Pre-primary education in English
Both of our kindergartens provide pre-primary education for 6-year-olds following the pre-primary curriculum approved by the City of Espoo.
How pre-primary education is organised
Free pre-primary education is provided for about four hours a day during the school year. Sometimes the whole pre-primary group works together, and sometimes the children work in small groups.
Activities and experiences are designed to offer varied opportunities for acquiring English without forgetting the children's Finnish cultural identity. At times, children from other age groups also take part. The language of instruction is English, and a small part of the teaching each week is in Finnish.
Language roles in pre-primary education
Teaching follows the principles of Early Total Immersion: each teacher keeps their language role, and the language is switched only in planned situations.
Learning to learn
During the pre-primary year, the focus is on learning to learn rather than on the end result. Pre-primary work is based on play, experimenting and exploring, finding information and solving problems together with adults and other children.
In pre-primary education, children are guided to act responsibly, follow jointly agreed rules and respect other people.
Our goals
In short, our goal is for each child to be excited about learning, to have the confidence to learn new things and to have the skills needed to start school. After pre-primary education, children can apply to Espoo's bilingual (Finnish–English) classes or to a Finnish-language class – they are well prepared for both.