Introduction
Are you already operating schools, or an established philanthropist, or do you have your own children, coming to the age that they will soon start their first years of school? You have probably vetted the current schools, but none of them seems to be aligned with your vision of what kind of education you would like to offer to children. Now, you have come up with a dream to setup a high-quality school in your country.
You have probably already heard of Finnish education and how it is globally recognized for its student-centered approach, teacher autonomy, and consistent high outcomes.
But now you are wondering how can you bring that excellence to your own country? Whether you’re an educator, entrepreneur, or policymaker, this introduction guide will walk you through the essential steps to consider how to establish a high-quality Finnish International School — adapted to your local context.
Key Steps for Establishing a Finnish International School Abroad
1. Understand the Core Principles of Finnish Education
Before designing a building or starting a project from scratch, immerse yourself in what makes Finnish education unique. Attend a study visit to Finland, read introduction level books – like Finnish Lessons by Pasi Sahlberg, and find a professional with whom to ponder various options and who will guide you into the details of what it takes to be a Finnish-style school.
You will be then better equipped to decide, if the Finnish educational approach is suitable for your school and you are ready to implement its key-features, for example:
- Trust-based autonomy for teachers, which will increase motivation and innovation
- Play-based learning in early years, as it will help students develop the right skills for their age
- Setting equality and inclusion as foundational values
- Learning 21st century skills is at least equally important as academic knowledge
- Minimal standardized testing, as it does not measure any skills worth knowing
- Having enough movement and breaks during the day and having less school hours is good for the child’s wellbeing and learning
- and many more…
2. Build a Vision and Analyse the Situation and Build a Localized Plan
While the Finnish model works well in every school in Finland, your will need to make decisions how it should be adapted to your country’s culture, regulations, and parent’s & student’s needs.
Ask:
- What is the purpose of education and what values & skills do you want to equip the students with?
- What kind of pedagogy and teaching practices do you want to implement in your school?
- Should the teacher be in the centre of every lesson and explain everything, or should the student ask, explore, try, fail and re-iterate to learn authentically and more deeply?
- What local challenges must we address with parents, authorities, licences, potential staff members etc.?
- How can you blend the Finnish pedagogy with national curriculum & skill requirements?
- What kind of things should you analyse to understand the situation better, make informed decisions, save money and time, after you have received all the answers and made a detailed plan how to set up the school.
- What is the business model of your school, how big and profitable you want it to be and how will you fund the setup phase and operation with?
3. Recruit and Train the Right Managers and Teachers
Finnish schools thrive because of highly trained, respected leaders and teachers. To create a winning team, you need to consider:
- Where and how to hire staff members who are open to progressive, student-centered methods
- How do you attract and make sure you will have best possible managers and teachers by offering long-term professional development programs
- How you will retain the best people, with offering professionally inspiring career options and a healthy work-life balance to all staff members.
- How will you support the well-being of all the staff members and students alike, and what kind organisational decisions and specialists will you need to achieve this?
4. Design Learning Spaces That Reflect the Philosophy
Finnish schools are designed to support collaboration, creativity, pleasant aesthetics, inclusivity, equality, green standards and safety. One financially large question you need to decide is if you want to build or rent a building and will it be used for short or long-term if you eventually want to grow into a big school.
Here is a list of things you should start with:
- Location and logistics of arriving to the school
- Building materials and methods
- Energy production and efficiency
- Versatile spaces for learning in groups, quiet zones, open learning areas
- Indoor, outdoor and digital learning spaces, and don’t forget the spaces outside the school.
- Effective use of space and pedagogically designed spaces
- Flexible furniture for various learning situations
- Lighting, acoustics, air quality, cleaning, operational logistics
- Solutions to improve safety, inclusiveness and equity in the building
- Spaces for staff and support personnel
- Connections to society during school days and community use during evenings.
5. Plan a Holistic Well-being Process for Staff and Students
As one corner stone of Finnish education, and surprisingly neglected aspect in realities of many schools, you should consider various ways to improve student and staff well-being. Many of these decisions are research-based and improve both happiness and learning results.
Would you like to offer:
- Pleasant physical environment to work, including temperature, noise level, air quality, aesthetics
- Psychologically supportive school environment; respectful behaviour, permission to make mistakes and learn from them, availability to get help from peers or professionals if student or a staff member feels insecure or afraid.
- Opportunities and places to rest, take breaks and work independently
- High quality nutrition during the school day
- Identifying possible learning difficulties and gaining various levels of support for them on an individual level. Supporting individual strengths and ways of doing things.
- Optimised structure of the day, with breaks every 45 minutes, 4-6 hours school days, no pressure for academic afternoon clubs or excessive homework.
6. Develop the educational programs and materials
To ensure your school will be able to deliver both the Finnish standard and fulfil the local requirements, remember to:
- Develop a curriculum that covers all the Finnish subjects, learning objectives contents and transversal competencies, which are then complemented with local contents that are not already covered, and especially, if they are required by the local law.
- Localise some of the core contents of the subjects, so they will be more relevant to students
- Select the books, software and equipment that are aligned with the curriculum. You can ask the suppliers if they can justify and prove how their solution will support the Finnish curriculum.
- Install the equipment & software and plan a smooth on-boarding process for the users.
- Be curious and open to explore if there are equipment, materials, learning aids, or even full learning environments that will offer more versatile, physical and deeper real-life learning possibilities.
Conclusion
Bringing a Finnish school to your country is more than importing a curriculum — it’s about adopting all the elements and the mindset that values trust, individuality, well-being and lifelong learning. With the right vision, partnerships, and commitment, you can create a school that transforms lives and sets a new standard for education in your region.