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Basic education for grades 7-9

In grades 7 through 9, pupils study common and optional subjects in line with the national distribution of lesson hours.

Introduction

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In grades 7 through 9, pupils study common and optional subjects in line with the national distribution of lesson hours. Common subjects are the same in all schools. In grades 7 through 9, subject teachers provide the instruction. Each class/group has their own designated tutor. The subjects and the distribution of hours are described in the city/municipality-specific curriculum. The average number of weekly lesson hours is 30 hours.

In grades 7 through 9, subject teachers manage the pupils’ teaching and learning. They are the experts in their individual subjects.

All groups also have a tutor who is responsible for counselling the pupils, their studies, and learning, as well as for monitoring their pupils’ growth and development. The tutoring teachers also primarily handle communication towards the guardians of their pupils. Tutors work in close cooperation with the subject teachers who teach their pupils.  You can best learn about your child’s schooling and competence by discussing them with the teacher. 

Vantaa's basic education curriculum (in Finnish).

Number of weekly lesson hours for pupils on average

  • 7th grade: 30.5 lessons 

  • 8th grade: 29.5 lessons 

  • 9th grade: 30 lessons 

The studied subjects in grades 7-9 are:

  • Mother tongue and literature .(Finnish language and literature or Finnish as a second language and literature) 
  • Second national language (Swedish language, starts in the 6th grade) 
  • Foreign languages
  • Mathematics
  • Religion or ethics 
  • History
  • Social studies
  • Biology
  • Geography
  • Physics
  • Chemistry
  • Health education
  • Music 
  • Visual arts
  • Crafts
  • Physical education
  • Home economics
  • Guidance counselling

Learning assessment

It is worth noting that the studies in some subjects end before the 9th grade. For example, studies of visual arts, home economics, and crafts are completed at the end of 7th grade. Unless a pupil chooses optional studies in these subjects in consecutive grades, the grade they receive in 7th grade is also their final grade.

Read more about learning assessment.

Optional subjects

Schools also offer optional subjects that can be either specialisation studies in the above-mentioned subjects, packages consisting of several different subjects, or applied studies.

Multidisciplinary learning modules

In addition to optional subjects, studies include at least one multidisciplinary learning module per school year.

Planning and implementing multidisciplinary learning modules require cooperation between subjects and utilisation of the school’s other activities. They consist of themes that pupils find interesting and that can be used in collaboration across subjects and teachers. In their study, means of observation, concepts, and methods typical of the various subjects are used. 

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Units

Service has 21 units in total