ITV1 Looking for a family

Hi,
My name is Katie and I work for ITV1 in the UK. I am making a documentary for the channel's weekly current affairs series, Tonight. itv.com/news/topic/tonight/

I will be examining the pressures children face while striving for academic success in the UK.

I would like to chat to a British or English speaking Finnish family who has children in the Finnish system who could make a comparison.

Ideally, I'm looking for a family living in Helsinki, with a child of school age and a child of around 5 years old.

I'd initially like to have a chat on the phone first, with a view of flying over with the reporter to film an interview with the family and record some shots of the children playing, and perhaps at school.

If anybody could put me in touch with a family I would be extremely grateful.

I can be contacted on: 0044 207 157 4369 and [email protected]

Many thanks.

Warm regards,

Katie

Hello Katie.

Welcome to Expat.com! :)

Concerning your documentary, you should post an advert in the Looking for section (Testimonies) in the Helsinki classifieds. It could help.

Thank you,
Aurélie

Hi Katie.

You're doing a great job.

I've just forwarded your message to the page of the British-Finnish Community of Helsinki on Facebook.

Someone might get back to you soon.

Best Regards
Pavan.

Try to join the page if possible: International English Speakers Association Finland - facebook.com/groups/2453203904

Hi Katie,

I'm Erja and  I'm a language teacher (English/French) presently living in Jyväskylä(Central Finland).Our family( me, my husband Raimo and our son Jarno) have lived 10 years abroad in various countries. Apart from that we've spent another 5 years abroad without our son, who wanted to go to secondary school in Finland.

We've returned to Finland in 2000 and our son is now married with two kids, Emilia is 9 and Valtteri just turned 6. Emilia has just started learning English and Valtteri is going to preschool (Kindergarten). My son is a golfpro and wintertimes he's doing translations (English/French), he speaks quite good Spanish too, as they have spent three winters in Spain, where he was teaching golf. Emilia is going to a school with a good reputation here in Jyväskylä where also Valtteri is going to start his school next year, the Kindergarten is elsewhere in town. These kids would make good "material" for the programme and communication with the family would be easy, both Jarno and his wife speak good English.

You said that you'd prefer a family in Helsinki area, but I thought I'll try my luck, it's easy to come to Jyväskylä (train/plane) and Jyväskylä has been named  "the Athens of Finland", we have here about 25 000 students in various education facilities including the university.

Please let me know if you would be interested and I'll give you more information later.

Have agood week, hope to hear from you soon.

Erja(Erica)

Hi Erica,

Thank you for your post. You guys sound great. But yes, I am looking for a family in Helsinki. We have a tight filming schedule, so the closer to the airport the better.

Any help though is extremely appreciated.

Many thanks again.

Warm regards,

Katie