Finland
Helsinki
Six Helsinki climates: a fee-paying IB continuum, a bilingual Finnish-English private, a German Auslandsschule, SYK in Etelä-Haaga, HRSK on Raumantie, and Ressun lukio — a city upper secondary with a Finnish line on Kalevankatu and an IB line on Ruoholahdenkatu.
School portraits in this city
Deutsche Schule Helsinki
day · 1–19
HelsinkiHelsingin ranskalais-suomalainen koulu
day · Esiopetus, then grades 1–9 and lukio
HelsinkiHelsingin Suomalainen Yhteiskoulu
day · Grades 3–9, then lukio and IB (preparatory year usually 15–16)
HelsinkiInternational School of Helsinki
day · 4–19
HelsinkiRessun lukio
day · Upper secondary after peruskoulu — Finnish lukio or IB preparatory year then Diploma
HelsinkiThe English School
day · 5–19
Keep reading
Helsinki schools, a choice not a promotion
Helsinki is not one international campus. It is a Finnish city where peruskoulu is the default, plus six official doors posting families name. Ask which paper the child will hold at eighteen.
15 minIB, A-Levels, Bac, Abitur: a friendly decoder
The letters on the leaver’s certificate matter. They are not the whole child. Here is how to tell them apart without a headache, and without pretending every door stays open.
16 minHow to choose a school without losing the plot
You do not need a perfect algorithm. You need a few true things about your child, a boring list on the fridge, and the courage to ignore a beautiful campus that does not fit.
15 minHow to read a European school fee PDF without being sold
Tuition is the number on the homepage. The PDF is the number that arrives in March. Here is how to read the second one, without inventing a euro, a krona, or a deadline.