The chairperson of Lollands Højskole (Lollands High School) Lene Hatt writes:
Dear members of the school and other interested parties
First and foremost Happy New Year – 2022 will be a totally crucial year for our high school and a year in which we really will be busy.
The Danish Culture Ministry should have visited us to inspect the High School on the 13th of December – but then Corona came back. Therefore the school Joanna-Skolen, which now is staying in the high school buildings in Søllested, decided to cancel the visit. We have had a really good dialogue with the ministry which is very interested in our high school and the thoughts behind it. Our partner Jeppe is actually coming from Lolland-Falster. The ministry has put forward some suggestions concerning the specification of the statutes and has other remarks about the budget, lease and that we must remember that we are a folk high school and the values behind this school. Therefore we have corrected a bit in the description of our vision and mission, so that it clearly appears that we also prepare the pupils for participation, joint responsibility, rights and duties in a society with freedom and democracy, and that the aim of the school must be characterized by intellectual liberty, equal status, joint responsibility for society and democracy. We have send our amendment to all the questions of the ministry and have agreed that we will hold a digital meeting on the 10th of January, so that they can get on with our approval and that the ministry will visit the high school on the 14th of February.
Our project with rural district resources has ended on the 1st of November, and report and accounts were send before Christmas. The rural district resources have been the reason why he Project Group could write teaching plans, description of the use of the buildings etc. and hold two workshops.
The purpose of the “workshops” of the two networks war to start networks and draw attention to our existence nationally and locally and prepare the ground for future co-operations. A future network is necessary in order to be able to supplement the professional skills of the project group in the work with the professional skills during the education. The national workshop was held at the meeting Madens Folkemøde, which is a national and professional open-air meeting about the food which lies on our plates, and the way we produce it. During two days the professionals within food called Maddanmark are gathering on the estate Engestofte Gods to share their knowledge, attitudes and love of good food. We saw this forum in the project group as an obvious possibility to hold the national network-workshop. Partly because we see Madens Folkemøde as an event which in future will be an important part of the high school, and partly because big parts of Maddanmark are gathered at the estate Engestofte on the island Lolland. During the open-air meeting we had a place at the pitch of the school Jordens Skole. Here we held tomato tasting workshop, where people could taste a bowl with different kinds of tomatoes cultivated in Denmark from “Farm of Ideas” – and they tasted them in order to compare them with tomatoes cultivated in Spain and transported to a Danish supermarket. We had a lot of good talks and got contact information from several interesting persons, who in connection with the opening of the high school wanted to be contacted as guest teachers and responsible persons for optional subjects. Furthermore we draw the attention to our existence towards people, who visited our pitch, and we told about our focus on food from soil, coast and sea to the tables. The local workshop was held in Den Grønne Verden at Søllestedgaard, where we had invited the Muld Lolland-Falster network. We had 28 enrolled, but unfortunately there were cancellations in the last moment, partly because of the rising corona infections. On the day 21 persons participated.
The discussion from Nanna Thomsen from the farm Lerbjerggaard was about the co-operation between the farm and the high school Krogerup Højskole. Nanna and Christopher lease the farm Lerbjerggaard which is the first farm in the project co-operative farms. She told about the advantages – and disadvantages in the co-operation between a local producer and a high school. Nannas experiences war mostly positive. The high school Krogerup Højskole does pay in advance for every season a certain amount for vegetable units, and the farm Lerbjerggaard delivers the vegetables, which are best during the season. Nanna also told about how she was teaching at the high school Krogerup Højskole – and invited pupils to the farm in order to make them wiser of regenerative small-scale agriculture. Nannas discussion generated a lot of good questions about the co-operation from the guests. They talked about economics, cultivation and business model for the farm, just as well the co-operation between the high school – and the farm was clarified. The discussion about the high school Lollands Højskole with the following discussion of dreams for co-operations between the high school and the local producers was about inviting the participants to become part of the network around the high school Lollands Højskole. We invited the participants to bring their good ideas for – and dreams for the future co-operations. There were many good ideas for us, as a high school can be the way to showing young people, what resources, we have on the island Lolland, when it comes to food – and articles of food. At the same time several guests showed their interest in exchanging knowledge and receiving high school pupils in their companies. Furthermore there were good input to the substance of the high school, and other co-operation possibilities, on which we could follow up. We ended with a dinner, where the main part of the vegetables were newly harvested from the field out in front of Den Grønne Verden and pasta from Pasta Principato – the local pastaria on the island Fejø. Afterwards the participants could write themselves on a list in Mailchimp. The network workshop was documented by photographer Ingrid Riis.
In the middle of October last year we held an all-day-Sunday meeting for the board in the high school project and the project group. We started with an inspiring discussion from Sidsel about “The Market Garden” – about regenerative agriculture and the principles. Afterwards we worked with “How do we get pupils?” How can we make noise, write communication and PR, how do we market the high school, how do we create a movement based on voluntariness. It resulted in a many proposals for “Lollands High School without walls”, which hopefully will be implemented in the first half of 2022.
Economy, appointments and funds applications filled the rest of the day. We had a really good discussion about the expectations we were having to a principal when it came to professional and personal skills. Afterwards we have worked in the network to find eventual themes. Funds applications are a very big work, for which we planned the first structure that Sunday.
Afterwards we have contacted the regional development department (Den regionale Udviklingsafdeling), which will help us with good ideas, practical help and network use. We have had a meeting with Guldborgsund Kommunes Udviklingsafdeling (The development department of the municipality Guldborgsund Kommune), which lead to an application to LAG. We were more than lucky, as a very tough fundraiser has contacted us, and he wants to help us with contacts, perusal and visual material. We do mostly meet many incredible interested people, who want to use their knowledge and work for us. We are very grateful for this. Our gratitude goes to all of you, who either follow us through The News Letter or through your memberships in the circle of interested persons (The Ministry thinks that we have a good circle of interested persons). We have finally succeeded in having our bank account established for Lollands Højskole, so that we immediately in the new year can start a campaign in order to get more members, who are interested in our school – preferably local people, but preferably from all parts of Denmark and preferably international members.
You can pay your membership to the school for 2022 to the account of Lollands Højskole: 6520 4162772. We do also hope that you will spread the knowledge of The High School and eventually persuade other people to join the circle of interested persons. Thus a big Happy New Year!!
On behalf of the board
Lene Hatt,
Chairperson of the board of the high school Lollands Højskole
