Pre-primary Education Enrollment

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Day careFamilies with children

Children born in 2018 will participate in pre-primary education during the school year 2024–2025. In addition, those 7-year-olds whose first school year has been postponed by a year as well as those 5-year-olds with a decision on extended compulsory education are entitled to pre-primary education. 

Lapsia luokkahuoneessa.

A child’s guardian is obliged to ensure that their child participates in pre-primary education or some other activity that fulfills the objectives of pre-primary education during the year before compulsory education begins. Children born in 2018 will participate in pre-primary education during the school year 2024–2025. In addition, those 7-year-olds whose first school year has been postponed by a year as well as those 5-year-olds with a decision on extended compulsory education are entitled to pre-primary education. Pre-primary education is organised during school working days, 20 hours a week and 4 hours a day. Pre-primary education is mainly organised in day care centres. It’s free to participate in pre-primary education, and a daily meal is provided to the child.

Welcome to pre-primary education

Pre-primary education begins on Thursday, August 8, 2024, and ends on Friday, May 30, 2025

Pre-primary education constitutes part of the life-long learning path that begins at home and in early childhood education, and continues after pre-primary education in basic education. Pre-primary education aims to bolster a child's developmental and learning potentials, as well as to strengthen the child’s social skills and healthy self-esteem together with the child’s family. Pre-primary education is obligatory, goal-oriented, and based on a curriculum. A learning plan will be compiled for every child, together with the children and their guardians.

In pre-primary education, children experience and learn as part of a peer group. Pre-primary education consists of learning packages of varying scope and implementation that are based on the children’s interests, as well as on pre-primary education’s joint goals. Learning in pre-primary education, thus, largely takes place. through playing, and there is always time for playing during every pre-primary education day. In addition to play, different kind of experiential and operational approaches offer experiences and boost the children's learning motivation

Remember to enroll your child in pre-primary education from January 5 to January 31, 2024!

  • You can enroll online on the VaSa service or by leaving an application at a daycare center.
  • You can check the pre-primary education places on Vantaa's website at: vantaa.fi/esiopetus.
  • You can view the pre-primary education decision on the VaSa service.

Pre-primary education is free of charge and includes a meal

Pre-primary education is arranged on schooldays, four hours per day. Pre-primary education is free of charge and includes one daily meal. In addition to pre-primary education, children have the possibility of participating in early childhood education, subject to a charge, which supplements pre-primary education. Inform about your need for supplementary early childhood education in connection with enrolling in pre-primary education.

Language options in pre-primary education

Each pre-primary education group will familiarize itself with the languages and cultures of the participants in the group during the year. If you want your child's pre-primary education to have a stronger language focus, Vantaa also offers:

  • English-enriched pre-primary education
  • Swedish-immersion pre-primary education or
  • comprehensive English-language pre-primary education

Read more about language options

Welcome to the open house event!

All pre-primary education places in Vantaa will arrange an introduction to families in May. The pre-primary education places will inform the guardians about the events.

Preparatory instruction provides facilities for studying in Finnish language in basic education

Instruction preparing for basic education is arranged for those children with immigrant backgrounds whose Finnish-language proficiency is not sufficient for studying in a pre-primary education group.

Preparatory instruction is given on schooldays, five hours per day. Four hours of instruction will be given as part of pre-primary education and one hour will be arranged in a smaller group.

Guardians shall enroll their children in pre-primary education, after which applying for preparatory instruction will be agreed together with the child's guardians, the pre-primary education place, and the language and cultural coordinators.

Applying to pre-primary education

The applicant's address information comes to the application from Dvv. Unfortunately, it is currently not possible to add an alternative address to the application. This does not prevent you from applying to the desired unit.

Fill the application for early childhood education electronically in the VaSa service. When registering for pre-primary education, state whether the child needs early childhood education in addition to pre-primary education.

You must log in to the application with the Suomi.fi identification method by using your online banking IDs, mobile certificate or certificate card. You can edit the application after submitting it as well as track its process in the service. You can download mobile app, called CGI Vesa in application stores.

Enrollment in Pre-Primary Education - Instructions for Guardians for using VaSa-Service(pdf, 1.15 MB) Graphical instructions for enrolling in pre-primary education. Instructions for guardians for using VaSa-service(pdf, 332.57 KB) General presentation of the function of the VaSa service with photos.

The VaSa service functions best with the two newest versions of Chrome, Firefox, Edge and Safari browsers. The service cannot be used with an Internet Explorer browser or older versions of the Edge browser.

Fill in the application on a paper form

If you cannot complete the application electronically, you can also submit one on paper. You can fill in and print out the "Enrollment in pre-primary education" -form.

Enrollment in pre-primary education (523016e)(pdf, 144.8 KB)

If your child needs early childhood education in addition to pre-primary education, you must fill early childhood education form ("varhaiskasvatushakemus"), if your child

  • moves from private early childhood education or service voucher day care to a municipal day care in Vantaa,
  •  moves from one service voucher daycare center in Vantaa to another service voucher daycare center,
  •  has not been in early childhood education in Vantaa before starting pre-school education.

A filled-in form can be returned to any municipal day care centre or sent to Vantaa-info

More information about enrollment in pre-primary education and pre-primary education places, contact early childhood education service counsellors or day care centers.

Principles of pupil admission to pre-primary education

(Board of education and learning, November 8, 2021, Section 10)

Early Childhood Education Complementary to Preschool

In addition to preschool a child has the right to early childhood education which is always aimed to be organised in the same location as pre-primary education. Early childhood education is subject to charge, but the participation to preschool is considered in the fee.

When a child requires complementary early childhood education in addition to pre-primary education:

  • When the family fills the registration for preschool, they notify at the same time if the child has a need for early childhood education which complements pre-primary education.
  • If the need for complementary early childhood education arises in the middle of the ongoing preschool year, the family must contact the head of the preschool location.

If your child requires early childhood education in addition to pre-primary education, you can report that on the preschool registration form.

The filled form can be returned to any municipal day care centre, Vantaa Info service points or alternatively sent to early childhood education services to the address:

Varhaiskasvatus, Varhaiskasvatushakemus, PL 1500, 01030 Vantaan kaupunki.

Additional information on pre-primary education and the registration can be received from day care centres and early childhood education service coordination.

Keywords

EnrolmentPreschool educationApplications