– I sit and clap my little hands, says Heidi Bøtcher Sørensen, HR manager for the Spanish FTC (Femern Technical Contractors) consortium.
In a year’s time, FTC, made up of the two Spanish companies SICE and Cobra, will begin the technical installations for the Fehmarn Tunnel. So the timing could hardly be better when Maribo High School starts a new international line next school year.
“Happy wife – happy life”
– It’s super good for us. We know that it means a lot that there are offers for the children if you have to move the family to another country for a period of time. “Happy wife – happy life” as they say. And it is the wife that we have to convince that the family can be included in the local community, says Heidi Bøtcher Sørensen.
The new international line at Maribo High School will be called “Global Studies”, and the teaching will take place in both Danish and English. This also means that the international students will receive intensive Danish teaching. And German becomes mandatory language teaching.
Will connect to the Fehmarn Belt region
– We would like to connect with the Fehmarn Belt region, which is developing. We imagine that Lolland will become much more international. The colossal growth that the Fehmarn project brings with it also means that a new group of people will come here and settle and work, says Michael Levy Bruus, principal at Maribo Gymnasium.
International primary school expands to 200 pupils
Lolland Municipality has recently announced that Denmark’s first international primary school, Lolland International School, is expanding to 200 students. Therefore, it is only natural that students are now given the opportunity to continue at an international high school, says Michael Levy Bruus.
– There is a lack of a school offer for the graduating students from Lolland International School. The school is highly sought after, and Global Studies is a natural extension, he says.
Welcomes both Danish and foreign students
The international line at Maribo Gymnasium is an offer for both Danish and international students. Initially, the Ministry of Education has given permission for Maribo Gymnasium to start a single international class with a maximum of 28 students.
Do not select
But what will you do if there are more students for the new line than you have places for? How will you prioritize who gets the places?
– We are not allowed to select the students. If that situation arises, we will reach out to the Ministry of Education, and I think they will look at it positively, says principal Michael Levy Bruus.
