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A parent’s guide: choosing a preschool or international school in Sweden 

Moving to and settling into a new country is never easy. It’s daunting enough as a single person, or as a couple, but moving with children presents the unique challenge of finding a suitable preschool or international school.

A parent's guide: choosing a preschool or international school in Sweden 
Pavan Koralla with his daughter Maithili and wife Akhila

How do you even begin this process? The Local, in partnership with the Futuraskolan International network of international preschools and schools in the greater Stockholm area, will help you solve this puzzle.

Looking for a preschool or international school in Stockholm? Learn more about Futuraskolan and its approach to bilingual education in English and Swedish

Learn the basics

Where do you begin? Research, research and then a little more research. IT developer Pavan Koralla, originally from India, took a methodical approach to finding a preschool for his daughter, Maithili.

I used the government Skolverket website [page in English] at first to find out what a pre-school (förskola) was, how they were organised, what age children could start, everything,” Pavan says. “It’s a mine of good information. The Skolverket page on pre-schools is very good – I recommend it.”

Next, he used his municipality’s preschool page to find the locations of the local preschools. “The page also offered comparisons on the municipality’s preschools, based on marks given by parents on a number of parameters such as, ‘are you satisfied with the school?’, ‘does it feel like a safe environment for the child?’, ‘what is the teacher-pupil ratio?’ and so on.”

Sophia Fromell, a Greek woman who moved to Stockholm from the US with her family in 2020, says early preparation was also crucial when it came to choosing an international school for her children, Yasmin, seven, and Axel, ten.

“You cannot leave it to the last minute – you need to plan ahead,” Sophia says. “Especially if, like us, you want your child to go to an international school. There are a finite number of such schools.

“You cannot just show up and knock on the door and apply. There will be queues. I was a member of the Americans in Stockholm Facebook group before we moved from the US, which was very helpful and then we moved on to the Stockholm municipality schools page, which was in English and very useful.”

Sophia Fromell with her husband and children. Photo: Supplied

Ask yourself what matters most: curriculum, language, personal development?

Sophia and her husband, Otto, knew they wanted an international school in central Stockholm but also had some other requirements. They wanted a curriculum that “allows the kids to transition to other countries because we’re in banking, so we move around a lot”. Sophia adds: “We also wanted a curriculum that focuses on the child and offers outside-the-box education, as well as a chance to be educated in English – despite having a Swedish father, my kids don’t have much Swedish.”

All these requirements are met at Futuraskolan, which uses Fieldwork Education’s teaching programmes: the International Early Years Curriculum (IEYC), the International Primary Curriculum (IPC) and the International Middle Years Curriculum (IMYC). Central to each is the development of knowledge, skills and understanding, with a focus on preparing the students for lifelong learning.

Pavan, who arrived in Stockholm in 2013, also had a very clear vision of what would be best for his daughter. His research gave him confidence that he could find just what he and his wife Akhila wanted at one of Futuraskolan’s seven preschools.

“We wanted a preschool that really engaged with children, that supported their development,” he says. “It should be about their growth. It’s not about maths and science in preschool.” 

His priority was a preschool to help his daughter develop socially and make friends, as well as improving her “motor skills, so she can do exercises, climb things or do yoga”, and enhancing “her cognitive development, so she’s able to solve puzzles.”

Top tips for international parents 

Do Pavan and Sophia have any other top tips for parents who are new to Sweden (or about to move) and are looking for preschools or international schools?

“Parents should try to visit the preschools they’re interested in – it’s the only way to really gauge what the institution is offering,” Pavan says. “For instance, when we visited we found out that the Futuraskolan International preschool ran drama and music classes each week, which was a big tick in its favour.”

Sophia, head of risk at a financial institution, suggests considering the overall level of diversity at a school. “A diverse school is easier for the kids to adapt to and, with families from a variety of backgrounds, it’s easier for parents to make friends. When parents make friends, it makes for a happier family. That’s definitely my top tip.”

