School admission

Kuuntele

Helsinki is divided into school admission areas. The City of Helsinki assigns a local school for child according to the child's home address. This school is the so-called local school. The local school may not be the nearest school to a child’s home. The local school can be found on the Service Map or requested from the Education Division’s advisory services.

All children permanently residing in Finland must attend school. If a child does not know any Finnish or Swedish, the guardian should enrol the pupil in preparatory education, which helps them gain the adequate language skills. You can enrol a pupil in preparatory education throughout the year.

The local school primarily admits pupils from its own area. In case of vacancies, the school can admit pupils from other areas. If a pupil is placed in a school other than the local school, the child's guardians are responsible for the school transportation costs.

A child can apply to a school other than the local school for language studies, Swedish-language immersion programme, and health-related reasons and for special education.

Weighted-curriculum and bilingual education

Schools can offer weighted-curriculum and bilingual education. Pupils are selected via aptitude tests, and the school does not have to be the pupil's local school.

If a pupil in these types of education wishes to go back to the local school, they can only be admitted to the local school if the school has free places left.