Our school is located in Neskaupstad , one of the five villages in Fjardabyggd and the biggest one. Our students are aged 6 – 16. So it´s both primary and a secondary school, called elementary school. The students are about 215. There are 25 teachers , 1 deputies and 2 headteachers, studyadvisor a therapist and few other staff members, in whole we are 46. In Iceland we have a national curriculum so our elementary schools are all pretty much alike.
Our town is small and all the students live around the school. The fishing industry is the mainstay of Neskaupstadur's economy. One of the largest fishing companies in Iceland, Sildarvinnslan hf, has its headquarters in the town and runs one of the largest fish processing plants in Europe. There is also some farming is the region and the regional hospital employs many people as well. Because of Sildarvinnslan hf people fro other countries come here for work and in many cases families move here. So we have students with other cultural backgrounds in our classrooms, like from Poland, Thailand, Phillippiens and Bulgaria.
Neskaupstadur is the 2nd biggest town on the east coast of Iceland , with 1500 inhabitants. Fjardabyggd as a community has little under 5000 inhabitants. Iceland is a beautiful country and the same can be said about my hometown and its surroundings.