The Finnish-Russian School of Eastern Finland

The Finnish-Russian School of Eastern Finland was founded in 1997. The premises of the foundation were:

• Regional needs
• Finnish students: strong knowledge of Russian language and culture
• Immigrant (mostly Russian) students: integration into Finnish culture and society, Finnish language instruction, respecting and cultivating Russian heritage.

Everyday life

Our school works in three sites: Imatra, Joensuu and Lappeenranta. It consists of primary and lower secondary levels (grades 5-9 = ages 11-16). For the 9th grade students it is possible to apply to our upper secondary education.

Both Finnish and Russian speaking teachers and school-assistants work in our school. Teaching is mainly in Finnish, some theme-courses are taught in Russian. One third of our students continue their Russian as a mother tongue -studies with a native teacher.

One important task in our curriculum is to offer our pupils and students opportunities to learn to communicate fluently in a foreign language and act in a foreign culture. The school has several co-operation projects with schools in Russia. The study trips, exchange programs and cultural events have been very popular among our students.

Language program

Our school is a private language school supported by the Ministry of Education. Even though the emphasis is in the Russian language, our students can have a broad language program:

• Finnish and/or Russian as a mother tongue
• English as the first foreign language
• Russian or Finnish as the second foreign language
• Swedish as a voluntary language
• German, French, Italian or Spanish as a voluntary language.

The Upper Secondary School

The education at the upper secondary school is based on contact lessons and distance education, using video conference and other electronic learning material. With the help of varied and in some point quite independent learning forms our students get used to various and more independent ways to learn and evaluate themselves which will be important skills in their postgraduate studies and working life.

Contact

Leading principal:
Petri Kyyrä +358 40 594 5336

On-site principals:
Leena Haapala, Imatra +358 40 756 2058

Juha Quist, Joensuu +358 40 564 0919

Katri Anttila, Lappeenranta +358 40 759 2753