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Welcome to your local school!
Every child has the right to a school place in one of the City of Helsinki's local schools. A local school is assigned to the child according to your home address.
Local school offers a great opportunity for the family to get involved with the everyday life at school and in the neighbourhood . All children are welcome to school, regardless of one’s language skills.
If your child does not speak Finnish or Swedish, you can apply for a school place in preparatory education, where the focus is on learning Finnish or Swedish. For pupils in the first and second grades (children aged 7-8), preparatory education is always organised in the local school. Pupils in the 3rd to 9th grades (children aged 9-16) may start preparatory education in another nearby school. Read more about preparatory education under 'Starting school without Finnish or Swedish skills'.
To enrol, get in touch with the school principal. Find the schools' contact details in the school search.
Your child’s local school is often walking distance away, but not always due to admission the areas' borders. Check your local school by entering the child's home address on the Service Map.
Helsinki is divided into school admission areas. Each home address belongs to a school admission area, where your child's local school is located. Children are assigned a local school within their own school admission area, but you can also apply to a school in another school admission area. However, schools cannot guarantee places for applicants from other areas.
How to find your local school
- Go to Helsinki Service Map front page.
Go to Service Map(Link leads to external service) - Write the child's home address in the search field.
- Scroll down to see a list of schools.
- Choose the most suitable option in the search results. The results are listed by level of education, current school year, next school year, and Finnish- and Swedish-language local schools. This is why you might see up to eight schools listed in the results:
- your local Finnish-language primary school (grades 1–6) for the current school year
- your local Swedish-language primary school (grades 1–6) for the current school year
- your local Finnish-language lower secondary school (grades 7–9) for the current school year
- your local Swedish-language lower secondary school (grades 7–9) for the current school year
- your local Finnish-language primary school (grades 1–6) for the next school year
- your local Swedish-language primary school (grades 1–6) for the next school year
- your local Finnish-language lower secondary school (grades 7–9) for the next school year
- your local Swedish-language lower secondary school (grades 7–9) for the next school year
- Click on a school's name to find the school's contact details and browse its website to learn more.
Each of the local schools in the City of Helsinki is either Finnish- or Swedish-language. A few of the city's Finnish-language schools have classes that are taught either partly or entirely in a different language.
The main language of instruction is Finnish in the Finnish-language schools, and Swedish in the Swedish-language schools. In other school services and communication between school and home other languages such as English is often used. Parents and guardians can also have an interpreter free of charge, if necessary. Some schools have also multilingual instructors in their staff, whose task is to give guidance to multilingual families in all things concerning school.
If your child would like to learn Finnish, a Finnish-language school is a good option for you. If the child would like to learn Swedish, our second national language, a then Swedish-language school is the right choice for your child.
We have 86 Finnish-language and 14 Swedish-language public schools run by the city. All children get a place in either a Finnish- or Swedish-language school. The parents or guardians choose which options they want for their child.
Apply to fully English or bilingual Finnish–English education the middle of the school year
If you move to Helsinki in the middle of the school year, you can apply for a place in a fully English-language class, or in a bilingual Finnish-English class. The English-language and bilingual classes are available in a few Finnish-language schools. Apply via the continuous admission route, which is open all year round.
Fully English-language classes, continuous admission
If your child's previous school was a fully English-language school, you can apply for vacancies in English-language basic education in grades 1–9 all year round via the so-called continuous admission route. Pupils must take a language test. Learn more about English-language basic education and apply via continuous admission.
Bilingual Finnish-English classes, continuous admission
If the child has previously studied in bilingual education in another city in Finland, you can apply for vacancies in our bilingual Finnish-English classes in grades 1–9 all year round via the continuous admission route. Pupils must take a language test. Learn more about bilingual Finnish–English basic education and apply via continuous admission.
