Skating | Is this the most selective high school line in Helsinki? You got in with a standing average and one special skill

School day is about to start, but the high school students of Helsinki co-educational high school who came to the lesson are getting tired. There is a reason that gets their teacher Good luck Saltevo to smile widely.

A group of seven young people have morning tea in the park near the school. This time, however, the lesson has to be started a little more cautiously, because the night before, on their own initiative, they decided to go skating together.

Young people have only gotten to know each other a couple of weeks ago, after the start of high school, but they have become such a fast team.

They are studying in the Helsinki co-ed high school’s new line specialized in skating, which started this fall. Kontulain private school is the first high school in Helsinki with a skating line.

Students from different parts of Uuttamaa have really wanted to come here. Some come from long distances.

Morning cooking is regardless of the season a couple of times a week throughout high school. Today we are right next to the high school in the park, but there is also a skate park in Kontula and you can easily get to other places by subway if necessary.

The morning starts with a warm-up and exchange of information.

Then everyone can focus on exactly what interests them today. Teachers Saltevo and Eemi Ahonen go around giving advice and encouragement. Try to see if it would work if you change the angle a little! What if you shift the weight to the other leg more?

Freedom is part of the nature of the species.

“You can always get help if you ask. Because of skating, studying seems more interesting anyway, when you can combine it with a hobby like this,” says the resident of Kalasatama Eemeli Syrjänen.

Okko Pirilä will be much further. The trip to school from Karjalohja takes an hour in one direction, even by car. It has to be transported until an apartment can be arranged closer.

Pirilää is also most fascinated by freedom. And the spirit of the group, it has immediately become good.

“Here you can do what you really like.”

In this way, at the beginning of the school year, there is also an orientation period where the history of skateboarding and the culture related to it are reviewed.

A lot has also been said about the well-being of the body and mind, but they are indeed the red thread of the matter throughout the entire high school, says Saltevo. He has worked as a physical education and health information teacher for years, but his specialization in skating is more explained by his own decades-long love for the sport.

To the skate line applied in the spring for the first time in a joint application. This year, standing was enough to gain admission as an average, but additional points were obtained from the preliminary assignment. They were used mainly to find out the attitude of the aspirants and their desire to develop.

In a year’s time, there should be places for ten first-graders, but we don’t want to grow the group to a very large one.

You don’t need to know how to skate at all beforehand, but almost everyone from the first group has been doing it for years. From Vuosaari Sofia Smyslova is an exception in the sense that he is not familiar with such trickery.

Smyslova has traveled to school on a longboard, but it is not intended for the same kind of fun as the shorter trick boards used on the skate line.

“I applied here with a bit of a flap. Then there was quite a lot of pressure when I realized that I’m the only girl and everyone else is really talented,” she says.

The nervousness disappeared already on the first day of school. Now he illustrates how the legs are positioned when the most famous skate jump, the Ollie, starts to become more successful. And it starts to go well, as long as you learn to time the trick correctly and start to feel comfortable on your board.

“Everyone has received me really well, a great group. Skateboarding is a sport suitable for everyone. Everyone can improve here,” says Smyslova.

He is excited about more than tricks. The impact was made, for example, when in the orientation we thought about how meticulous planning and expertise is needed to build a skate park.

Skating lessons outside, skateboarders study just like other high school students.

Later on, for example, there will be studies focusing on photography and videography of skateboarding, but most of the credits will come from other subjects. However, skating is the main reason for coming here.

The skate line is the first in Helsinki, but Tampere already has skate high school graduates this year, and skate high schools have existed in Sweden for almost twenty years. Teacher Saltevo is pleased that this way the sport is elevated to its rightful position as culture and exercise.

“This sport is mostly about community. Being part of such a group affects well-being and helps you to commit to your studies better,” says Saltevo.

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