Hirvialho secondary school is a 240-student school offering tuition from school year 7 throuh year 9, the students are 13-16 years of age. Our teaching staff is 25 teachers and 3 teaching assistants. We aim at having flexible teaching arrangements to ensure the best possible learning environment for each individual student. All our special needs students and the ones with learning disabilities are integrated in basic classes. A special emphasis is given to the co-operation with all the families, in addition to larger parent meetings we offer the families a possibility to meet the tutors privately each school year.

Our curriculum emphasizes multicultural education, sustainable development, the appreciation of our own region as well as a safe learning environment and good manners. These themes are to be made visible in all individual subjects.

Hirvialho school is in the process of developing its ICT strategy. Especially the pedagogical use of ICT interests many of our teachers and we are advancing in our work, maybe with small steps but surely stepping forward. We have already created courses where PedaNet is used as a digital platform for learning and others where social media (e.g. blogs, Facebook, Instagram) is actively included in the classroom work. At the moment the lack of computers stands in the way of being able to offer these kinds of courses to all the students. During some classes we allow the students to use their own smart phones, tablets or laptops in order to be able to work on the net. We have purchased licenses for the students to be able to practice for instance languages, mathematics and science on learning websites.Furthermore, many of our classrooms are equipped with Smart Board interactive white boards. Their use is very much favoured by our students.