Progressiveness, energy and respect: find out about Futuraskolan International’s core values – and promise to every child

A progressive choice

An international education for his daughter was vitally important to Pavan and it was for this reason that he finally chose Futuraskolan International Danderyd. He’s delighted with the decision.

If children become aware of other countries at an early age, make friends with kids from other countries and know about the wider world, that can only be beneficial,” he says. “My daughter already knows that there are many other countries, many other languages, and many other cultures – and she now has friends from China, Sri Lanka and the Middle East.”

Pavan’s daughter Maithili in Stockholm. Photo: Supplied

He’s also very complimentary about how the preschool is helping his daughter develop. “The constant attention and care has been excellent,” he adds. “When she first started we had feedback sessions once a term – very thorough discussions with teachers about how Maithili was progressing. And then when she was a little older, they continually assessed language skills, motor skills and so on. So we always knew when she needed a little help with something.”

Sophia eventually decided on Futuraskolan International School of Stockholm and is also thrilled with her choice. In addition to the IPC and IMYC, this school offers a Grade 9 curriculum focused on preparing students for an International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme.

“The school values individuality and collaboration,” says Sophia. “Axel needs a very special approach compared to most other kids and they give him that. The teachers at Futuraskolan don’t see children who are different from the norm as problems, as was my experience in the US. The child is an individual and just needs to be taught a little differently. When the school has such a good pupil-teacher ratio, then it’s easier to give children individual attention as they do at Futuraskolan.”

Futuraskolan’s focus on personal development has also impressed Sophia. “My kids both recently had a class called ‘Little Entrepreneurs’. They learned how to set up a business, how to create their tagline and their logo, and how to pitch their product. They came home and tried to convince me to buy a Barbie doll or a T-shirt. I went to college to learn those things and they’re learning them at ages seven and ten – it’s incredible!”

Looking for a preschool or international school in Stockholm in 2022? Find out more about the Futuraskolan network to see whether it could be suitable for your child

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LIVING IN SWEDEN

What you need to know about owning a second home in Sweden

In most countries owning a second home is a luxury reserved for the wealthy, but in Sweden it's very common to have a summer home or 'fritidshus'. Here's what you need to know.

What you need to know about owning a second home in Sweden

What is a fritidshus

In Sweden, second homes are generally either classified as a fritidshus, literally a “free time house”, or a permanenthus or permanentboende.

A fritidshus is defined as “a house which is not set up for all-year-around living”. Rather confusingly, this does not mean that you can’t live all-year-round in a fritidshus, or, indeed, that you can’t use a permanenthus as your summer house. 

The difference comes down to how the two types of property are treated in Sweden’s building code, with fritidshus allowed, among other things, to have lower ceilings, smaller bathrooms, more basic kitchens, worse accessibility for disabled people, a lower standard of insulation. 

If you decide to live permanently in a fritidshus, you do not need to get approval to do so, but the building committee at your local council can, if they learn of what you are doing, demand that the building be changed to meet the requirements of a permanenthus (although this rarely happens).

There is also a subgroup of fritidshuskolonilott, which are houses with a small amount of land which should be used for growing food (although lots of people just use them as attractive gardens). This is different from an odlingslott, which is just an allotment, essentially a kolonilott without the house.

These are usually in designated kolonilott areas close to or in cities, and are not intended for year-round living. In most kolonilott areas, water supply and drainage is cut off outside of the growing season, and you’re not allowed to register them as your permanent address, for example.

Relaxing outside a summer house. Photo: Doris Beling/Imagebank Sweden

How much does a second home cost? 

The average price of a fritidshus fell by about 6 percent in 2023, following a 1 percent fall in 2022, and now lies at about 2.2 million kronor.

But a search on the Hemnet website for fritidshus under 1 million kronor shows that many sell for a lot less, particularly outside the most popular areas. 

As a rule of thumb, anything within an hour’s drive of Stockholm, Gothenburg or Malmö is likely to be more expensive, as is anywhere on the coast (particularly on Gotland), next to a lake, or near one of Sweden’s more popular skiing areas. 

