HEI!! I'M NEW!
HEI!! I'M NEW!
Moi all! I've just moved here with my Finnish husband and we have a 12 year old son who's finishing his SAT's in England and moving here with us in May this year. I wondered if anyone here knows anything about Vantaa international school? I know they only take kids who live in Vantaa so that's ok but we wanted to find out if it's a good school or not or if we'd be better off sending him to a regular school who offers the english line option. I'm also worrying a lot about how he's going to get on/fit in here and how hard it will be for him to adjust to being a foreigner here and to find friends. He's a very outgoing boy with lots of friends in England and I'd hate for him to come here and feel all isolated and lonely. Can anyone give me any advice on how to make settling in easier for him? Thanks everyone!
Re: HEI!! I'M NEW!
First question where in Vantaa..?karingal wrote:. I wondered if anyone here knows anything about Vantaa international school? I know they only take kids who live in Vantaa so that's ok but we wanted to find out if it's a good school or not or if we'd be better off sending him to a regular school who offers the english line option. I'm also worrying a lot about how he's going to get on/fit in here and how hard it will be for him to adjust to being a foreigner here and to find friends.!
Myyrmäki side or Tikurila/Airport side..?
The international school is quite close to the airport..but a bit of a drag to/from west Vantaa.
I know that the school at Kaivoksela (West Vantaa) has and English syllabus but I dont know to what age..I have a feeling that at 12 they go to the International school...But I might be wrong.
The person who can help you most is Penelope she has a boy same age as yours and is also a teacher.
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People do not become more irritable as they grow old - they simply stop making the effort to avoid annoying others.
I'm not teaching kids any more. And really I know nothing about Vantaa as my kids are all in Espoo/Helsinki and, as the poster has found out for herself, there is no reciprocal agreement btwn Vantaa and HEL/Espoo.
Also the poster doesn't give much info. I assume her son speaks no Finnish at all. In which case my first question would be: what are your long term intentions? If you are moving here definitively as in 100% permanent then IMO the only solution is to get your son onto an immigrant programme where he can get intensive Finnish instruction. Vantaa International school might offer such a course, but the best place to call is Vantaa koulutuskeskus (the LEA) and ask them. If you do not intend to stay for more then a year or two or three then I think Vantaa school is the best solution since your son can continue his studies in English (the Finnish Core Curriculum, but using English books) and will have four hours of Finnish Foreign Language a week. If he is born 93 he will probably go into 7th grade, which is the start of Finnish secondary school. I don't know if Vantaa offers IGCSEs... I sent my boys to Kulosaari because they offer some subjects at IGCSE (maths, French, EFL, biology and geography). I don't think Vantaa offers an IB programme but I could be wrong.
As for the immersion schools... they are really all about giving intensive ENGLISH to the students. Usually the teachers are Finnish and the schools do not have extra budgets for state-of-the-art English language materials (they have the same budget per pupil as a regular Finnish school). They do an excellent job of getting Finnish kids up to speed in English, and are a good choice for bilingual kids with a one-parent-one-language background. But they are not designed to get foreign kids up to speed in Finnish. Having said that, it is possible that individual schools run immigrant programmes. On the whole, immigrant kids are discouraged from going into bilingual schools as the FInnish is not intensive enough.
As for settling in and making friends.... difficult at that age. Mine have done fine but they are surrounded by "Returning Finns" who have lived abroad and been to international schools and speak English. Moving into a Finnish-Finnish environment would be much harder, but probably better for learning the lingo quicker. Sport has helped them a lot (football, ice hockey, salibandy etc)
But making friends and learning a language are REALLY dependent on the individual's personality more than anything else. One of my kids is really making great progress with the language whereas the other two are plodding on slowly, even though they have all been to the same primary school and had the same teachers. And of course they have each other for company since only 4 yrs separate the 3 of them.
Finally, what is a good school? Probably only as good as the teachers who are in the classroom with your kids.... Have you visited all the schools yet and met the teachers?
Also the poster doesn't give much info. I assume her son speaks no Finnish at all. In which case my first question would be: what are your long term intentions? If you are moving here definitively as in 100% permanent then IMO the only solution is to get your son onto an immigrant programme where he can get intensive Finnish instruction. Vantaa International school might offer such a course, but the best place to call is Vantaa koulutuskeskus (the LEA) and ask them. If you do not intend to stay for more then a year or two or three then I think Vantaa school is the best solution since your son can continue his studies in English (the Finnish Core Curriculum, but using English books) and will have four hours of Finnish Foreign Language a week. If he is born 93 he will probably go into 7th grade, which is the start of Finnish secondary school. I don't know if Vantaa offers IGCSEs... I sent my boys to Kulosaari because they offer some subjects at IGCSE (maths, French, EFL, biology and geography). I don't think Vantaa offers an IB programme but I could be wrong.
As for the immersion schools... they are really all about giving intensive ENGLISH to the students. Usually the teachers are Finnish and the schools do not have extra budgets for state-of-the-art English language materials (they have the same budget per pupil as a regular Finnish school). They do an excellent job of getting Finnish kids up to speed in English, and are a good choice for bilingual kids with a one-parent-one-language background. But they are not designed to get foreign kids up to speed in Finnish. Having said that, it is possible that individual schools run immigrant programmes. On the whole, immigrant kids are discouraged from going into bilingual schools as the FInnish is not intensive enough.
As for settling in and making friends.... difficult at that age. Mine have done fine but they are surrounded by "Returning Finns" who have lived abroad and been to international schools and speak English. Moving into a Finnish-Finnish environment would be much harder, but probably better for learning the lingo quicker. Sport has helped them a lot (football, ice hockey, salibandy etc)
But making friends and learning a language are REALLY dependent on the individual's personality more than anything else. One of my kids is really making great progress with the language whereas the other two are plodding on slowly, even though they have all been to the same primary school and had the same teachers. And of course they have each other for company since only 4 yrs separate the 3 of them.
Finally, what is a good school? Probably only as good as the teachers who are in the classroom with your kids.... Have you visited all the schools yet and met the teachers?