Scan Magazine | Special Theme | Education in Denmark
Prepare for an international future
It is no coincidence that as many as 97 per cent of students continue on to a postsecondary education after a year at SKALs Efterskole (SKALs International Boarding School). The school, which offers the International General Certificate of Secondary Education (IGCSE), strives to give its Danish and international students both
a personal and an educational journey. The approach has earned it the highest
grade average of its region.
fered by 14 Danish gymnasia, as well as
numerous educational institutions all over
the world. Furthermore, if students take
the tenth grade IGCSE, the exam qualifies
them to skip one year of the Danish threeyear version of the IB.
By Signe Hansen | Photos: SKALs Efterskole
The IGCSE subjects are taught in English
and the course is attended by both Danish and international students with global
ambitions. Others of the school’s growing
number of non-Danish students, however, enrol in SKALs’ International Project
Class, an exam-free, project-based class
taught in English. “This transition year
attracts students of high academic levels
from both Denmark and abroad, students
who want to explore other ways to work
with their competences and improve their
media, communication and presentation
skills,” explains Primdal, adding: “Our aim
is to prepare our students not just for their
further education but also for their role as
global citizens.” The different programmes
all take annual study trips to Cambridge,
the UK; Dublin or Belfast, Ireland; Hanoi,
Vietnam; Nepal or Zimbabwe. Students
from all classes travel together to Berlin.
Founded in central Jutland in 1990,
SKALs Efterskole had the ambition to
provide an alternative to the then majority of free boarding schools focusing on
personal development and social interaction. The founders of SKALs wanted
to combine these traditional efterskole
ideals with more tangible preparation
for students’ continued professional and
academic lives. From this ambition the
school’s current international profile naturally germinated, captured in the slogan
“the world must be conquered every day”.
“What we mean by this is that we have to
relate to and choose how to relate to the
world every day. As a young person today, you have to realise that you are part
of a generation of people who, to a much
greater extent than previous generations,
36 | Issue 82 | November 2015
must be able to conduct themselves
professionally and socially all over the
world,” principal Sven Primdal explains
and adds: “A cultural ABC, the ability to
move in and understand different cultures, will be essential and requires two
sets of competences: the academic – the
languages, knowledge and so on; and the
social – the ability to interact as an individual with people different from yourself.
We want to give our students both.”
An international set of skills
Of the 150 students enrolled annually at
SKALs, 50 per cent choose to study and
take the IGCSE examinations. The class,
which is approved by the University of
Cambridge, gives access to the International Baccalaureate (IB), which is of-
Scan Magazine | Special Theme | Education in Denmark
Wanting to learn
Students enrolled on SKALs’ regular ninth
and tenth grade programmes are divided
into several smaller sub-groups of varying academic levels and teaching styles
across different subjects. All classes
have a strong academic focus and aim to
prepare students for the specific line of
post-secondary study they wish to pursue.
This does not, however, mean that it is all
about books, stresses Primdal. “SKALs is
not a rigidly academic school where we
pace our students through hard subjects.
On the contrary, it’s about involving both
your head and your heart. Being a student here is not about being academically
strong: it’s about wanting to be.”
All students have to spend at least one
hour daily doing homework, but the
school, which is located just a 15-minute bus ride from the regional capital of
Viborg, also offers an array of possible afterschool activities including swimming,
kayaking, soccer, fitness, media, gymnastics and pursuits for the body, mind
and soul.
AT A GLANCE:
SKALs is located in Skals, a town of
approximately 2,000 inhabitants, 12 kilometres from Viborg and 75 kilometres
from Aarhus.
SKALs’ 150 students share four-bed
dormitory rooms; students can choose
between single or mixed-gender floors
as well as an English-speaking floor.
SKALs offers ninth and tenth grade
education based on the students’
different learning approaches and academic levels (Danish National Curriculum) as well as an English language,
project-based tenth grade with no
examinations, and Cambridge classes
(IGCSE/O-level).
SKALs is among just a handful of
schools in Denmark offering the entire
IGCSE curriculum and, furthermore, is
the Danish headquarters for IGCSEapproved education in Denmark.
For more information, please visit:
www.skals-efterskole-international.dk
Issue 82 | November 2015 | 37