The efforts of the parents can be seen every day in the classes!

The Parents’ Association’s fundamental work is done by the students’ parents in each class’s parent teams. The co-operation between the school and home is seen through the effortless work and enjoyable time spent in school. About one third of the parents of students in comprehensive school participate in the activities of the Parents’ Association. As we rotate the responsibility in the association, each family will take the responsibility of their child’s class’s parent teams approximately twice during their child’s comprehensive years – some families will even continue to do this until their child graduates from high school!

During the first week of third grade, the Parents’ Association organises in cooperation with the homeroom teachers the parent teams of each class. In addition, the association organizes necessary procedures and supports the contact parents’ meetings as well as general meetings for all parents. The Parent’s Association also raises money to enable the active participation of parent teams in improving the students’ school experience.

The most important annual meeting between parents, students and teachers is the Autumn Fair. This event unifies the whole school and enables the improvement of class-specific cooperation. It promotes the school atmosphere and raises class camping funds and as well as other funds. The Parents’ Association’s task is to ensure that the event has the necessary equipment.

SYK’s great atmosphere that results from the team spirit of the students and teachers can be seen every day! Because of the emphasis put to communal activities, SYK’s education ideology promotes responsibility, self-improvement, awareness of the consequences of one’s own actions, as well as constructive participation in school events. The Parents’ Association also wants to promote and encourage personal activities and constructive co-operation amongst peers by handing out annually stipends to the students who have shown admirable qualities.

About 20 independent clubs and hobby groups are active in SYK, and with them, several sub-groups. The core activities of the clubs are funded separately, but parents also give annual monetary and voluntary workforce support to these groups to ensure diverse possibilities for students. Approximately half of the Parents’ Association’s budget goes to monetary support given annually for hobbies and activities at school for the students.

During SYK’s school year there are hundreds of meetings and events for different classes and clubs, where parents actively participate. This is a truly unique example of parent participation in the Finnish school culture.

And a well-earned thank you belongs to the enthusiastic parents of SYK students!

The board of the Parents’ Association and groups connected to it primarily supports the activities of clubs and classes. In addition to this, the association promotes cooperation between all the different bodies in the school network, as well as constantly improves the association’s efficiency.