ALPPILA SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL

Alppila Senior High School

 

Alppila Senior High School is a 40-year-old school situated directly behind Linnanmäki Amusement Park close to downtown Helsinki. Not all students live in Helsinki, as quite a few come from the nearby towns. The first-year students come here from more than 40 junior high schools in the metropolitan area. One reason for this is the ideal location of the school, as it is very convenient to come here by public transport. Trains, trams, the subway and buses all make frequent stops near the school. There are about 400 students and 35 teachers in Alppila Senior High School. The number of students has been increasing steadily in recent years. By Finnish standards, the school can be considered quite big. The students are 16 to 19 years old. Finnish senior high schools have a non-graded system. This means that the studies have been divided into courses each of which contains about 38 lessons. There are about 45 to 49 compulsory courses and each student must complete at least 75 courses in his or her study program within 2 to 4 years. At the end of their studies, the students must take the matriculation examination, which is a nation-wide examination. The students are admitted on the basis of their previous academic performance. Today Alppila Senior High School is one of the most popular senior high schools in Helsinki. In our school, the academic year has been divided into five school year periods. At the end of each period, there is a so-called exam week when students may have exams in up to seven subjects. The school year begins in mid-August and ends at the beginning of June. Alppila Senior High School offers its students a variety of interesting optional advanced courses in many subjects.  

Compulsory Subjects

Compulsory Courses

Optional Advanced Courses

Official native language (Finnish)

6

5

1st foreign language A1 (Starting in elementary school)
(English/Swedish/French)

6

3-4

2nd native language B1 (Starting in junior high school)
(Swedish)

5

4

Mathematics, advanced course

10

4

Mathematics, intermediate course

6

3

Biology

2

4

Geography

2

3

Physics

1

9

Chemistry

1

5

Religion / Ethics

3

2

Philosophy

1

6

History and sociology

5

3

Arts and music

3

12

Physical education

2

6

Health care

1

 

Tutoring

1

 

 

 

Optional Subjects

 

2nd foreign language B2 (Starting in junior high school)
(German/French)

8

3rd foreign language B3 (Starting in senior high school)
(German/French/Russian/Spanish)

8

Psychology

6

Optional Applied Courses These courses have been tailored to meet the students' wishes and needs. At the moment, applied course titles in Alppila Senior High School include Journalism, Driving Education, Theater, Computer Science, Martial Arts, Culture, First Aid, Latin and Film and Video Courses.

What do we believe in at Alppila Senior High School?

The school values all-round educational abilities. We consider it important that students have many different options and that they can plan their study programs independently and in this way find their own strengths and favorite fields. The atmosphere in the school is inspiring and encouraging. International contacts are of importance as well, for they offer students a chance to co-operate with other young people from Europe and the rest of the world. In addition, the students' language skills will be improved through these international contacts and they will be able to widen their knowledge in all fields of life.

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