Creating links with a primary school in Finland

Outcomes of the project

The outcomes have been extremely positive. Yester children have found out a huge number of things about Finland, both directly through the blog and through discussions with Jyrki’s class, and also through being very motivated to carry out independent research about Finland generally.

In one particular case, a Yester child who has additional support needs that are dyslexic in nature has been motivated to write long comments to the Finnish class, something he would not have attempted before the project. Seeing his (moderated) work appear on the web has been the factor that has driven him on and made him noticeably more confident in his writing.

From the viewpoint of the children in Kuvansi, they have had valuable experience in developing their knowledge of blogs, something they knew little or nothing about previously. They have benefited from writing in English and have learned many things already about our culture and country.

More than anything, both sets of children have approached the project with enthusiasm and have had great fun interacting with each other.