Erkko Upper Secondary School


Orimattila is a town with 15.000 inhabitants situated in southern Finland, 90 km north of Helsinki. There is one upper secondary school called Erkko-lukio in Orimattila. It is a school providing general education after comprehensive school and ending with the nation-wide matriculation examination. There are approximately 250 students and 15 teachers at Erkko-lukio.
The school year is divided into periods. At the end of each period, there is a so-called exam week when students may have exams in up to seven subjects. After the examinations they are given certificates with the evaluation of the courses taken by that time.
During one period a student does 5-6 courses on average and at least 75 courses to complete his studies in upper secondary school. Most students do this in three years.
Orimattila co-educational school was founded in 1923. It started as a private 5-graded grammar school. In 1957 upper grades were added and it became a school leading to university. This co-educational school was passed into the ownership of Orimattila commune in 1970. Communicational skills were included in the school curriculum in 1990, partly influenced by Dr Aatos Erkko, Chairman, Asipex Group. This recent history as well as J.H Erkko, the poet born in Orimattila, contributed to the origin of the name Erkko-lukio in 1998.

Students' union

Students' union is a community of Erkko-lukio students. They choose four students from
each grade for students' government. The government leads the activity of the students'
union. They organize theme days and prepare proposals for the teachers and the headmaster
to make things better. This autumn they organized Aatos-evening entertainment. The
purpose of theme days is to refresh normal schoolweeks. Once a year students' union goes
to a training event called Water.

Every member has his/her own mission. This year's government is lively and very active.
They try to improve the athmosphere at school and they listen to other students' ideas.

Written by Emmi Mäkelä and Iina Aalto, 1st grade.