Boys and teachers alike gained a fascinating and wonderful insight into school life in Denmark this week from a group of 12 Danish students who joined us for a week of school.
The group of impeccably behaved Year 10 students (11 girls and one boy) visited from Skolen ved Søerne, a secondary school based in Copenhagen – literally translated to ‘The School by the Lakes’. The trip resulted from a long-standing working partnership between Ian Silk, Prep School Headmaster and their Head Teacher, Kristian Sørensen, a relationship forged following a meeting of education leaders of schools in Finland, Denmark and the UK some years ago.
Upon arrival, the students enjoyed a tour of the school; they were thoroughly impressed with our extensive school grounds (larger than their own). The Music School, in particular, was awe-inspiring; one pupil said, “I can’t believe there is a whole building dedicated to music!”
On Tuesday, the visitors paired up with some of our Fourth Form boys, joining them in their usual classes. They enjoyed a range of subjects, including maths, science, history and DT.
One student thoroughly enjoyed a lesson of physics – he explained that “it’s only really biology and chemistry that I learn back at home, and physics is completely new to me.” He went on to explain that, in Denmark, there is no national curriculum, and so teachers have free rein to teach what they want and how they want – a concept which seems so alien to us here in the UK.
During the afternoon, the students participated in the boys’ usual games lesson and played cricket for the first time – a sport they had barely heard of before. After a short explanation of the rules (which seemed very complicated!), they padded up in whites and joined the game. This was followed with a session in the nets, which they absolutely loved and even stayed long after our boys had finished – despite the heat!
On Wednesday, the visiting students delivered an assembly to our Prep boys, describing their school in Denmark. They started the assembly with some beautiful piano playing by Bjørk, one of the students, and then they each took it in turns to describe their school back home. The boys learned that: they call their teachers by their first names, the main way that teachers keep in contact with them is through Snapchat, teachers can teach what they want and how they want, and there is no dress code in school at all! They went on to explain that they have a ‘Conversion Week’ once a term, where they are allowed to decorate and paint the school building and inside walls as they wish – an opportunity to allow their creativity to run free!
As the school is situated in the city, and with many of the younger children walking to school unaccompanied, the school runs a school patrol, where the older children position themselves at busy road junctions to help the younger children cross – this is a common initiative in schools all over Denmark.
After assembly, the students joined Y3 and Y4 teachers to help deliver lessons to boys during their Outdoor Classroom Activities day. They rotated in a carousel of four different activities: bug sketching, a bug hunt involving handling stick insects, painting kindness stones and shadow sketching under one of the trees.
With the weather on its very best behaviour, all the Danish students could experience the school and country at its best and enjoy their time here.
Ian Silk, Prep Headmaster, commented, “It has been a delight to welcome these students into school. They have wowed us with their command of the English language, each one talking so fluently and eloquently during assembly. They have also been impeccably behaved and an absolute credit to their school and country. Boys right across the school have enjoyed showing them around and spending time with them, and we would be delighted to arrange a similar trip in the future and, indeed, perhaps take a group of our boys to their school in Copenhagen. Thank you to them and their teachers, and I wish them all the very best for the future.”