Finland is consistently ranked one of the top countries in the world for their education system. Children in Finland don't start school until the year they turn 7. Prior to that, they attend daycares up until the age of 6, and then enjoy one year of preschool either at their daycare or at their next school.
The results behind this system have been very successful. Research has shown that children starting school so much later than children in other countries provides higher test results because Finnish children are more mature when starting school and thus more prepared to learn.
Children also are not tested in schools until a much later age, thus are not "segmented" so early into their education.
We live in the city of Espoo, just 12km west of the city of Helsinki, and I have been researching schools in Espoo for Madison, as she turns 7 in 2014 and thus will need to begin attending school in August.
There are basically three kinds of schools in Finland for her age: Finnish, bilingual, and English. The Finnish system is for Finnish children and they begin learning English around grade 6, I believe. The bilingual children are taught English beginning in grade 1 and have both English and Finnish studies, but the entrance exam for these schools must be done in Finnish. The third option is an English school, and the entrance exam is in English. These studies will be done in English, but will have around 5 hours of Finnish lessons per week, thus making them "fluent" somewhat by the time they enter middle school at grade 7. I am unsure whether the Finnish kids going to Finnish school need to do tests or not, but I don't think so. I believe they go to the nearest school in their neighbourhood based on resident address.
Since Madison's Finnish skills are very weak, there doesn't seem to be any question that she will have to apply for the English schools. There are two English schools in Espoo, one that is about 8 minutes from our house and the other around 15-20 depending on traffic. The process is quite complex to get into these English and bilingual skills. There are two days of interviews/tests the first week of February, after submitting an application due the end of January. The first day of testing is for concepts, lingual awareness and perception (reading and writing readiness). This is a written test done by the kids in a room at the school of their choice, about 10-15 kids per room and monitored by a teacher. The following day they come in to test their English skills with a two part event - a group test and a personal interview. The interview involves the kids alone in a room with two complete strangers (teachers) who ask them a bunch of questions.
I'm not crazy about this testing process and I'll tell you why. The amount of pressure on these 6 year old kids is overwhelming. And since Maddy's birthday is in December, she is one of the youngest kids going through this process. You basically pass or fail the test, and kids who pass get considered for the spots. You get extra points if your kid has been in an English daycare in Finland for three years (which Maddy has) and bonus points if your parents don't speak Finnish (which we don't). So ideally, Maddy should be fine. That being said, last year there were 80 applicants to Maddy's first choice school and only 25 spots. And if she's having "a bad day" of not listening well for her tests or being very shy during her interview, she is not guaranteed a spot in school for next year.
So for now, I will do "pretend" interviews with Maddy, getting her ready for the questions (I have no idea what they will ask, but I'm trying to be creative) and just hope that the schools are smart enough to realize that Maddy has no other options but to get into this school. I also have a friend who has two kids in that school, and I'm taking her advice very seriously :)
Results posted the end of April. I'll keep you posted.
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