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OFFBEAT

Prankster wraps girls’ dorm room in tinfoil

Two girls at a Norwegian boarding school came back from a weekend break to find their bedroom covered from floor to ceiling in tinfoil, as a schoolmate got his revenge for an earlier practical joke.

Prankster wraps girls' dorm room in tinfoil
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Eighteen-year-old Magnus Løvland hatched his glittering plan after a group of girls bound him from head to toe in masking tape last autumn. They then carried him to the boys’ halls of residence at the Christian boarding school in Lyngdal, southern Norway, where they left him lying helpless on the floor, newspaper Fedrelandsvennen reports.

Although Løvland admitted he was grudgingly impressed by the girls’ prank, he quickly decided he needed to teach them a lesson.

Last weekend, with the girls away, Løvland got hold of their key, enlisted the help of two friends, and set to work. He derived his inspiration from a TV show he watched recently about a school for astronauts, where one of the rooms was covered in aluminium foil.

The financial cost of the enterprise soon exceeded his expectations, with the 60 rolls of foil setting him back 1,200 kroner ($200). But he absorbed the cost and papered on, convinced that the look on the girls’ faces when they opened the door would be priceless.

And he wasn’t disappointed. In fact, prank victims Trine Josdal (17) and Hildegunn Gyland (16) were so amazed by their schoolmate’s handiwork that they still hadn’t removed the tinfoil from their room by Wednesday.

“We got a shock when we entered the room,” Josdal told local newspaper Agder.

“Everything, and I mean everything, was covered and papered with silver foil. Everything from toothbrushes to light switches, chairs, desks and beds.”

As news of the dazzling silver chamber spread through the school, fellow students soon began dropping by to see it with their own eyes.

“There has been a veritable exodus to our room. But we’ll have to get it in order again soon. We’ve spent the last few nights in a neighbouring room,” Josdal said.

While the girls had a sense of humour about the unwanted redecoration, they have already vowed to plot sweet revenge, and Løvland conceded he was worried.

“They’ll have to go some way to top this. But these are some devious girls, so I don’t feel totally safe,” he told Fedrelandsvennen.

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EDUCATION

Inquiry calls for free after-school care for 6-9 year-olds in Sweden

Children between ages 6-9 years should be allowed admittance to after-school recreation centers free of charge, according to a report submitted to Sweden’s Minister of Education Lotta Edholm (L).

Inquiry calls for free after-school care for 6-9 year-olds in Sweden

“If this reform is implemented, after-school recreation centers will be accessible to the children who may have the greatest need for the activities,” said Kerstin Andersson, who was appointed to lead a government inquiry into expanding access to after-school recreation by the former Social Democrat government. 

More than half a million primary- and middle-school-aged children spend a large part of their school days and holidays in after-school centres.

But the right to after-school care is not freely available to all children. In most municipalities, it is conditional on the parent’s occupational status of working or studying. Thus, attendance varies and is significantly lower in areas where unemployment is high and family finances weak.

In this context, the previous government formally began to inquire into expanding rights to leisure. The report was recently handed over to Sweden’s education minister, Lotta Edholm, on Monday.

Andersson proposed that after-school activities should be made available free of charge to all children between the ages of six and nine in the same way that preschool has been for children between the ages of three and five. This would mean that children whose parents are unemployed, on parental leave or long-term sick leave will no longer be excluded. 

“The biggest benefit is that after-school recreation centres will be made available to all children,” Andersson said. “Today, participation is highest in areas with very good conditions, while it is lower in sparsely populated areas and in areas with socio-economic challenges.” 

Enforcing this proposal could cause a need for about 10,200 more places in after-school centre, would cost the state just over half a billion kronor a year, and would require more adults to work in after-school centres. 

Andersson recommends recruiting staff more broadly, and not insisting that so many staff are specialised after-school activities teachers, or fritidspedagod

“The Education Act states that qualified teachers are responsible for teaching, but that other staff may participate,” Andersson said. “This is sometimes interpreted as meaning that other staff may be used, but preferably not’. We propose that recognition be given to so-called ‘other staff’, and that they should be given a clear role in the work.”

She suggested that people who have studied in the “children’s teaching and recreational programmes” at gymnasium level,  people who have studied recreational training, and social educators might be used. 

“People trained to work with children can contribute with many different skills. Right now, it might be an uncertain work situation for many who work for a few months while the employer is looking for qualified teachers”, Andersson said. 

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