A report from Länsförsäkringar Fastighetsförmedling, out in mid-2023, found that summer houses were cheapest in Kronoberg country (the southern bit of Småland), followed by Örebro, Värmland, Norrbotten and Västernorrland, and most expensive in Gotland, Stockholm County and Halland. 

What’s the point of having one? 

Despite its vast expanses of unspoiled nature, Sweden is very urbanised, with nearly 90 percent of people living in built-up areas and 63 percent in the biggest few cities. It’s much more common to live in an apartment in a city than in the sort of suburban sprawl of houses with their own gardens so common in countries like the UK and US.

This means that most urban Swedes leave any gardening to their summer houses or allotments.

Given the cold, dark winters, that probably makes sense. 

Fritidshus and other second homes are also at the centre of the long Swedish summer break, when people often take three, or even four, weeks off back-to-back. If you don’t have your own fritidshus, you can spend much of the summer visiting people who do. 

What’s the downside? 

Aside from the cost, it’s a lot of work. Owning a fritidshus means weekends spent at out-of-town building supply shops, and brings a whole new list of chores like cleaning the gutters, mowing, trimming hedges, raking leaves and chopping wood.

If you like foreign travel, and have a lot of other passions and hobbies, you may find owning a summer house squeezes them out. 

A summer house in the Stockholm archipelago. Photo: Sara de Basly/Imagebank Sweden

How common is it to have a fritidshus

There are about 607,000 fritidshus in Sweden, and according to Statistics Sweden, about one in three children (35 percent) have access to one.

It most common to have access to a fritidshus in the north of Sweden, with more than half of children having access to one in 51 municipalities north of Dalarna, and it is least common in Skåne, where in some municipalities only 10 percent of children have access to a fritidshus. 

Is it best to have a second home in a fritidsområde or on its own? 

Many municipalities in Sweden have set aside areas, often near a lake or by the sea, specifically for the building of fritidshus, selling off plots, or tomter, on which people can either build a holiday cottage themselves or get a builder to do it.

According to Statitsics Sweden, about a quarter of fritidshus are in such an area, with Stockholm County boasting the most fritidsområde, or holiday home areas, followed by Västra Götaland (near Gothenburg) and Skåne (near Malmö and Helsingborg). 

If you are building your own summer house, the advantage of doing so in a fritidsområde is that electricity, water and sewage has normally already been run along the edge of the plot, making these services cheap and easy to connect. 

If you want to get a summer house near the coast or a lake, it is also cheaper if you buy one in a fritidsområde. 

On the downside, they can feel a little like living in a housing estate, you have to be careful not to make too much noise, and can end up getting complaints from the local neighbourhood committee if you don’t maintain your property in the way they expect. 

As many fritidsområde were set up the 1960s and 1970s, with a lot of the houses then built by enthusiastic amateurs, they can also be in desrepair and have structural problems. 

The plots that have yet to be built on, meanwhile, are often the worst, for instance with ground that is damp or prone to flooding. 

Renting out your second home

One of the advantages of your second home being classed as a fritidshus is that – so long as you’re only renting it out short-term — you are not covered by Sweden’s strict rental law or hyreslagen.

This means whatever rent you agree with the tenant is valid, there is no requirement to ask for a “reasonable” rent, and tenants cannot contest the rent with the regional rent tribunal.  

Airbnb makes renting out your fritidshus extremely easy and on the other side makes it a lot cheaper and easier to rent a summer house for three weeks in the summer than to own one all year around.  

If you earn more than 40,000 kronor in a year from renting out your fritidshus, though, you are required to declare it to the Swedish Tax Agency. 

You can then subtract a 40,000 kronor ‘standard deduction’ from your rental revenue and a further 20 percent deduction for rental income, before it gets taxed. See the guide from the Swedish Tax Agency here

This means if you receive 60,000 kronor in rent, you subtract first 40,000 kronor, then 20 percent of the 60,000 kronor, which comes to 12,000 kronor.

This leaves you with 8,000 kronor to be taxed as capital income at 30 percent, leaving just 2,400 kronor in tax due. 

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