Finland has been rated as the “happiest country in the world” for the 5th straight year in 2022. The educational benefits of a happy child are clearly proven. At Finnway, we absolutely believe that a happy child learns best. That’s why every experience that our teachers and staff craft, has generous servings of happiness built in. Childhood and school days should be fun-filled, happy times that can be looked back on with fond memories. We work hard to make sure that every student can look back on their Finnway school days in this way.

We’re sure you can almost taste the buckets of fun and engagement that we expertly fill your child’s school days with. However, don’t for a minute think that we sacrifice academic excellence along the way. In fact, the very heart of a Finnway education beats with a combination of the very best hand-picked academic international curriculums and educational pathways in the world.

We love and understand the fact that every child is unique and needs different levels of care and attention to fully develop. Our teachers are specifically trained to recognise these different personal learning requirements in every student in their class. With this knowledge and understanding, teachers then go on to expertly develop focussed learning experiences that are tailor-made to each student’s needs and preferences, so that learning is a fun and rewarding journey for every single student in the class.

The traditional method of passively only studying one subject per lesson is outdated, restricts creative innovation and doesn’t reflect the reality of the real world that we’re preparing your child to succeed in. Our learning approach focusses on cleverly crafting hands-on, integrated projects that cover learning objectives from many different subjects. A project, such as space travel or saving the planet, takes place over an extended period of time, where students take responsibility for how it evolves under the expert eye and guidance of their teacher. Students become so engrossed, that they don’t even realise they’re learning! This proven method of project-based learning stimulates young minds, engages all, sparks creative problem solving, social engagement, team collaboration, leadership opportunities, embeds a deeper retention of knowledge and understanding, and more than anything, it’s a super fun way to learn compared to traditional alternatives.

Nothing is less stimulating and ineffective for young minds than passive, one-way teaching. That’s why every learning experience that our educational experts design, has active engagement at its very core. We all know that a child learns best by doing rather than listening, and that’s why our learning days are bursting with fun, hands-on experiences, which promote stimulating engagement, curiosity, imagination and practical and sensory exploratory knowledge acquisition. This develops a joyful classroom that gives all students a sense of belonging.

We have whole-heartedly adopted the Finnish philosophy that learning is a continuous process and should not be restricted to only a classroom setting. In fact, more effective learning often takes place in alternative environments. That’s why at Finnway, we always look for opportunities to take our students on outside classroom adventures to explore, discover and learn in the most suitable setting for each learning experience that we create. Outside classroom learning may be as simple as moving from teaching students about plants from a book in the classroom, to stepping into the Finnway gardens to actually touch, feel and experience real plant structures and ecosystems. Frequent off-campus field trips take place to super charge curriculum learning goals with destination experiences. These may include the museum, zoo, rubber plantation, gibbon rehabilitation centre, orphanage, planetarium, Thai cultural centre and so many more choices that Phuket spoils us with.

The world is a rapidly changing place, where the knowledge and skills that are in demand today, will be very different from the knowledge and skills required to be successful in the future. Technology and robotics will continue to erode the need for memorised facts and automatable skills. To ensure our students are well positioned to take full advantage of the future that they will grow into, a Finnway education fully integrates subject matter expertise with the development of 21st Century or Future Ready skills. These skills will continue to be increasingly demanded by industry and provide the competitive advantage to individuals who have mastered them. These skills include confidence, collaboration, critical thinking, creative problem solving, innovation and communication.

We endorse the Finnish cultural practice of a school-life balance. We strongly believe that children should be allowed to be children and that their school life should be in balance with their family and out of school life. We believe that time out of school should not be spent on excessive academic extra study, but rather fun, non-academic activities that a child can discover a passion for. This will inevitably produce a much more rounded, healthier, happier and more balanced child, who is able to absorb educational learning at school more effectively.

A Finnway education helps children grow and be ready to face and succeed in the greatest test of all, called life. That’s why we take a holistic approach, where we develop the whole child intellectually, mentally, physically, emotionally and socially, to help meet life’s daily demands and challenges. Each child is unique, with their own personality traits, interests, preferences, values, attitudes, strengths and weaknesses. We help each child find their unique place in the world, in alignment with the uniqueness they have.

Our teachers lie at the very heart of our school. We are extremely vigorous in hand-picking only the most qualified, experienced, suitable and committed teachers to join our team. All teaching staff at Finnway are fully trained and experienced in successfully delivering the highest Finnish educational standards to all students in their class. Every one of our teachers has a firm focus and commitment to their students and has chosen a career of teaching as their true vocation in life. It’s their enthusiasm, commitment, creativity and personalised care in providing learning to every one of their students that inspires our high standards and outstanding continued success.

The health and safety of every single child is always our first priority. We’ve gone to extraordinary lengths to ensure that the design and function of our facilities is safe for even the youngest or most adventurous of student. Our facilities have been fitted with state-of-the-art security monitoring and secured access, to ensure the safety of all students during their day at school. Our teachers and staff are meticulously screened and monitored for child safety compliance. We advocate the Finnish practice of a healthy balanced day of learning, and so follow each and every lesson with a burst of healthy outdoor play and exercise. Our food menus have been expertly designed to ensure that every special dietary requirement is catered to and every student receives delicious, balanced, nutritious and healthy food and snacks during their time at school. The increasingly excessive pressures of academic competitiveness by more and more schools around the world has led to an unprecedented number of mental health issues in young children. At Finnway, we have aligned our entire educational process firmly based on the Finnish philosophy of reducing stress, anxiety and excessive formal testing, so that young children can learn and develop in a happy and positive state of mind.

The most frequent feedback that we receive from parents, is how much Finnway staff really do care about their children, in terms of their educational progression and holistic fun and happy development. We firmly believe that it’s this exceptionally genuine caring attitude of all of our staff, that makes our school a place where students look forward to coming to every day. When you enrol at Finnway, you don’t just join as students and parents, but rather you’re welcomed as part of the growing Finnway family.