In an era dominated by digital interactions, the importance of fostering a strong, connected community cannot be overstated. At the International School of Helsingborg (ISH), students and faculty are grappling with a crucial question: Are grand events the key to building a strong community, or do small, consistent actions hold the real power? Insights from various members of the ISH community suggest that both approaches play vital roles, but it's the small, everyday actions that might hold the most transformative potential.

Grand events have an undeniable allure. They create memorable experiences and offer opportunities for large-scale interaction. Charlotte, a Diploma Programme student, believes that engaging with other schools through sporting events could help improve ISH's image and foster a sense of unity. Love, another DP1 student, concurs, suggesting that festivals and community events can generate a sense of belonging and purpose.

Yvette Larsson, a facilitator of learning at ISH, champions the idea of community days filled with creativity, fun, and co-creation. She sees these events as a way to build relationships and trust within the community, which are foundational to well-being and academic success. Yvette’s perspective highlights that after the isolation of COVID-19, there is a strong craving for collective experiences that bring joy and togetherness.

While grand events create significant impacts, several students and faculty members argue that small, consistent actions might be the true bedrock of a strong community. Anisha from MYP 5 suggests that simply being nicer to each other and including everyone can dramatically enhance the sense of community. This straightforward approach fosters a culture of respect and kindness, making daily school life more pleasant and inclusive.

Nina from MYP 1 and Hrishita from MYP 3 both emphasise the importance of making school activities enjoyable and engaging. They believe that when people have fun together, it naturally strengthens their bonds. Emma points out that fostering real-life connections, rather than relying solely on social media, can significantly improve community engagement. She advocates for initiatives that connect different classes and build interpersonal relationships.

Balancing Both Approaches:

The insights from the ISH community reveal that both grand events and small actions are essential for building a robust community. Grand events like festivals, sports competitions, and community days may create opportunities for large-scale interaction and memorable experiences, potentially serving as milestones that punctuate the school year and provide a sense of collective achievement and celebration, but in reality, it is the small, consistent actions that sustain these connections and make everyday interactions meaningful. Acts of kindness, inclusivity, and respect create a supportive environment where everyone feels valued. These daily interactions build the foundation of trust and goodwill that grand events can then celebrate and amplify.

A Unified Vision:

To build a truly strong community, ISH must embrace a holistic approach that combines the excitement of grand events with the consistency of small actions. Large-scale events can act as catalysts, bringing everyone together and highlighting the power of community. Meanwhile, the everyday acts of kindness and inclusion ensure that these connections remain strong and meaningful.

As Yvette aptly puts it, "When there is trust and good relationships, we can move mountains together." By balancing grand gestures with small, consistent actions, the ISH community can create an environment where every member feels connected, supported, and engaged. This unified vision holds the real power to transform the school into a vibrant, inclusive community.

Recently, ISH held three collaborative days called Community Days. The Community Days were dedicated to teamwork and strengthening the ISH community. The students worked in groups to complete different tasks. Some of the tasks were helping design the school garden and playground, planning the kick-off week next term, creating banners and posters and writing a school community magazine. As students were working in structured groups, they got to share these experiences with their peers, which helped strengthen the bond between the whole ISH community. Students, in their respective groups, got the chance to work and share experiences with different students of different grade levels. This allowed the students to relate and feel more connected to students that they are not familiar with, which strengthens the ISH community and provides each student with a sense of acceptance and belonging.

In today’s increasingly hasty and complex world, the role of secure and substantial communities is more crucial than ever. By creating a structured environment that provides individuals with a sense of belonging and safety, communities allow people to share experiences, support each other and form purposeful relationships. Communities can form  due to shared space, interests, morals and many more aspects. Communities allow us to bond with and get inspired by people who share similar morals and interests. This article will explain how communities help individuals collaborate with others, build identity and relationships, and unlock their full potential.

Humans are social beings by nature, and we have been communicating and working with one another for thousands of years. Human survival has been discerningly shaped due to our ability to communicate and collaborate with each other in a meaningful and productive manner. We have been utilising these capabilities in many ways, such as to pass knowledge, solve problems, work to create homes and structures, and ultimately, to build societies and communities. Each individual possesses a unique potential and talent and each individual brings a diverse set of experiences, knowledge and talents to the table. Collaboration between people provides us with the faculty to leverage these diverse skills to solve problems and complete tasks more swiftly and effectively. 

