In English – Kerimäki comprehensive school

Kerimäki comprehensive school is situated in the middle of Kerimäki village in Savonlinna. Pupils are provided with a learning environment close to nature and all services are within a walking distance. Kerimäki is famous for the largest wooden church in the world.

Kerimäki comprehensive school follows the Finnish National Core curriculum and the municipal curriculum of Savonlinna. It provides a safe environment to begin the school journey and over the nine years to achieve the knowledge and skills required in further education.

The core subjects taught to all pupils in classes 1–6 are Finnish, English, Swedish, mathematics, environmental studies, religion, history, social studies, physical education, music, art and crafts. Pupils have 20–21 lessons a week. In grades 7–9 pupils have more lessons and more subjects, for example home economics, physics, chemistry, biology and geography.

Our aim is to provide pupils with strong and healthy self-esteem and good general knowledge. Furthemore we want the pupils to acquire good transversal competence. We want pupils to believe in themselves and have faith in the future. Every child´s individual background is taken into consideration and all learners are treated and respected as unique.

We give pupils the opportunity to influence the everyday life of our school and in this way enable them to grow up to be responsible and active adults. Pupils have an active role in their learning process, and they learn to see things from different points of views. Social interaction skills and inner entrepreneurship will have a significant role in working life in the future. For this reason, they are important in teaching and learning transversal competence.

Learning and mastering everyday life skills also have an important role in pupils’ well-being. Our aim is to provide pupils with good information and communication technology skills. We also teach pupils to respect and cherish our own cultural heritage and environment.

Co-operation between the school and the parents of our pupils is extremely important in order to support the growth of the pupils. The parents are given the possibility to influence the everyday life of our school for example via a Parent’s Association. Parent´s possibility to influence is an important part of our school culture. Co-operation between school and parents improves the well-being and safety of school community. Parents are primarily responsible for bringing up the child. We provide diverse support for the pupils and parents and are responsible for teaching and upbringing pupils as members of our school community.