How does the Swedish school system work?
After your child turns one they can attend förskola. This is not compulsory, but most children aged 1-6 still attend preschool.
Compulsory schooling starts in autumn the year your child turns six. This is called grundskola and is broadly equivalent to primary school, junior school or elementary school.
The first year of grundskola is called förskoleklass (preschool class) and is a kind of introductory year before they start grundskola proper.
An important thing to pay attention to when choosing a school for your child is the number of years offered in the school. Some only offer lågstadiet (years 1-3), some go up to mellanstadiet (years 4-6) and some go all the way to högstadiet (years 7-9) or even gymnasium (upper secondary school for those aged 16 plus).
What should you bear in mind when choosing a school?
There are advantages and disadvantages to choosing a school offering more or fewer classes. If you opt for a school which goes all the way up to högstadiet then you know for certain that your child will be there until year 9, while a lågstadiet or mellanstadiet school could mean that you don’t get your first choice of högstadiet later on.
On the other hand, maybe getting a spot at the local school that only goes up to mellanstadiet would mean that your child would be able to walk or cycle to school by themselves, or maybe they have friends who are likely to go there?
If you know that your child’s friends have older siblings at a particular school, then you can be relatively certain that the friend themselves will end up going there too. This is because most schools offer syskonförtur, essentially meaning that applications from children who have a sibling at a particular school are prioritised.
If you're interested in factors such as student-teacher ratios and average grades, you can check the Välja skola website, run by Skolverket, which allows you to compare different schools using several criteria. The website is only available in Swedish, but by using a browser extension to translate you should be able to understand most of the information. It's also possible to compare information about schools on the website of the Swedish Schools Inspectorate.
And of course you can arrange to visit local schools that have piqued your interest in order to ask further questions and get a feel for the atmosphere at the school. There you can also ask how many international students there are at the school and what provisions are made for non-native Swedish speakers, if that's important to you, as well as any other questions about facilities, grading, parent-teacher communication and so on.
Be flexible
Depending on where you live, nearby schools may be oversubscribed, which means that you may need to compromise. For this reason, it’s a good idea to list as many schools as possible on your application, as you may not get your first choice (or even your second or third choice).
Won’t I just get a spot at the closest school to my home?
Not necessarily. Many municipalities, including the three major cities, use the principle of relativ närhet (relative proximity) to allocate school places. Essentially, this means that the municipality will allocate places to make sure that each child has a relatively short distance between their home and their school.
It’s a bit complicated to explain.
Imagine two schools, School A and School B. One child lives 600 metres from School A and 700 metres from School B. Another lives 800 metres from School A and 1.1 kilometres from School B, but both have listed their closest school, School A, as their top choice. Only one can get a spot.
Relativ närhet means that the decision on who gets the spot is based on whoever’s journey would be more greatly affected if they were allocated School B instead of School A. For the first child, the distance would only be an extra 100 metres (700-600). For the second child, however, they would need to travel an extra 300 metres (1100-800), therefore they would be allocated School A and the first child would be allocated School B.
Essentially, as many children as possible should live as close as possible to their school, even if this means that some children are allocated a spot at a school which is slightly further away.
Municipalities each have their own limit for how close a child should live to their school. In Malmö, for example, lågstadiet children should live a maximum of 4 kilometres from their school, while in Gothenburg and Stockholm this is 2 kilometres for the same age group. The distance usually gets larger as children get older.
When do I have to submit my application?
It depends on where you live, but broadly speaking you’ll need to apply in January or February.
Make sure to check the dates where you live, as they can vary.
What happens if I don’t choose a school before the deadline?
If you don’t choose a school before the deadline then the municipality will choose for you, usually the closest school to your home which has spaces available once all other children have been allocated a spot.
How can I avoid being allocated a school I really don’t want my child to go to?
You can’t specifically write on your application that you don’t want a particular school, but instead you can list a lot of other schools as preferred choices, as these will be prioritised ahead of any schools you have not listed on your application.
When will I find out the result?
Again, this depends on where you live, but usually the end of March.
What if I want my child to attend a free school or a private school?
The system for free schools is a bit different – in some cases you can apply directly via the municipality in the same way you apply for municipal schools, and in others you’ll need to apply to the school itself, which has its own queue system.
Many free schools are very hard to get into, especially at förskoleklass, and you may be unlikely to get a spot unless you put your child on the waiting list shortly after their birth. For that reason, it’s a good idea to apply to municipal schools as well as a backup plan even if your first choice of school for your child is a free school.
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