The Annual General Meeting of the Finnish School in Manchester will take place on Friday, 16th October at 5 pm. The meeting will take place on line on Zoom. Please message the school to obtain the meeting ID and passcode to attend. All members of the school are warmly welcome to attend. Agenda: 1. Apologies 2. Minutes of previous meeting 3. Election of committee members 4. School’s finances 5. Teaching groups and teachers 6. Shop 7. Cafe 8. Library 9. Suomi-Seura and other memberships 10. School dates and events 2020-2021 11. Communications 12. Any other business

Yesterday, 5 May 2018, was a special occasion for the Manchester Finnish School, as we witnessed and celebrated the award of the Knight of the Order of the Lion of Finland to our most honoured member, Iris Mclintock . This richly deserved award is a reflection of the part Iris played in the foundation of the Suomikoulu in Manchester, the leadership and inspiration she has provided in the school and also among Finns in Manchester and beyond; and last but not least, her astonishingly long career teaching students of the Finnish language. The honours were performed by Chris Rostron , the Honorary Consul of Finland in Manchester, himself one of Iris's former students. We had a lot of visitors ! Not only did some of Iris's family come to celebrate with us, but also many former students. I think we ran out of cake at one point...! But not coffee, of course. To be serious, there is profound love and appreciation for Iris in our community, and it goes well beyond the...

Ylpeänä ja tippa silmässä Manchesterin Suomi-koulu onnittelee koulun perustajajäsentä ja pitkäaikaista opettajaa Iris McLintockia, jolle on myönnetty Suomen Leijonan ritarimerkki. Onnea Iris!  The Finnish School is proud and happy to congratulate our founding member and long-term teacher Mrs Iris McLintock who has been made the Knight of the Order of the Lion of Finland!

We had a party! This was the scene at the Victory Hall in Mobberley  on Saturday as we waited for remaining guests; we had around 100 in the end. Anyone wandering in by mistake would have looked on and probably thought it was a pretty typical social event, but maybe noticed the Finnish flags and the not very local accents. Would they have known it was Finnish? If they had, would they have been able to point to Finland on a map? Perhaps not; the UK has so many diverse communities these days, and the Finnish one isn't the most numerous by any means. But here was a nice cross section of the many Finns who have come to settle in the North West of England, Manchester in particular. By July the School itself has long since finished for the year, and many of its members have gone away, some to enjoy Finland's here-one-moment-gone-the-next summer. I'm exaggerating - Finns may tell you it's like that, but summer is often a blessed time in Finland and I can well remember b...

Victor has been coming to the suomikoulu for a long time, and has had time to explore many of the more interesting nooks and crannies across Finland. He's become an expert on Finland's railways, and uses them to get about.  Towards the end of summer last year, he could be found up near Kuusamo , visiting a wildlife refuge while staying with friends. Their guide was an affable old gentleman, who set up the encounter we see here. One hopes it's just a trick of camera perspective that makes Victor's new acquaintance seem so close! (click on either of the pictures for a larger view) Victor was very struck by their guide's relationship with the bear. He made sure that there was always a good distance between the group and the animal. But isn't it funny how sometimes a wire fence can seem a bit inadequate? However, he was quite happy to wander into the bear's enclosure himself - obviously the bear knew him and they were perfectly familiar. All ...