Our primary school is situated near the centre of the rural town of Orimattila in southern Finland, about 90 km north of the capital Helsinki and about 20 km south of the famous wintersports city of Lahti. It’s quite a small school, about 120 pupils in grades 1-6. Children start school in Finland in the year they turn seven, so pupils are 7-12 years old.

Our staff consists of a headmaster, six class teachers, a special needs teacher, an English teacher and three school assistants. The school building is a mixture of old and new: the old part is over hundred years old and the new part was built in the end of the 1980’s. Schooldays usually start at around 8 o’clock and end at 3 o’clock. The youngest pupils have shorter days and then the number of weekly lessons gradually increases when they get older. The pupils also have a free lunch at schools in Finland. The food is prepared in a central kitchen and then it is delivered to us and we have lunch in our canteen with pupils. All the books and other materials we give to our pupils are also free. Most of the books are recycled and the pupils return them at the end of the school year.

The school year in Finland starts in the middle of August and the autumn term lasts until Christmas. We have a short autumn leave at the end of October (usually a week). The spring term starts after the Christmas holiday (about two weeks) and lasts until the end of May: We have a one-week winter holiday at the end of February. Our summer holiday starts at the beginning of June.

Our school subjects include Finnish, English (starting from the 1 st grade, the first two years they learn basic words, then from the 3rd grade they start to learn how to read, write and speak in English), Swedish (six-graders), maths, religion, physical education, history, biology, geography, arts, crafts and music.