For example, if we have a task to build a home, we are required to collaborate with other people. However, all the people will have a different set of skills and expertise. One person might know how to layer the concrete, while one person might be a painter. One person might build the roof, while the other is a decorator. Eventually, the combined skills and efforts of the different people will result in the house being built properly. This shows that in order to collaborate and work as a team, it is essential to take into account every single person’s unique skills and talents, because without structured collaboration, creation and survival would be impossible. 

Here at ISH, collaboration and teamwork exist everywhere! Students collaborate with other students in many different classes on classwork and projects. Students are often assigned to work with people that they are not familiar with, as it allows them to step out of their comfort zone and promotes socialising with new people. Academic collaboration helps students get to know their classmates and form friendships. Strong relationships between students can help create a more friendly and inviting learning environment. However, many times, certain students have differences and do not work well together, resulting in disputes and conflict. Teachers also visibly collaborate with other teachers, which often serves as an example for students. Watching teachers collaborate in a structured and productive manner teaches students about teamwork.

Communities provide an individual with a sense of belonging and personal identity. Individuals that are a part of a community often feel a sense of connection and belonging to the community and the people in the community. This sense of belonging usually emerges when people are able relate to the community and people that are a part of the community in any way. 

Communities often instil individuals with a set of values and morals that help them explore their personality and mindset and find their personal identities. A structured community is the perfect palace to find good mentors and role models that can help you explore different things in order to find who you want to be. Individuals may encounter people of similar backgrounds to them, and take inspiration from those in order to shape their identities in a beneficial way. At the ISH community, students are often inspired by other students and teachers. Many times, an older student or a teacher is working in an area that a student takes interest in, and looking up to those students and teachers for inspiration and mentorship can guide a student to a path that is beneficial for them, and help them shape their identities in a way that proves useful.

Communities help build relationships by providing a social environment that welcomes social interaction and promotes collaboration. Firstly, a community provides a shared physical space for people, which causes them to meet each other routinely. This causes increased communication and interactions between the people, which can build friendships over time. Secondly, as communities are built on shared values, morals or interests, these are often topics that people discuss and bond over. Shared interests and experiences cause people to relate to one another and feel more united. Lastly, a community that has a diverse and welcoming environment fosters and nurtures healthy and purposeful relationships.

At the ISH community, relationships between students can be seen everywhere! Many students have friends that they met in school, and the friendships were built due to being in the same space as the other people. This is highly beneficial for both their academic potential as well as their mental wellness. It is beneficial for academic potential as the students have someone to rely on for help with classwork and homework, and someone they can study with and collaborate with for projects. Furthermore, it is beneficial for their mental wellness as they have someone who is supportive and trustworthy that they see everyday at school. This means that they have someone to talk to and trust with their feelings.

In conclusion, communities play a vital role in our lives. They provide opportunities to communicate and collaborate with other people, create a sense of belonging, help individuals shape their identities, and foster healthy, purposeful relationships. Engaging in a community can make an individual feel supported, find inspiration, and build useful and purposeful connections with others. A structured and healthy community helps bring people together, creating a more inclusive and accepting world.

Community. Togetherness. Unity. 

In a world divided by religion, race and age, a community should strive to bring people together despite their individual beliefs and opinions. Such is the community of the International School of Helsingborg, ISH, a place where diversity coexists and people rejoice in their differences. To bring together faculty and students as a united front, ISH has dedicated three days to building the school community. Whether it be improving the outdoor area of the school or planning the kick-off week for the beginning of the next school semester, each of the groups have an equally important role in improving our school experience. Various people have provided their own perspective on the importance of these student-led activities, which provides the perfect opportunity to engage with peers and form new bonds. 

The principal goal of these activities is to connect with our school campus and community by refining it according to what we see fit based on our wants and needs. The focus is on students putting forth their own ideas and collaborating with peers from other grade levels to accomplish these goals. Natalia Kelbus, a Science teacher at ISH, shares her own perspective on these projects. The group she is in charge of overseeing, the ‘Chess Club Game Garden’, aims to create an outdoor space in which friendly games of chess can take place amongst enthusiasts of this strategic game. The students working in this group take the initiative to paint chess boards, which will later be placed in the outdoor area of the campus. Kelbus brings attention to the importance of students having a platform to contribute their vision into improving the school according to their liking. This project also ensures that students get a chance to widen their horizons through listening to contrasting opinions and understanding different views. 

