The English Kindergarten of Kuopio
Information about the kindergarten
General information
The English Kindergarten of Kuopio is a private kindergarten for 4-7 year old children. It was founded in 1969 and is the largest English immersion kindergarten in Finland. The school is at two sites, the pre-school is situated at Puijonlaakso Päiväkoti at Mailatie 3 and the early years department at Tulliportinkatu 37 H. This is conveniently situated close to the town centre.
The kindergarten is a non-profit making organisation run by a committee of eight members elected annually from the parents.
Groups and hoursAs of August 2004 there are four groups. The pre-school group and the group of 5-year-old children which are full day with the option for morning half days only at Puijonlaakso. There are also 2 groups of early years children at the kindergarten on Tulliportinkatu which offers full day and half day (morning) care.
The kindergarten is open 07:00 - 17:00 and the half day children have to be picked up by 12:30.
About the kindergarten
As this is an immersion kindergarten the programme is carried out entirely in English although of course the children may use whatever language they please. English is learnt almost incidentally while following a normal kindergarten curriculum: play, both free and structured, games, art and craft, music, singing, drama, role play, stories, cooking, skill-learning, movement and so on. We structure the activities around topics which are changed every couple of weeks.
The children are very active and the atmosphere stimulating to encourage as much language interaction as possible. In pre-school the aim is to prepare the children to enter Finnish primary schools. Teaching is individual and according to the child’s ability and interest. Some reading skills, writing and number is taught. The main aim of the kindergarten is to enable the children to use English readily in everyday situations and in this it has been very successful.
Since 1992 children from the kindergarten have been able to go to the Rajala primary school where they receive 5-6 hours teaching in English weekly from the very beginning.The English Kindergarten Of Kuopio (Kuopion Englantilainen Leikkikoulu)
Tulliportinkatu 37 H
70110 Kuopio
Tel - +358 (0)44-293 6191
Tel - +358 (0)17-264 6904 /office
email: bigredbus@pp.inet.fiPre-school
Mailatie 3
70200 Kuopio
Finland
tel. +358 (0)44-293 6190