English/Fínnish or Bilingual school for our 2.5 year old ??

[anna16]

Hi,

We are an Asian family settled in Finland and we have a 2.5 year old son.

He has started going to a Finnish day care and says some Finnish words too.

We are confused about whether we should put him in a Finnish/English or bilingual schhol- both short and long term. We have done our studies in English and we can help & discuss his subjects with him more if he studies in English. But we also want him to participate in hobby and sports classes and they are in Finnish.

Also, we have heard that it is very difficult to get admission in government owned English speaking schools in the hel-espoo area?

Regarding bilingual school, isn't it so that they start English from grade 3?

In English schools, from what age do they start to teach Finnish as a subject and would it be enough for him to be able to participate in hobbies, sports etc...?

I keep worrying that while I teach my child that ABC in English how will he feel when he learns at a Finnish school that those letters are to be pronounced differently??

Please help us make the right decision.

Anna

[Rosamunda]

Finnish is compulsory in all schools in Finland - 4h per week from grade one, even if the child is in a school where the language of tuition is English.

In bilingual schools most of the lessons are in English in grade 1-2-3 and gradually more and more lessons in Finnish are introduced. These programmes are aimed at Finnish children who do not speak English (not at English children who don't speak Finnish), but nowadays they accept children who do not speak Finnish as their mother tongue.

My suggestion, as always, is think about your long-term projects. If you plan to stay in Finland permanently then a Finnish school is probably best (children start English lessons in grade three, sometimes earlier). Anyway, you still have several years to make up your mind.

[Avhart]

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