The community days are not solely dedicated to improving the physical school campus, but also to strengthen the bonds between the faculty and students alike. Cecilia Richter, a language teacher at the school, who oversees the ‘Indoor Beautification’ group, emphasises the importance of interactions between the grade levels to foster a sense of connection throughout the whole school. As students get divided into different grade levels, a sense of isolation can develop between them. However, working collaboratively towards a common goal can help build a bridge between people, a belief also held by Christel Skeppås, a language teacher at ISH. 

Skeppås, who is supervising a group dedicated to gardening, concurs that interaction between students who are unfamiliar with each other is a great opportunity to build new bonds between people. Projects that have been tackled by this group include painting rocks and planting plants for the garden area, to provide it with the creative touch which it originally  lacked.. These ideas required hands-on work from the students present, giving a solid foundation to the new relationships that were certain to blossom. Furthermore, the persevering students took initiative to complete their own tasks as opposed to receiving tasks from the teacher, which further increased their enthusiasm. 

Taking initiative is the first step to a project being successful. However, other components also play a major role. Inquiring and analysing, developing ideas, taking action and evaluating are all crucial steps in the design cycle. All these steps are important in order to ensure a seamless process, as suggested by Peggy Anderson, a faculty member at ISH. Anderson states how students taking ownership of the activities aids them in understanding the importance of good organisation and planning when it comes to successful execution of ideas. 

These three days, the ISH Community Days, during which students and faculty alike have put in a tremendous, collaborative effort into transforming emerging ideas to well-planned actions, has been a valuable experience for everybody involved. Through the course of building our community, we not only strengthened our connection with our new campus but also created new relationships with both peers and teachers. For some this was a time of relaxation, for others a time of perseverance, but for everybody, this was a time when we came together as a united front and expanded the bounds of our collective creativity.

We live in an age full of technological marvels, where superheroes seem to leap off the pages of comic books and onto the big screen. From Captain America’s superhuman strength to Iron Man’s high-tech suit, these fictional superheroes captivate us with their extraordinary abilities. However, the true superpowers that shape our world are not found in the world of fantasy but in the everyday skills we possess, albeit they are often taken for granted  — communication and collaboration. 

Communication is the lifeblood of human interaction, it’s the bridge that connects our emotions, ideas and thoughts, which allow us to share our experiences and create meaningful connections with others. Effective communication enables us to inspire, persuade and influence others, shaping the course of our history, as well as our upcoming future, through the power of words and ideas. From the ancient orators who swayed the masses with their significance to the modern day leaders who rally nations with their speeches, communication has been the driving force behind social movements, cultural shifts and political revolutions. 

While communication is the vehicle for sharing our thoughts, collaboration is the engine that propels towards collective action. It is the ability to harmonize our efforts, align our goals, and work together towards a common purpose. Collaboration is a superpower that enables us to achieve heights that would be impossible for any individual to accomplish alone. Collaboration is the force that allows teams of scientists, engineers, and architects to collaborate and bring their visions to life. It is the foundation upon which societies are built, enabling individuals to contribute their unique skills and talents towards a shared vision of progress and prosperity. 

From the earliest human tribes, the ability to effectively communicate information, ideas, and skills through language, art, and symbolic representation unlocked our capacity for collective intelligence. This enabled knowledge to be shared, preserved, and built upon across generations. Moreover, collaboration enhanced the productive capacities of our species beyond what any individual could achieve alone. An example of how a goal was achieved with effective collaboration and communication is the Manhattan project. The development of the first nuclear weapons during World War II was a massive collaborative effort involving thousands of scientists, engineers, and military personnel from various disciplines and institutions across multiple countries.

Communication and collaboration have been key aspects in improving our ISH community as a whole. An example is the Student Council group, where students collaborate and discuss new ideas in order to solve problems collectively. Similar to this is the News group where students explore topics of discussion and brainstorm ideas together to write articles that allow the students to learn more about our communities. All these endeavors allow our future leaders — the students —  to understand the importance of community, a lesson important for all of us to learn.