Our mission

The school concept is centered around going back to the original school objective, focusing on learning and achieving high academic results. Giving the teachers more influence over the classrooms is one important aspect of this.

– We are different from other schools in Sweden by being more focused on attaining results. It is important that everyone is happy and that the atmosphere is pleasant. However, the purpose of going to school is learning. That is what we want to focus on, Mr Emil Wallin, principal at Nordic International School Karlstad says.

Teacher led education is based on the idea that the students should not teach themselves. The teachers are experts in their respective academic subjects, and they should guide the students forwards in their work and development.

Traditional teaching
Ms Fareeza Ahmed moved to Sweden from Canada two and a half years ago and has taught at Nordic International School since the school opened in 2019.

– For me the Nordic-concept translates into challenging the students and taking them out of their comfort zones. It is about achieving academic excellence and helping the students be their best selves but still being mindful of the fact that everyone has different capacities. But the most important thing to me is maintaining a calm environment.

According to Ms Ahmed the three pillars of the school are developing your English, achieving high academic results and maintaining a calm and safe environment.

– We have high expectations on our students to behave in the classroom and have developed a disciplinary system to uphold that, Ms Ahmed says.

If you misbehave once you get a warning. If you do it twice you have to leave the classroom and three times you get a detention. Ms Ahmed however also highlights the importance of also having a warm and close relationship with the students:

– Although I value the importance of being strict and structured, you also need to be compassionate towards your students. There could be many reasons why students are not behaving. If I have given a student a warning, I try to talk to them after class to get to the core of the problem. You must have good rapport with your students so they can trust and respect you.