Bilingual schools in Espoo- Helsinki

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anna16
Posts: 4
Joined: Sat Aug 13, 2011 7:00 am

Bilingual schools in Espoo- Helsinki

Post by anna16 » Fri Apr 12, 2013 9:54 am

Hi,

We are Non-Finns and are our son is going to a Finnish day-care currently. We plan to put him in a bilingiual school.

I have a few questions:
1. At what age of the child do we have to fill in the forms? Is there a pre-school or just grade 1 straight away?
2. In which language/languages is the entrance exam held?
3. What kind of questions are covered in the entrance exam?
4. Is it very difficult to get through? Is there any preference given to foreigners?- eg, for us it is very important that our child studies in both English and Finnish.
5. How many bilingual schools are there in Helsinki- Espoo region? Any recommendations regarding the good ones?
6.Is it so that the child starts to study in English and then slowly Finnish is introduced (when and how much) until both languages are 50-50(when?) so that the child after grade 8 is proficient in both English and Finnish and can choose which language he wants to continue his studies in (he/she has to make a choice after 8th grade regarding the language of teaching depending on his career interests right ?)
7. How many hours extra does a child have to study because of this bilingual system? Is it too much pressure on the child?
-Anna

PS- Where can find a good variety of "Dora the explorer" cartoon DVDs that have Finnish as a spoken language option ?



Bilingual schools in Espoo- Helsinki

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kavitha.p18
Posts: 1
Joined: Thu Jan 22, 2015 12:20 pm

Re: Bilingual schools in Espoo- Helsinki

Post by kavitha.p18 » Sun Jul 03, 2016 9:10 pm

Hi Anna,

Were you able to find answers to your questions? My son will be starting school next year and I have the same questions.

Best Regards,
Kavitha

Flossy1978
Posts: 1395
Joined: Tue Oct 09, 2007 3:38 pm

Re: Bilingual schools in Espoo- Helsinki

Post by Flossy1978 » Mon Jul 11, 2016 12:53 am

Her post is from 3 years ago.

Getting into those bilingual schools is quite difficult, according to everything I've read about them over the years here. Competition is tough.

If you plan to stay here for even a couple of years (or permanently), your child will be better off in Finnish day care/schools. All children learn English these days. My son spoke it already, but they were already starting to teach it in 2nd class in his school. And there is so much English in Finland, that friends of his who were straight out Finnish kids, with no foreign influence could speak basic sentences in English, even by 7!

But if you want your child to immerse into Finnish culture, it is best to put into normal Finnish school or day care. There they will pick up the language easily, being so young. And children who are very young, in day care, don't even need the same language to play together. My son had a Swedish speaking friend. Neither spoke each other's language, yet they played for hours together.

Good luck.


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