students in high school were urged to leave school and continue their studies from home starting on March 17th.

All of the day students and many of the boarding students in high school left campus from one day to another. And for most of them, this situation remains unchanged. However, some boarding students chose to stay, and even return, to continue to study from their boarding home.

Julia in class of DP21

Julia Swedenklef returned to Hong Kong to be with her family:

Julia in her HK garden, in one of her online classes, enjoying the good 30˚C weather.

Where do you come from, Julia?
– My mother is American and my father is Swedish. I was born in Kentucky, USA and lived there for 8 years until I moved to Hong Kong for my dad’s job.

How long have you been at SSHL?
– I am finishing up my first year at SSHL now and I am a boarding student at Haga.

How come you choose SSHL for your studies? – Last school year I had the opportunity to do my studies on a tall ship while sailing around the world. After this experience I did not want to return to school in HK so I decided to come to SSHL.

You decided to return home to Hong Kong to be with your family during the pandemic. – Yes, I decided to study from home because I was worried that I might not be able to get a flight in the future.

All of my classes are now taking place over Google hangouts and the lessons are recorded, in case a student can not make the time. In a way this is very helpful to me as well because if I forgot what the teacher talked about I can look back at the recording.

The time difference in Hong Kong is 6 hours ahead of Sweden so it is a bit strange with my classes, but my teachers have been very supportive.

One thing that I do find difficult is keeping up with the clubs I am involved in, such as the Think Tank. Setting up meetings with everyone after class can be very difficult and I sometimes end up finishing my day at midnight.

How have you experienced this sudden change? – While I am happy to be with my family, I really miss the structure and activity of having school and I am sad to be missing so many end of year traditions. I am missing out on saying goodbye to the 3rd ringers. I have some friends that are graduating that I may never see again.

What happens next in your life? – I am looking forward to going back to SSHL next school year and finishing high school. While I am half Swedish, I have never lived in Sweden nor do I know the language. I wanted to experience Swedish culture and meet new people. My time at SSHL has been fun and I have made very good friends. After this I will take a gap year and then attend university!

Xiaolai in class of DP 20

Xiaolai Huang stayed at SSHL to study “from home”, at his boarding house:

Xiaolai in a self portrait with a friend.

Where do you come from, Xiaolai?
– I’m from China, and I lived there my entire life until 3 years ago when I came to Sweden.

How long have you been at SSHL?
– I’m in DP 20, I started here as a second ringer so I’ve been here for 2 years.

How come you choose SSHL for your studies?– I chose SSHL because I needed a boarding school since my family was leaving Sweden, and because it’s quite a famous school.

You decided to stay at SSHL to study “from home” at your boarding home for the past months. How have you experienced this? – Yes, my impression is that it has a different feeling to it than being in the classroom. I felt I became a bit “lazy” at first, but once you really concentrate on the studies it becomes very effective. I haven’t experienced it that much though, since I am in IB where the final exams were cancelled.

Xiaolai is a dedicated IB and art student.

My time at SSHL has been wonderful. Boarding life has been a huge part during the two years. I stayed at a fantastic house with very friendly people and I really enjoyed living at Backa boarding house. To be honest, I haven’t been homesick once since I came here. The teachers are always helpful, especially in art which points me in a direction to my future. I love the school very much.

What happens next in your life? – The next stop for me is Melbourne and Melbourne University in Australia, I’m moving there for design studies. I don’t know what’s coming, but I’ll try to adapt and I really wish it will be the same good feeling as in SSHL.

At SSHL you will be offered genuine academic knowledge. But, life as a boarding student is a holistic experience that will give you so much more.

Our society and the world is changing. We have received many inquiries about a more flexible style of boarding. It is important for SSHL to meet the different needs from families and our wish is to invest in a future where SSHL is the natural choice of school. This is why we now introduce more options for boarding at SSHL:

We create a holistic experience for our students in a safe environment, surrounded by a beautiful landscape, and with great nurturing from our engaged and experienced staff.

Weekly boarding – support for balance in life

Weekly boarding is planned to be available from autumn 2021. This Monday to Friday option can provide a welcome support for the busy family, where work and life commitments put pressure on the logistics of school and extracurriculars. Weekly boarding will also bring students increased opportunities for extra study support and involvement in extracurricular activities and sports.

Weekly boarding ensures time at home each weekend for students who have the possibility of commuting weekly.

SSHL offers opportunities for inspiring after-school activities in the school’s sports and recreation center.

Full boarding – for the adventurous globetrotter

Full boarding is introduced as an alternative from autumn 2020. This option may, for example, be suitable for students whose families and homes are too far away to travel home over the weekend.
A fantastic alternative and opportunity to truly dive into and focus on your studies, but also to experience a new country and culture.

 At SSHL, you will receive daily academic support, enjoy homemade meals, and live in a caring community.

SSHL Traditional boarding – the best of two worlds

Our traditional boarding schedule is also available. In this option, the student will get the very best of their time at SSHL, but also spend some weekends at home and thus maintain regular contact with family and friends!

The school has its own library, music studio, and many active student organizations.

Would you like to know more? Try life as a boarding student!

Spring term at SSHL is normally filled with our traditional festivities, and on graduation day the school would be filled with hundreds of guests from all over the world. Regrettably, this year we won’t be able to celebrate our end of year and graduation day the way we usually do.

We are planning an uplifting, alternative celebration while adhering to the recommendations of the Swedish Authorities. We have an ongoing dialogue with the class of 2020 regarding how best to celebrate their achievements.

Further details will be shared with students and their families using internal channels.

We are grateful for your understanding and look forward to restoring our traditions next year.

Erik Belfrage 1946-2020

This weekend we received the sad news that our former Chairman of the board, Erik Belfrage, passed away on the night of Saturday, 18 April.

