The Swedish school system can be split it into pre-school, compulsory schooling and senior high school.
Pre-school (förskola) – From ages 1-5, children can attend pre-school (förskola). While this is not compulsory, the one-year pre-school class (föreskoleklass) that starts at the age of 6 is.
Compulsory comprehensive school (grundskola) – This is divided into three stages: elementary school (lågstadiet) year 1-3, middle school (mellanstadiet) year 4-6, and junior high school (högstadiet) year 7-9. Some schools offer all 9 years of schooling, while others might offer one or two of the three stages, meaning that your child would have to change schools after a few years.
Senior high school (gymnasieskola) – Your teen can attend a 3-year senior high school program at a gymnasium after year 9. While it is optional, almost everyone in Sweden attends this free programme.
There are quite a few different programs (vocational and in preparation for higher education) where students can choose to study a field they are interested in.
How do you find a school in Skellefteå?
First, you need to know your options.
Here are a few helpful links where you can look through lists of schools in Skellefteå and gather other useful information:
Pre-schools (municipally run)
skelleftea.se/invanare/startsida/barn-och-utbildning/forskola/forskola-a-o
Pre-schools (independent)
skelleftea.se/invanare/startsida/barn-och-utbildning/forskola/fristaende-forskola-och pedagogisk-omsorg
Compulsory schools (municipally run and independent)
skelleftea.se/invanare/startsida/barn-och-utbildning/grundskola/grundskolor-a-o
Senior high schools (municipally run and independent)
skelleftea.se/invanare/startsida/barn-och-utbildning/gymnasium/skolor
If you wish to find out more about a certain school, you can find school quality and inspection results on the following websites:
Skolinspektionen
skolinspektionen.se/inspektion/
utbildningsguiden.skolverket.se/verktyg/hitta-och-jamfor-grundskolor
If you can’t read Swedish, and a site has no English translation, try using the translate function at the top of the browser page. In the Google Chrome and Safari browsers, you can download translation extensions.
Visit the school
If you’ve found a school in Skellefteå that you find interesting, visiting the school before enrolment is very important. We also recommend bringing your child with you. After all, they will be the one spending five days a week there. When visiting, both of you can see the school environment, and ask someone all those questions you have.
Now it’s application time. All schools in Sweden have open applications and you generally fill out an application on the school’s website. Many schools do have a queue, so it is important to apply to several schools.
Also, try not to wait until the last second! Start looking for a school as soon as possible and send in the applications in time.
