Interview: Dania House School

Dania House, Scandinavian learning in the heart of London

Tell us a little of the history of your school? Dania Scandinavian School was founded in 2013 by a group of parents in Islington, who wanted a real alternativeto traditional independent schools. The school started with one teacher and six children and has since grownsteadily serving both Scandinavian and non-Scandinavian families in the local area. At the start of the 2021-2022 school year we moved to new premises in Highbury Crescent overlooking Highbury Fields.

What would you say is special about a school life at Dania? We cover the national curriculum like any other independent school in London but we add the Scandinavian teaching methods. Amongst other things, this means we emphasise the child’s inner motivation to learn, and we put less emphasis on outer motivations. So, for example, we don’t reward with stickers nor do punish a child if they haven’t brought in their homework. Instead we start from the child’s own interest and we try to make lessons creative and fun. We believe learning to learn is a key objective and an important life skill for the child.

What aspects of the school are particularly proud of? We are proud of the fact we offer a real alternative to the traditional model of education. Our approach puts the child and their interests first and focuses on nurturing their intrinsic motivation for learning. We aim to create a friendly school environment with small class sizes where children can flourish and learn in their own time. We expect a child’s learning journey to be individual, which means we don’t expect children to progress at the same pace just because they happen to be the same age. For this reason we also find standardised tests of limited value and our assessment of academic progress relies to a much larger extent on teacher observations. Our approach might seem counterintuitive but our children excel academically. So far in the school’s history, all the children who have left Dania Scandinavian School for Secondary School have attained a place at their preferred school. This includes those who opt for selective secondary schools, which is the majority of our cohort.

What sporting facilities do you have? We don’t have our own sports facilities but our location next to Highbury Fields gives us convenient access to a variety of public facilities. This includes a public swimming pool, which is located immediately across the street from our building, as well as football fields, basketball and tennis courts.

Will children of Scandinavian expats be able to study their native language as well as English at Dania? At Dania, English is our common language. It is the language we all speak when we are in school. All instruction is in English and we encourage all our children, regardless of background, to speak English as much as possible. We also offer formal instruction in Danish and Swedish to children from Scandinavian families. All our Scandinavian language teachers are native speakers who qualified in their home countries. We do not presently offer Norwegian but is our ambition to do so, and we would like to hear from families who would be interested in such an offering.