Erik Belfrage was a student at the school, as a boarder at Midgården, from 1957 and graduated in 1964. During his distinguished career he was also active as Chairman of the board of the Sigtuna Skolstiftelse during 1993 until 2016.

Our thoughts are with Erik’s family. Erik will be deeply missed.

On Saturday, 18 April and Monday, 20 April, SSHL will honour Erik’s memory by flying our flag at half mast.

2020-04-20 In response to recommendations from the Swedish authorities, our students in the Swedish gymnasium, IB MYP5 and DP are studying from home as of 17 March. This situation is unchanged.

Additionally, we follow the authorities’ guidelines for middle school, which means that students in the Swedish grundskola and IB MYP 2-4 go to school as usual.

. . .

2020-03-17  On Wednesday 18th March all lessons for students are cancelled as teachers will be planning for the delivery of remote lessons and distance learning.

• From Thursday 19th March onwards all high school lessons, Swedish high school, MYP5 and DP, will be held remotely.
• Our Middle school students, both Swedish and IB MYP, can choose to attend lessons or continue their studies remotely.

We are doing our best to provide as effective distance learning as possible as well as considering all the possible measures that need to be taken for those students that are remaining at school.
We encourage all our students to continue to take their learning seriously and to be aware that distance learning is very demanding.

Boarding
Our boarding houses are open and extracurricular activities are continuing as normal, as far as possible according to the current situation. We hope that as many boarding students as possible will choose to stay. We plan to increase contact with our house tutors.

High school students, Swedish gymnasium, MYP5 and IB DP
The authorities recommend that all high school introduce distance learning immediately. We have therefore instructed all high school students to stay away from school and study via distance learning.

This is in accordance with the new guidelines from the authorities. For further information please see the internal communication channels, Schoolsoft and Managebac.

Middle school students, Swedish and MYP2-4
The authorities have judged that middle school will remain open for the time being. We therefore see no reason to close the school for year 7-9/MYP2-4. Students who have not chosen to follow distance learning can continue to attend school as normal.

We ask everyone to continue following all the earlier recommendations in order to avoid infection, most importantly stay at home if you show any symptoms or with others in the home that are infected.

. . .

2020-03-11  SSHL has followed the BSA (Boarding Schools’ Association) recommended guidelines to deal with the threat of Coronavirus. SSHL is consequently taking stricter precautions than those recommended by the Public Health Agency of Sweden.

We have adopted the following policies until further notice:

• Visits to the school are restricted to an absolute minimum.
• Students and staff that have come in direct contact with someone infected by the Coronavirus are to stay at home, away from SSHL, regardless of symptoms.
• As always, anyone who is sick in any way is to stay at home, away from SSHL.

All assemblies and larger gatherings on campus are cancelled until further notice. All types of off-campus events and trips are cancelled, including the NECIS tournament.

Visitors to the SSHL campus
Visitors to SSHL are required to sign a statement confirming that they are not at risk of carrying a COVID-19 infection. Visitors that cannot meet this requirement are asked to postpone or reschedule their visit. The document is to be signed at the reception in Alhem and can be emailed in advance on request.

All the actions needed to manage the situation around the Coronavirus are, of course, very frustrating, but it is part of the school’s preventative work. We are very grateful for your understanding.

More information is available for students and parents/guardians at the schools’ internal channel Schoolsoft.

. . .

Regarding the Coronavirus disease

2020-03-28  At SSHL, we follow current advice from the BSA Boarding Schools’ Association, with regards to the continued spread of the Coronavirus.

According to the Public Health Agency of Sweden, the risk for a continued spread of the Coronavirus in Sweden is very low. However, as an international boarding school, we have decided to be extra precautious and add additional safety measures.

• We have earlier advised our students not to travel to China, or other areas where authorities assess the risk of exposure to the Coronavirus as high.
• Due to the continued spread of the Coronavirus disease, we now also ask all students who have traveled to Iran, South Korea, northern Italy and Tenerife during the holiday to stay at home or with a guardian, and not go back to school the coming weeks.
• As of Monday 2 March, we also accept no visitors who have traveled to any of the affected regions recently.

We kindly ask that any student or family who has travelled to/from, or have had direct contact with anyone from a Coronavirus affected area, to inform us immediately via info@sshl.se.

We follow the development closely, staying prepared for any changes in the situation.

More information and answers to frequently asked questions are available for students and parents/guardians at the schools’ internal channel Schoolsoft.

All students and staff are asked to stay alert to symptoms such as cough, fever and/or difficulties breathing. If these symptoms occur, the student or member of staff should stay at home and if needed search medical advice via telephone.

When should I stay at home and seek medical advice?

As a day student you should, as always, stay at home if you have symptoms such as cough, fever or other symptoms of illness. If you are ill and any of the below apply, you should also contact Vårdguiden tel no 1177 (Sweden) or your local/regional medical institution by telephone:

• During the past 14 days, you have visited China, Iran, South Korea, northern Italy or any other area infected by the Coronavirus.
• During the past 14 days, you have been in direct contact with anyone from a Coronavirus affected area.

The SSHL Parents Association invites all parents to spring dinner at Sigtunastiftelsen on Saturday 14 March 2020.

For more information and to register, please see the invitation or contact karolina.norlin@sshl.se.

The Parents Association’s information page can be found here:
sshl.se/en/about-sshl/parents-association/

Come visit us at Open House on January 25

Time: 10:00 – 14:00

Learn about boarding school life, our academic programmes, the student organisations, see the campus and meet our students and staff.

Who is open house for? 

Open house is open to all families interested in our Middle Years (MYP) and High School Programmes.

Location:

Meeting point and all information is given in “Instan”, the white building some 200 meters above the entrance (see image and map below).