Welcome to Juhani Aho school

Juhani Aho comprehensive, grades 7-9, in numbers

School year 2017-2018

 7th grade: 11 classes 246 pupils
 8th grade: 9 classes 197 pupils
 9th grade: 10 classes 212 pupils
 One small class 7th – 9th for pupils of special needs, 12 pupils
 Altogether about 655 pupils
 64 teachers
 Classes have approx. 21-23 pupils
 Other personnel ab. 17: 1,5 nurses, school social worker (curators), one
”encourager”, bachelor of social studies, one ”psyykkari” psychiatric nurse, 6
special needs assistants, school´s own teachers as resource teachers in maths,
languages and mother tonque teaching, four in kitchen staff, 3 cleaners, one
maintenance craftsman
 AFTER BASIC COMPULSORY EDUCATION APPLYING TO SECONDARY LEVEL /
UPPER SECONDARY (general or vocational)
 General upper secondary (lukio), matriculation examination ab. 31 000
begins, ca 43 % of which 57% girls
 Vocational upper secondary education, vocational qualification, 8
educational fields in which there are 53 vocational degee programmes, ca 50
000 begins , ca 45 % begins after comprehensive ( lasts 3 years)or general
upper secondary (lasts 2 years)
 usually 3 years, 180 competence points).
Contents: obligatory, optional, free-choice studies, on-the-job training min. 30
competence points, final project
 Dual qualification: ca 2300 students start, ca 3 %
 Eligible to apply to higher education (polytecnics, universities)

 10th grade (supplementary additional basic education, about 1000 students,

2 %), free of charge, personal curriculun for each student
 Preparatory training for vocational education, 1 year (group lessons, on-the-
job-training, study experiments in vocational institutions, daily life and
adulthood skills, choosing the vocational studies, free of charge

Comprehensive school (basic education, 7-16 years, compulsory):

lower level, grades 1-6, upper level, grades 7-9
 Preschool (kindergarten) at 6 years old, 1 year, in day care centers mostly
Higher education
Polytecnics = Universities of Applied Sciences
 24 polytechnics in Finland
 3,5 – 4,5 years (of which practising 0,5 years altogether, 210-270
credits)
 More work life and professionally-oriented

Universities
15 universities
5-6 years
300 credits (masters of science, masters of arts
licentiates; doctors)
Teachers get their education in scientific universities.
The education reguires a high level
 Kindergarten teachers (also possible in univ. of applied sciences)
 Class teachers ( on grades 1-6)
 Subject teachers
 Special needs teachers
 Career guidance councellors

 Studies in scientific universities, 5-6 years

 Popular professions, a lot of competition to get in. Entrance
examinations.
 Subjects on 7th - 9th grades
 Mother tongue and literature (AI) Music (MU 7th, optional on 8th & 9th)
 Swedish (RU) Art (KU 7th, optional on 8th & 9th)
 English (EN) Handiwork (KÄ 7th, optional on 8th & 9th)
 Mathematics (MA) Home economics (KO 7th, opt on 8th & 9th)
 Biology (BI) Career guidance lessons (not estimated)

 Geography (GE) OPTIONAL SUBJECTS (belong to 30 hrs/week)

 Physics (FY) 6 hours (2h +2h+2h) on 8th and 9th
 Chemistry (KE) + a short course (19 hours) on 8th grade
 History (HI, on 7th & 8th)
 Civics (YH, on 9th) about 15 options from which to choose
 PE/Sports (LI)
 Health studies (TE)
 School day, school week, school year
 30 hours a week, an hour is 45 minutes, 15 min breaks in between, no
gap hours
lunch break half an hour, free warm lunch for all pupils,
at two o’clock break voluntary free snack (bread, milk, leftovers )
 38 weeks (autumn holiday week 42, winter holiday week 10),
190 working days, Christmas holiday, Easter, 1st May, Ascension Day)

 Curriculum reform, new core curriculum, coming in August 2016

grades 1-6 and August 2017 grades 7-9 in basic education
(joy of learning, pupils’ active role, collaborative working, interaction)
The previous core curriculum was introduced in 2004
 Homework Evaluation
 Generally pupils get homework from every lesson

 trains, completes and deepens the things learned in lesson

 to do the home work can take 20 minutes - 1 hour

 All subjects are evaluated 4 (not passed) – 10 (the best)

 The mark depends on tests, activity in lessons, doing homework…
 The last report given at the end of 9th grade is the most important-
it has to be good enough to get to the second level, upper general
or vocational education, at least to the most popular lines
 Activating and practical methods

 pair work
 on 7th grade: in pairs helping the cleaners and lunch staff in
our lunch room
 PE, handiwork, in biology examining outside the nature, art,
optional subject of natural sciences (Bio, Geo, Phy, Che) by
doing
 Data acquisition tasks and presentations by pupils
Drop outs
 About 50 000 young people aged 15-29, 5 %. Of
them unemployed ab 20 000 and out of work
force (not even in the books of employment
centres) 32 000. A fourth has an immigation
background.
 The drop outs are not the same people year
after year. In 5 years 60 % of drop-out young
people go to work or start studies.