Alppila Upper Secondary School

In our school, the academic year has been divided into five periods. At the end of each period, there is an evaluation week when students may have exams or other evaluation tasks in up to seven subjects. The school year begins in mid-August and ends at the beginning of June.

Finnish upper secondary schools have a non-graded system. This means that the studies have been divided into modules of 1-3 study credits and each 2-credit module contains about 20 lessons of 75 minutes. There are 94 to 102 compulsory study credits and each student must complete at least 150 study credits within 2 to 4 years. At the end of their studies, the students must take the nationwide matriculation examination in minimum of 5 subjects.

Contact information

Street address: Viipurinkatu 21, 00510 Helsinki
P.O. BOX 51311, 00099 City of Helsinki

For further information, please contact our teachers of English language

• Mrs Taru Kerb, taru.kerb(at)edu.hel.fi
• Mr Pertti Seppälä, pertti.seppala(at)edu.hel.fi
• Mr Timo Jaatinen, timo.jaatinen(at)edu.hel.fi
• Mr Jyrki Koskinen, jyrki.t.koskinen(at)edu.hel.fi

Parents' evenings (Vanhempainillat)

As guardians, you are welcome to meet the school staff: home group teachers, subject teachers, study counsellors and principals, and to exchange ideas with us at parents' evenings. We organize parent's evenings on autumn for the first-year and during spring for the second-year students' guardians.  During these events we will for example share information about Finnish upper secondary school studies in general and in specific to Alppila.

You will receive invitations to our guardians meetings and parent's evenings via Wilma messages.

In Alppila, we also organize separate evenings for guardians a couple of times a school year. At the guardians' evenings we discuss, among other things, cooperation between home and school, and the well-being of our students.

Communication between home and school in Wilma

The best way to get in touch with home group teachers, subject teachers and study counsellors is through Wilma. In Wilma, you can also monitor the student's academic performance, which is updated periodically about two weeks after the previous evaluation week. In Wilma's bulletins you can read, for example, the city's current information matters or in Alppila's periodic bulletin about the school's current events.

If you have questions about Wilma, please contact our school's administrative assistant.

Home group teachers and study support

The primary cooperation link between home and school is the student's home group teacher. The best way to reach the home group teacher is through Wilma. You should contact the home group teacher, study counsellor or study support if there is something concerning the student's situation or studies. See more information about student support. The link leads to our Finnish support page.

Absences

You can see the student's absences and other class notes in Wilma. Absences must be clarified via Wilma's hourly registration page as soon as possible. Permission for absence known in advance must be requested in writing using Wilma's 'Short-term absence from school work' form. We do not recommend to apply for an absence during evaluation weeks, as this could hinder a student's progress in studies greatly. If the absence lasts 1–3 days, please apply for permission through the home group teacher. If the absence lasts more than three days, please ask permission from the principal. Before the requested leave, the student must find out how to complete the studies of the absence hours independently. 

The upper secondary school board consists of representatives of guardians, staff and adult students. Underage student representatives may have the right to attend and speak at board meetings. The duties of the boards of directors are defined in the administrative regulations of the city of Helsinki.

Among other things, the board annually approves an action plan based on the upper secondary school's curriculum, with the exception of annual working hours. The executive board also approves the rules of order for the upper secondary school or issues other order regulations applicable in the upper secondary school. In addition, the executive board can dismiss an upper secondary school student for a maximum of one month and decide that the dismissal can be implemented before the decision is legally binding, as well as decide on the upper secondary school student's right to participate in teaching if the students is under preliminary investigation as a suspect of a crime.

Board members

The minutes of the board of directors are published on our Finnish guardians' page after each meeting as soon as the minutes have been checked. The minutes are written in Finnish.