Bilingual education

This is an additional application round for bilingual education groups that have free places. The students who are accepted can start school in their new study group when school starts on 12 August 2026.

More places may become available during the summer and therefore you can apply even though there were no free places available at the time.

Who can apply and more information

• If you are an applicant living in Helsinki, you can apply through the supplementary application for the 1st and 7th grade only if you have moved to Helsinki after January 2026, and you have not applied for English- language or bilingual education in January 2026. Anyone can apply for all other grades of bilingual education.
• Applicants living outside Helsinki can apply only if the family is moving to Helsinki by the beginning of August 2026. The applicant must have an address in Helsinki when the school starts.
• If the student later moves out of Helsinki, they can continue at the school in Helsinki until the end of the school term. After that, they can continue only if the school has free places.
• If your child is in bilingual Finnish-English education in another city in Finland, they may be eligible to apply via the Continuous Admission. See application criteria above in section 'Finnish–English: Continuous admission for grades 1–9, open all year round'
• If you wish to apply to the bilingual Finnish-North Sami education, get in touch with the Pasila Comprehensive School principal directly. There are free places in all grades from 1 to 9. 

Language tests for bilingual education 4 August

• The language tests for bilingual education will take place on Tuesday 4 August 2026
• If there are no free places to the grade you applied, the language test will not be arranged. In this case, we will notify you on 31 July 2026.
• We will not send an invitation to the bilingual education language test. Check the test details on the school website.
• There is no need to prepare for the language test. The test measures the applicant's language skills in both languages.
• Language test places: 
  • Finnish-English at Töölö Primary School
  • Finnish-Spanish at Käpylä Comprehensive School
  • Finnish-Chinese at Meilahti Primary School
  • Finnish-Estonian at Latokartano Comprehensive School
  • Finnish-Russian at Myllypuro Comprehensive School
  • Finnish-Swedish at the Nordic Comprehensive School

For grades 2–9, the applicant must always take a language test. There is no language test for grade 1 in bilingual education, and the places will be drawn by lottery. You can also use the same application form for other bilingual programmes and fully English-language education in grade 1.

If you are applying to more than one school, list the schools in the order of your preference. Schools with the same language programme use the same language test and the test results are considered in each school your child applies to.

Apply with an electronic application form

Apply via the link below from 1 May 2026 onwards.

You need a valid email address to use the electronic form. All guardians must give their consent for the application, but only one guardian is required to identify electronically.

If you wish to make changes to your application or change the order of the schools you applied to, please send a new application. We will consider your most recent application only.

Fill out the electronic application form during 1 May-26 July 2026.(Link leads to external service)

No Wilma username and password are needed for sending the application form; all you need is a valid email address.

Start by writing your email address in the address field and click “Send verification”. Then, go to your inbox, open the email that you received and click on the link in the message, and you can proceed to fill in the application form.

After submitting the form, you will receive a confirmation email to confirm that we have received your application. However, the confirmation email does not include a detailed description of the options that you chose. Please note that we will not send an invitation to the language test for bilingual education.

If you have problems with filling in the form, check the following things:

• If you have previously logged in on Wilma using an existing username and password, log out.
• Clear your browsing history.
• Change the language of Wilma to match the language of the application form.
• If none of the above works, try again later.
• If necessary, contact oppilaaksiotto@hel.fi(Link opens default mail program)

Admission decisions

• The schools will send out the admission decisions to guardians by secure email on 10 August 2026. If you have not received the decision by 10 August, get in touch with the schools you applied to, in the order in which you applied. 

If your child does not get a place, they can:

• start school in their own local school. Get in touch with the local school principal. Find your local school with the school search.
• enrol in preparatory education, if the child does not know Finnish or Swedish. Learn more about preparatory education and enrolment here.

If you need assistance in finding a school place for your child, get in touch with the Eduguidance advisory service.

Free places in bilingual education

Free places will be posted in the table below by 1 May 2026.

Enquiries

In any questions about the supplementary admission or applying, get in touch with us by email at oppilaaksiotto@hel.fi(Link opens default mail program) .