Sund Upper Secondary School- a brief description

respect - equality -  responsibility - honesty

Menntaskólinn við Sund (Sund Upper Secondary School) in Iceland is an upper secondary school with the main aim of preparing students for further education at university level. Students can choose between two academic programmes, social sciences and natural sciences. Within the social sciences the students can choose between two study lines, Sociology - History line and Economics - Mathematics line. Within the natural sciences the students can choose between two study lines, Biology - Chemistry line and Physics - Mathematics line.  The studies are organized as three years of study but students can choose to finish their studies in longer time. The school has a term system with three terms over the school year, autumn, winter and spring terms, 12 weeks each term. The school’s ethos is respect, equality, responsibility and honesty. The focus in the new school curriculum is on active student learning and students' responsibility for their learning. It puts emphasis on creating a student friendly environment with variable learning- and teaching methods, assignment based learning and assessment for learning through assessment of learning process and students’activities. We build on the ideology of Building Students Learning Power. Staff development is in the foreground through action research, cross curriculum projects and international cooperation. The school is in the process of implementing a new school curriculum and in January 2016 a new extension of the school building was opened with three new classrooms in natural sciences, four new classrooms for art and technology, four new general classrooms, an information and library center and an office wing with staffs’ lounge. The new curriculum, the new term system and the new extension building together create new opportunities for school development and school improvements. The school is situated in Reykjavík, the capital city of Iceland. The number of students varies but is usually around 700, their age ranging from 16 to 19 years with about equal numbers of girls and boys. It employs 68 staff members; 55 teachers, 4 school-leaders, 2 students-counsellors and 7 other personnel.