School Blog

An experienced manager with a background in schools as well as the communication business has been chosen as the Principal of Internationella Engelska Skolan’s new school in Sundbyberg.
 
Ms Sofia Kinberg is a qualified principal with an economic and school management master's degree. She has held management positions working internationally in the public and private sector and recently moved back to Sweden after living and working in London. Now she is bringing the experience and the managerial skills developed throughout her career to IES Sundbyberg.
 
She said: “Management and leadership is universal. It is all about how to lead and manage an operation, no matter if it is a factory or a school. We work with people and leadership is the key for success to bring out the best of each person - staff, student and teachers. At IES our ethos is the foundation of how we perform and we are proud to have schools in Sweden which offer students bilingualism, high academic expectations and a safe and orderly environment. It is with great honour and respect that I undertake the role as the new Principal at IES Sundbyberg and I look forward to meeting and working with all new students, staff, teachers and parents.”
 
Ms Kinberg has worked within education with a wide variety of age groups within compulsory education, from kindergarten until the end of secondary school. She recently worked in school management at IES Bromma, as an Assistant Principal where she was a key part of the management team with a focus on school development and systematic quality work. As part of this role she was the line manager for student care, teachers and the heads-of-year in senior school.
 
The acting CEO of Internationella Engelska Skolan, Mr Fredrik Åkerman, welcomed her appointment as Principal in Sundbyberg.

He said: “Ms Kinberg is an exceptional candidate who brings a wealth of real-world management experience to the role.  When she first joined the company a year ago, we mutually agreed that the most important thing was that she work closely with one of our Principals, to ensure she learnt to transfer her skills back into school-management. With this in mind she has spent a year working closely with Mr Marcus Segerstedt, the Principal of our school in Bromma.”

The time spent in management at Internationella Engelska Skolan Bromma has been a good chance for Ms Kinberg to learn more about the organisation and its values, and also an opportunity to make her mark.

Mr Åkerman continued: “I have been impressed by how swiftly she has understood our organisation and by her professionalism. I am confident in her ability to lead our school in Sundbyberg, both during its development, and subsequently as a fully operational school.”

Ms Kinberg will officially take on her post as Principal of Sundyberg in January, and will then work closely with colleagues from Internationella Engelska Skolan’s head office in recruiting her team and overseeing the transformation of the building into a first-class school ready to accept its first students in August 2018.

By late spring, once Ms Kinberg has appointed capable administrators, the school will start to offer places to students who hope to start in August 2018. This will be done on a first-come, first-served basis.

For more information or to join the queue for the school, visit www.sundbyberg.engelska.se

In order to meet us in person and take part in a more detailed presentation about IES Sundbyberg, we extend a warm welcome to an information meeting at IES Kista, Isafjordsgatan 39, on Thursday, 23 November from 18:30 until 19:30.

Flyer, Sundbyberg November 2017 web.pdf

Flyer, Sundbyberg November 2017 web.pdf

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."

When the national final of the challenging Pythagoras Quest maths contest is held in Malmö in June, students from three IES schools will be taking part.

Internationella Engelska Skolan in Nacka, Sundsvall and Uppsala will each be sending a team of three students after they won their regional finals, and the chance to represent their county (län) at the national event.

The students had to go through several rounds in order to reach the national final.  First they needed to pass an hour-long qualification test without the use of a calculator or any other electronic equipment.  The three students from each school who performed best in their qualification test were then chosen to attend the district final, to see which schools would have the right to go forward to the national final.

Isabelle Sahlin, represented IES Sundsvall alongside Klara Marntell and Filip Borgström. She said: “The regional final was really exciting. After two rounds the result was still not decided and we had no idea how we stood. It felt good though, we had found the answer to every question and we were pretty confident in our calculations.

“When we solved the tie breaker in just a minute, it was so quick that we felt like we had done something wrong, but we took a chance and submitted our answer. Because we were so fast we won. We hadn’t dared to hope to win, so we felt a huge amount of joy when they called out our team name.”

IES Nacka will progress after students Wilhelm Sigurd, Viktor Lundqvist, and Alex Thelander won the Stockholm regional final.

Viktor said: “It was very exciting to win the Stockholm final. We had practiced before the regional final, but we knew the competition was hard so we did not expect to win. In the end it was very close. It’s going to be great to travel down to Malmö and compete against schools from all over the country. The competition was tough in the Stockholm regional final, and we hope that it will be the same in Malmö. It will also be nice to meet and compete against our fellow IES students."

Alex added: "We think that we will perform well in the national final. The questions will be substantially more difficult, but we think that with enough practice and hard work we will be able to solve most. The competition was very tough in Stockholm because of its high population, so we are already prepared for facing off against other good teams. We will do our best, but in the end we will be happy regardless of how it goes since we never expected to get nearly this far."

Now, the three teams from IES will face off against one another and 11 other teams from around the country in the national final.

Ted Buzzelli, the organisation’s subject facilitator for maths, said: “At Internationella Engelska Skolan we believe in helping every student to meet their full academic potential.  While for some students this means giving them extra support to help them to understand difficult concepts, for others that means providing additional challenges, and helping them to go further than the syllabus suggests.

"Competitions like Pythagoras Quest are a fantastic way for students to challenge themselves further.  It is always beneficial for students to see just how much they are capable of, especially when working as a team.  I am once again delighted to see IES represented by no fewer than three teams in the national finals of Pythagoras Quest.  I am sure that colleagues and students from schools across IES will join me in wishing the best to these talented students."

The final will be held on Friday, June 2nd, in Malmö.