Enrolment to start school

In general, your child shall start school during the year in which they turn 6.

Your municipality will notify you when it is time to enrol your child in school. This is done via either a letter through the post or announcements in the daily press, such as local newspapers.

If you are in doubt as to whether your child is mature enough and ready to start school, you can apply for a school postponement, after which the municipal council will make an assessment.

You can find more information about your options and the different municipal primary and lower secondary schools by contacting your municipality.

The schools in a municipality each belong to their own school district. Your residential address determines which school district you belong to, and thus the school at which your child will be offered a spot.

More information on the school applicable to your child is available on the website of your municipality.

However, you have a free choice of school, which means that if you do not want your child to go to the municipal primary and lower secondary school in your district, you are free to enrol your child in one outside your school district or in a completely different municipality, providing there is space.

There is transparency on a number of key figures about the schools. If you are interested in finding out about satisfaction, grade point averages, absence rates, etc. at your child’s school, go to uddannelsesstatistik.dk. Enter the school name in the search field.

• School statistics (in Danish)

You must digitally enrol your child as a student at a municipal primary and lower secondary school.

At private schools

If your child will attend a private school, you should contact the school. Each school has its own rules for registration and enrolment, but in most cases it is a good idea to enrol your child well in advance.

If your child is offered a place at a private school, you can choose to contact the municipal district school that the child would otherwise have attended and tell them that your child is not going to enrol there.

In some municipalities, you should notify the district school at which the child has been registered. By doing so, the municipality can keep track of whether it is meeting its responsibility to ensure that every child of a compulsory school age in the municipality is enrolled in a municipal primary and lower secondary school or otherwise receiving an education.

Early start

If the school, day-care and parents all agree that a child is mature enough and will be able to keep up with a school education, the Head of the school, in consultation with the child’s parents, may decide that the child can start school earlier than normal. The child can start school, at the earliest, in the calendar year in which they turn 5 before 1 October.

If parents desire an early start to school, they should contact the municipality’s school administration for information on how to proceed. They can also contact the local municipal primary and lower secondary school.

Late start

If you, as parents – in consultation with the school and, for example, the child’s day-care centre – agree that your child is not mature enough to start school at the age of 6, you can request a one-year schooling postponement. Approval for this must be given by the municipal council. The decision to postpone compulsory education must be made in the calendar year in which the child turns 6 and no later than the start of the school year on 1 August.

It is mandatory for all children to attend kindergarten. Kindergarten classes are generally taught by kindergarten class leaders who have received teacher training, but teachers can also be responsible for some of the education. Some of the teaching in kindergarten classes can be done together with the 1st and 2nd grade classes, such that they have joint lessons. In smaller schools, all of the teaching for the three groups may be composite.

With the latest amendment to the Act on municipal primary and lower secondary schools, the total minimum teaching hours in kindergarten has been changed to 1,110 hours. It is now also possible for municipal councils to deviate from the rules on minimum teaching hours.

Educational content

Kindergarten is a transitional year in which children can get used to going to school and learn some basic things. For example, the children shall:

• get familiar with numbers and letters
• learn to listen to and retell a story
• begin to learn to write

In addition, the children work with creativity and music, movement, and nature. Another one of the teaching goals is to teach the children.

If you are the parents of a child with a disability or impairment, it would benefit you to start planning your school start well in advance, preferably 1 to 2 years ahead of time.

It is a good idea to get the name of and involve the person who is going to coordinate the transition between kindergarten and school. It is usually your case worker or a person from pedagogical-psychological counselling ('PPR') who handles the coordination.

If you wish to appeal something relating to your child’s school start, you can first contact the Head of the school, who has overall administrative and pedagogical responsibility for the school.

If you are not satisfied with the decision from the Head of the school, you can file an appeal with the municipality within 4 weeks. Appeals against decisions of the municipality cannot be filed with other authorities. 

• Act on primary and lower-secondary schools (in Danish)
• Order on kindergarten education (in Danish)

• School statistics (in Danish)