Espoo school year to start on Thursday, 10 August
All in all, about 3250 new first-graders and all together 3100 pre-primary pupils will start their school journey in the Finnish Basic Education Unit. Also, in the Swedish Basic Education Unit 300 pre-primary pupils start and 307 first-graders. There are 30 900 pupils in the Finnish Basic Education Unit. A total of about 8500 multilingual pupils will start basic education this year. Preparatory education groups starting at the beginning of the school year number 55. Nearly 2,400 students enter their first year at Espoo’s general upper secondary schools.
Espoo schools are multicultural communities with pupils from different backgrounds. The number and share of multilingual children of basic education age in the age group is growing in Espoo. Espoo comprehensive school pupils speak as many as 141 different languages as their mother tongue, with the schools providing mother tongue education in 41 different languages. We offer language-aware teaching in all schools in Espoo. Culture instructors in basic education support students, families and schools.
Cultural instruction is available in Arabic, Kurdish (Sorani), Dari/Farsi, Somali, Thai, Chinese, Albanian, Russian, Estonian and Ukrainian. As per tradition, Espoo will publish a multicultural holiday calendar for the school year to increase and support children and young people’s understanding of different views and diversity.
Espoo schools in the media
“High-quality schools and daycare centres attract educated international experts to the metropolitan area,” said Jukka Mäkelä, Director of the City of Espoo, in an article in a spring issue of the Länsiväylä newspaper. “Espoo parents have always valued children’s education, but it also has a global value.” Read more in Länsiväylä:(external link, opens in a new window) Finland or New York? – Helsinki Metropolitan Area has an advantage that already attracted three thousand highly paid experts, and now the Mayor of Espoo, Jukka Mäkelä, is calling for it to be retained | Local | Länsiväylä (lansivayla.fi) (in Finnish).
Espoo International School was also featured in a Länsiväylä article(external link, opens in a new window) (in Finnish) in the summer for attracting experts from India to move into the area. The number of families moving to Espoo for work and the number of pupils needing education in English have grown and continue to grow.
As of 1 August 2023, English-language education will be organised at two administratively separate schools, i.e. Espoo International School and Kivimiehen koulu. Read more in the press release by the appropriate committee: Bulletin on the Growth and Learning Committee’s meeting on 10 May 2023.
On a different note, the Hösmärinpuiston koulu school celebrated its last spring celebration this year. “We have a lot of children of different nationalities in our school, so the last spring celebration was held under the theme A Flight around the World,” said vice-principal Tarja Pätsi in May. General education pupils will transfer to the Tuomarilan koulu school.
New school buildings
Many Espoo children start their school in new facilities. The Kuitinmäen koulu primary school was completed during the summer. In Laajalahti, schoolwork also will begin in a renovated and expanded school. The new Kilon koulu school facilities will be completed in late 2023.
Among the largest wooden schools in Finland, the school and daycare facilities in Tiistilä will be great. Activities on the premises will start the next year.
Holiday periods in the 2023–2024 school year
Schools and upper secondary schools will have autumn holidays from 16 to 20 October 2023. City and upper secondary schools’ autumn term ends on 22 December 2023. The spring term begins after the Christmas holiday on Monday, 8 January 2024. Term dates and holidays for schools and early childhood education
Residents’ parks offer a safe and supervised place for 1st to 3rd graders to spend their leisure time
Many guardians of small schoolchildren wonder how their child will manage independently in the morning and afternoon. Many children still miss the instruction and presence of an adult in their routines. The residents’ parks include playgrounds maintained and supervised by city staff. In the mornings and afternoons, young schoolchildren are also welcome to the parks with guided activities organised for them.
Children can find friends and fun things to do in the residents’ parks. Children can also eat their own snacks, or the guardians can register their child for a snack for a fee. The residents’ parks are available to all. Separate registration is not required for the schoolchildren’s activities, except for the snack, which is subject to a fee. You should also fill in the contact form available at the park.
Espoo has a total of 16 residents’ parks. The parks inform of their activities also on social media channels.