The school is a central part of Vanttila

Pietu Kilpelä enjoys living in Vanttila, as there are many families with children and it is easy to find friends in the area.

Pietu Kilpelä, a ninth-grader at Vanttilan koulu, has lived in Vanttila all his life, as have many other children of his age.

This is more unusual among the older generations, as Vanttila has grown from a village of a couple of hundred people to a district of over two thousand inhabitants in less than 25 years. The 15-year-old school is now one of the largest in Espoo.

Even though the school is starting to get overcrowded, Pietu Kilpelä has nothing bad to say about it.

“We have a good spirit and good teachers here and everyone knows each other – at least all pupils in grades 7 to 9. I’ve been in the same class with some of my schoolmates since the first grade and I have met some others later, but everyone gets along. Obviously, there are several groups of friends here, but no one has any enemies in our school.”

After school, Kilpelä usually hangs out with his friends at the outdoor gym or near the school – or, if they get hungry, at one of the three pizzerias or grills in the area.
If the weather is bad, they stay indoors either at someone’s house, at Iso Omena or in the centre of Helsinki. In the summer, they often go paddling or stand-up paddleboarding, as Vanttila is also close to the sea.

From a teenager’s point of view, the area around home is safe.

“Lots of things happen here too, but usually nothing that serious.”

There is no youth centre in Vanttila, but Kilpelä does not feel like he is missing out on anything.

“Many young people in the area enjoy riding mopeds, but you don’t actually need one to get to places – it’s just for fun. The bus services are good.”

The distance from Pietu Kilpelä’s home to school is now 300 metres, but next year this will change.

“I haven’t yet decided whether I should go to general upper secondary school or vocational school to get a dual qualification, but in any case, the distance to school will be at least five kilometres.”

He will probably move out of Vanttila when he is an adult, and at least now he does not think he will be returning.

“Vanttila is a good place for kids, but there’s nothing for adults here. If you want to do something, you always have to go somewhere else,” Kilpelä says laughing, speaking from a teenager’s point of view.

• Part of Greater Kauklahti area in Espoo
• Swedish name: Fantsby
• A low-rise residential area with a growing population
• The city garden and arboretum bring greenness to the area
• In 2000, the population of Vanttila was less than 200
• By the end of 2023, the population was 2,314
• Approximately 750 comprehensive school pupils and 60 pre-primary school pupils study at Vanttilan koulu

Text: Katariina Krabbe
This article has originally been published in the Espoo-lehti 3/2024. Read other articles in the Espoo-lehti.