US Kids attending finnish schools

fastinjun · Post by **fastinjun** » Sat May 22, 2010 8:45 pm

Posted earlier about my kids coming to finland. Went to the local school here in Kirkkonummi. Not too crazy about the options there for non finnish speaking kids. The younger of my kids, 8 would be put in a class with other non speakers and basically finnish would be their only subject. This really seems weird. I know in the States that there are other subjects taught as well.
My older two would attend the "high school" which does not have any such program for non speakers of finnish.
Anyone have kids in english schools that dont cost a fortune? I plan on being here a year so finnish is not that important to learn but their other education is.
Thanks in advance

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sinikettu · Post by **sinikettu** » Sat May 22, 2010 10:44 pm

Send a PM to this lady
she is an expert on kids and their education.
I am sure there is a better option for the 8 YO may have to go into Espoo though.
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Rosamunda · Post by **Rosamunda** » Sun May 23, 2010 1:21 am

fastinjun wrote:Posted earlier about my kids coming to finland. Went to the local school here in Kirkkonummi. Not too crazy about the options there for non finnish speaking kids. The younger of my kids, 8 would be put in a class with other non speakers and basically finnish would be their only subject. This really seems weird. I know in the States that there are other subjects taught as well.

That's because it is an immigrant integration programme with fast track Finnish. As soon as the kids in these classes start to become fluent they are gradually transferred into regular classes (eg music, maths, history etc) in Finnish.

My older two would attend the "high school" which does not have any such program for non speakers of finnish.
Anyone have kids in english schools that dont cost a fortune? I plan on being here a year so finnish is not that important to learn but their other education is.
Thanks in advance

If you are SURE you will only stay here for one year then there is little point putting your kids into a Finnish or Swedish speaking school.

AFAIK there are no schools in Kirkkonummi that teach only in English. So you will have to apply to schools in Espoo and/or Helsinki. This might be a problem as there is no reciprocal agreement that I am aware of between the municipalities. OTOH I do know kids who live in Kirkkonummi and go to school in Espoo/Helsinki so there must be ways around it.

The standard options in Espoo are Komeetta school in Olari and Postipuu in Leppävaara. Demand usually exceeds supply, so call quickly and explain your situation. You have to apply to the school directly (you'll find the contact details somewhere on www.espoo.fi). These are both primary schools (age 7-13). For lower secondary you need to call Espoo International school in Pohjois Tapiola. For upper secondary you need to leave your kids in the USA. Coming here for only one year during High school is a problem, unless they are exceptionally bright and you can get them into an IB school (eg Etelä Tapiola, Mattliden in Espoo but you will staill have problems when you return home.

In Helsinki there are various choices: Ressu (full IB programme in English from primary upwards), also the English School (which is actually very Finnish but was founded years ago by American nuns, they still teach in English though) and Kulosaari Yhteiskoulu, the European School and a few others .

All the above are free. We don't pay for our kids to go to school in Finland.

If you want a "USA" style education with the possibility of taking SATS etc then ISH (the International School of Helsinki) is your only choice but it is a private fee-paying school.

If I were in your position I might think twice before bringing my kids here. It's a lot of hassle and disruption for only one year especially if you have no plans for them to learn the language.

sinikala · Post by **sinikala** » Sun May 23, 2010 1:43 am

penelope wrote:If I were in your position I might think twice before bringing my kids here. It's a lot of hassle and disruption for only one year especially if you have no plans for them to learn the language.

Wise words. As someone who attended 5 schools in 3 countries by the age of 11, I´d urge caution; it can really fubar your kids´ education moving them around.

to the OP, Finland has such a low percentage of immigrants with English as a mother tongue (less than 10,000 in total in the whole country?) it isn´t geared up for what you want to do.

onkko · Post by **onkko** » Sun May 23, 2010 3:17 am

sinikala wrote: to the OP, Finland has such a low percentage of immigrants with English as a mother tongue (less than 10,000 in total in the whole country?) it isn´t geared up for what you want to do.

12 063 total, 478 5-9y, 424 10-14y, 484 15-19y and 873 20-24 year olds (7 124, 246, 234, 281, 488 in uusimaa region).
Thats from stat.fi statistics and language is whatever one registers.

Rosamunda · Post by **Rosamunda** » Sun May 23, 2010 12:08 pm

sinikala wrote:
penelope wrote:If I were in your position I might think twice before bringing my kids here. It's a lot of hassle and disruption for only one year especially if you have no plans for them to learn the language.

Wise words. As someone who attended 5 schools in 3 countries by the age of 11, I´d urge caution; it can really fubar your kids´ education moving them around.

Yep. My eldest went to six schools in three different countries and was coping with three different languages by his 11th birthday. It was a huge mess and he is still struggling academically, he's going to need an extra 2 years at least before he can graduate high school. We made some fundamental mistakes but there is no turning back now. All our decisions seemed the right thing to do at the time.

On the other hand, I would say my kids have heaps of practical intelligence and are socially quite mature. OK, those attributes are not included in the grade point average and won't secure them a place in a decent lukio (stuff the system

) but moving around and learning to adapt to a new environment can pay off much later. I guess

CH · Post by CH » Sun May 23, 2010 4:00 pm

Are both parents working (if you are a two parent family), or might home schooling be a possibility? Home schooling doesn't have that much for support in Finland, but you should have plenty of material available from the US. If you just stay for a year it might be hard to match the curriculum in the schools here with the curriculum in the US, unless you go for the International School. By home schooling you could be teaching them the materials they would be covering during their year off from their school, so that they can continue on to the next grade.

fastinjun · Post by **fastinjun** » Tue May 25, 2010 1:04 pm

We did homeschooling when we lived in the US, it worked out well since my wife at the time didnt work and could dedicate her time towards schooling the kids. Now the situation has changed, We are divorced, its basically a situation where there is no time to homeschool, I wish there were, it would save a lot of trouble etc.
At this point Im bracing myself because I dont want this to have a negative impact on my kids, they have been through so much as it is.

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