Vasa övningsskola (VÖS) is a Swedish-speaking

normal school A normal school or normal college is an institution created to Teacher education, train teachers by educating them in the norms of pedagogy and curriculum. In the 19th century in the United States, instruction in normal schools was at the high s ...

Vaasa Vaasa (; sv, Vasa, , Sweden ), in the years 1855–1917 as Nikolainkaupunki ( sv, Nikolajstad; literally meaning "city of Nicholas),

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...

. VÖS is a part of

Åbo Akademi University Åbo Akademi University ( sv, Åbo Akademi , ) is the only exclusively Swedish language multi-faculty university in Finland (or anywhere outside Sweden). It is located mainly in Turku (Åbo is the Swedish name of the city) but has also activiti ...

, and its Faculty of Education and Welfare Studies located in Vaasa. It is the only Swedish normal school in Finland. VÖS provides preschool, primary and lower and upper secondary education, and in addition is one of the 17 schools in Finland with an

International Baccalaureate The International Baccalaureate (IB), formerly known as the International Baccalaureate Organization (IBO), is a nonprofit foundation headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, and founded in 1968. It offers four educational programmes: the IB Dip ...

upper secondary school programme. The predecessor of VÖS was ''Wasa Trivialskola'', which was officially founded in 1684, although teaching began already in 1611. The name ''Trivialskola'' refers to the ''

trivium The trivium is the lower division of the seven liberal arts and comprises grammar, logic, and rhetoric. The trivium is implicit in ''De nuptiis Philologiae et Mercurii'' ("On the Marriage of Philology and Mercury") by Martianus Capella, but the ...

'', and in that time, the subjects were religion,

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

and

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

. In 1844, the school changed its name to ''Vasa Gymnasium''. In the town fire of Vaasa in 1852, the school building was destroyed, and upon rebuilding, the school was located to its present location in the center of the city, next to the church of Vaasa on ''Kirkkopuistikko'' (Swedish: ''Kyrkoesplanaden''). In rankings based on scores of the Finnish

matriculation examination A matriculation examination or matriculation exam is a university entrance examination, which is typically held towards the end of secondary school. After passing the examination, a student receives a school leaving certificate recognising academi ...

, the upper secondary school of VÖS (''Vasa övningsskola gymnasium'') has been ranked as #8 of the 35 Swedish-speaking schools of Finland.YLE news
(in Swedish) The average score was 25.1, slightly higher than the national average of 24.0, which score nevertheless places it #1 in the city of

Vaasa Vaasa (; sv, Vasa, , Sweden ), in the years 1855–1917 as Nikolainkaupunki ( sv, Nikolajstad; literally meaning "city of Nicholas),

. 104 students completed the matriculation examination in 2009, and 49% gained admission to tertiary education immediately upon graduation. Former students of the school include Finland's national poet

Johan Ludvig Runeberg Johan Ludvig Runeberg (; 5 February 1804 – 6 May 1877) was a Finnish priest, lyric and epic poet. He wrote exclusively in Swedish. He is considered a national poet of Finland. He is the author of the lyrics to (''Our Land'', ''Maamme'' in Fin ...

(1804–1877).

References

External links

VÖS home page

International Baccalaureate Organization page on VÖS
{{DEFAULTSORT:Vasa ovningsskola International Baccalaureate schools in Finland Secondary schools in Finland Educational institutions established in the 1680s 1684 establishments in Europe

See also

References

External links