Søhusskolen is a school in the municipality of Odense, a town of 250.000 people, situated on the Island “Fyn” which is in the middle of Denmark.
Søhusskolen has around 400 students from the age of 6 to 16 years old, 22 teachers, 2 head of departments and 1 headmaster.
Though the school is considered as “one school” and neither a primary nor a secondary school, the students are divided into three departments:
- The juniors from ages 6 – 9
- The pre-seniors from ages10 – 12
- The seniors from ages 13-16
According to Danish Law a class can go to as much as 28 students in a class.
As a teacher you mainly teach in one of the departments.
In Denmark you don’t just teach one year/class in a certain subject, you teach different years/classes in several subjects.
As a Danish or math teacher you are considered to be formteachers of a class and usually follow this class throughout the department.
Besides the traditional classrooms the school has a sportshall, home-economics kitchen, a crafts- and design room.
In 1975 Søhus was a new suburban, residential area with newly build houses and a lot of families with young children, so the council decided to build a school here. Back then, the hot and trendy thing was to teach in open surroundings and in a more project-oriented manner, so in the very beginning the classrooms had now doors. With time it became a problem with noise and interruptions from the many students walking the corridors, so doors and walls were instored.
Close to the school are sportsfields used by the students both during schooltime and in afterschool activities. All in all the school is situated in lovely scenic surroundings with marshes, forests and the channel, which leads ships into the harbour of Odense.
