This is a letter from Parkskolan within the European Studies Programme group 6:12, Sweden. Jenny, Josefin, Therese and me (Emma) are going to explain to you how the Swedish School System works.

9-year compulsory school
When you've reached the age of seven you begin your first yerar of schooling. And after the
first day of school you only have nine years ( - one day ) left in compulsory school.
Classes from 1-3 are called the junior level.
Classes from 4-6 are called the intermediate level.
Classes from 7-9 are called the senior level.

Subjects :

Art education	Optimal subjects
Crafts	Physical education
Domestic science	Social science
English	Swedish
Mathematics	Second foreign language
Music	Third foreign language
Natural science

Upper secondary school
Here in Sweden we begin the Upper secondary school when we are 16 years old. At the Upper secindary school we have many different programmes to choose between, but they are devided into programmes preparing for further studies and vocalional programmes. Two of the most popular programmes preparing for further studies are the the Natural science- and the Social science programmes.

Grades Before the Cristmas holidays in the second year of the senior level you get your first grades. These are the grades you can get according to the curriculum of 1994: IG, G, VG and MVG.

IG: If you get this grade in a subject you have failed. You have not reached the goals in it for some reason. You get 0 points.
G. You have reached the goals in a subject and you get 10 points.
VG: You have done better than good. You have reached the higher goals and you are not just average. You get 15 points.
MVG: That means that you have done very very good in a subject. You get 20 points for it and that is the highest grade a student can get.

These points will be counted when you apply for the Upper secondary school or collage.

Lunch In Sweden we pay taxes insdead of school fee. And we are paying taxes to get schoollunch too. So we don't have to pay for it or take it with us from home. Thats quite comfortable.

Bus In Sweden we get a buscard if we live more than 6 kilometers from the school. If your mother or father have to you, they can get compensation.
The first holiday this semester is the November holidays, week 45. The Christmas holidays are up next, 18/12- 7/1. We also have sport holidays in February, Easter holidays in April and of course the summer holidays that we long for every Monday morning.

We now hope that you know a little more about the Swedish School System and we are looking forward to hearing from you about your school system.

© 1998 Freeway
Writers: Jenny Sjöström (sp01-19@park.se), Josefin Andersson (sp01-04@park.se), Therese Vestman (sp01-23@park.se) and Emma Nordin (sp01-16@park.se).
HTML by: Mattias Söderqvist (nv00-52@park.se) and Erik Hårshagen (nv00-38@park.se).