I studied at Puolalanmäki Upper Secondary School for three years and graduated in 2018. It’s one of the upper secondary schools in Turku, which is a city on the southwest coast of Finland.
The main reason I wanted to apply to Puolalanmäki was that the school offers a great music-oriented programme. The programme also ended up being the reason why I was motivated to go to school every day. Alongside normal subjects I had a lot of music courses, for example, music history, theory, singing lessons and classes on how to express yourself with music and how to get better at performing songs.
I was one of the singers in our school’s choir, which consisted of more than 50 students. In my first year, our choir went to Hungary for a week to visit a local school choir. We performed in many places and stayed in the homes of the Hungarian students’ families. My favourite concert we ever did with the choir was when we performed for the families of the Hungarian students. We got a standing ovation, and I still remember vividly the happiness and fellowship we felt like a choir.
Every other year before Christmas, the music programme puts together a big show called Valon Aika (Time of the light) in Turku’s Ice Hall.
The show consists of all the students of the music programmes in primary school, junior high school and upper secondary school. The stage is filled with a big orchestra and singers aged from 7 to 18. There are also a lot of dancers and some famous Finnish singers.
Last spring we did a musical of Romeo and Juliet. We made the costumes, script and songs by ourselves. That was one of my favourite experiences in Puolalanmäki Upper Secondary School.
The three years were hard and tiring, and I was very happy to leave when I graduated. Even though the school made me very stressed, I’m happy that I went there because I learned a lot, especially about music.
Project co-financed by ERASMUS+.
Marikerttu Pöyhönen
Students’ Union Finnish Volunteer
