Göteborgs Högre Samskola
Encyclopedia
Information
In 2006 the school had about 1350 students. The school has students aged 5 through 18 and has a FörskolaEducation in Sweden
Education in Sweden is mandatory for all children from year 1 to year 9 - generally from the year of the child’s seventh birthday to the year of the child’s 16th...
, a Grundskola and a Gymnasium. The school consists of a series of buildings for the younger grades 1 through 6 and a separate building for the Middle and High school children. The school for the children in grade 1-6 is situated in central Gothenburg on Föreningsgatan 12-17 and is known as Lilla Sam. The other part consists of two large buildings situated on Stampgatan. These buildings are known as Stora Sam. The longtime rector
Rector
The word rector has a number of different meanings; it is widely used to refer to an academic, religious or political administrator...
, Alar Randsalu, retired in the spring of 2007 and was succeeded by Peter Järvsén, formerly rector of Frölunda gymnasiet.
History
The school was established in 1901, and was one of the first coeducation schools in Gothenburg, and the first one with mixed classes in High school.Samskolan is a prestigious school and is also (according to city gossip) believed to have an upper class
Upper class
In social science, the "upper class" is the group of people at the top of a social hierarchy. Members of an upper class may have great power over the allocation of resources and governmental policy in their area.- Historical meaning :...
profile. This is most likely because the school used to have a school fee, and this fee is mistakenly believed to be in existence to this day. Such fees are otherwise extremely rare in Sweden since in 1992 the Swedish government introduced a school voucher system where the government pays for each student, regardless of whether he attends a public school or a private school.
Notable people who have attended the school include:
- Pehr G. GyllenhammarPehr G. GyllenhammarPehr Gustaf Gyllenhammar is a Swedish businessman. He is mainly known for his 24 years as CEO and chairman of Volvo, between 1970 and 1994. In the early 1980s he took the initiative for the European Round Table of Industrialists .-Career:Gyllenhammar graduated from Lund University with a degree in...
- Pelle Pettersson
- Ebba von SydowEbba von SydowEbba von Sydow is a Swedish journalist, author, columnist, TV personality that also run one of the most influential fashion and lifestyle blogs in Sweden...
- Henrik Berggren
- Håkan HellströmHåkan HellströmHåkan Hellström is a Swedish musician. He got his Swedish breakthrough in the year 2000 with the song "Känn ingen sorg för mig Göteborg"...
- Daniel Da Silva
- Timo RäisänenTimo RäisänenTimo Räisänen is a Anglo-Indian Swede Indie pop musician, born in Gothenburg on 25 July 1979. He was previously part of Håkan Hellström's band, and has played in the band Her Majesty. In 2004 he started his own career....
Current
The school was recently mentioned in an article in the Swedish MetroMetro International
Metro International is a Swedish media company based in Luxembourg that publishes the Metro newspapers. Metro International's advertising sales have grown at a compound annual growth rate of 41% since launch of the first newspaper edition in 1995. It is a freesheet, meaning that distribution is...
newspaper on the cover page, saying that Göteborgs Högre Samskola was the best Grundskola school in Gothenburg
Gothenburg
Gothenburg is the second-largest city in Sweden and the fifth-largest in the Nordic countries. Situated on the west coast of Sweden, the city proper has a population of 519,399, with 549,839 in the urban area and total of 937,015 inhabitants in the metropolitan area...
. The average graduation score that was achieved by the schools students was 263, 4 out of 320 possible. Comparing this with the closest communal school which had around 240, the students that are attending Samskolan achieve higher grades than the average.
Lilla Sam follows the teachings of Maria Montessori
Maria Montessori
Maria Montessori was an Italian physician and educator, a noted humanitarian and devout Catholic best known for the philosophy of education which bears her name...
. Stora Sam gives its students the choice to decide for themselves what to do during SA for the Grundskola students or EA for the Gymnasie students. You get a logbook where you attain signatures for each SA or EA pass you attend, to make sure that you do not skip lessons. Typically during an EA pass you do your home work, whereas during SA hours you might prepare small projects (such as reading a novel and then do a write-up on it to be presented to a teacher of your choice). Lilla Sam utilizes a similar system but where the same teacher is always present.
Samskolan has an English speaking section, where students that are exceptionally good at English can study. The classes, often given an ending of an e or an E (eg. 4e, 5e, 6e) currently only have a 5th grade. The section was originally meant as an experiment and it is not known if the section will continue to exist.
Stora Sam is currently undergoing extensive refurbishment; the school building itself is owned by Gothenburg City and the city will not sell the whole school yard. If Samskolan was to buy part that was for sale the city would build a preschool on Samskolan's school yard. Due to this the school decided not to buy the main building but to extend in the building where the Gymnasium resides.