Førde Barneskule : Engelsk

Facts

Our school is located in the centre of Førde town. On a beautiful autumn day in October the pupils and employees still enjoy sunshine. It will soon be gone and it will then stay away till February.
From the top of the Hafstadmountain you can hear the sound of children playing, mixed with the sounds coming from this busy centre in the county of Sogn og Fjordane.

We have a primary school which has pupils aged from 6 to 12/13. At the moment we have about 250 pupils divided into 15 classes. This means two classes on each level, and in addition an intoductory class for pupils coming from other countries and cultures. Our catchment area is the town centre and it stretches out in the North West direction.

We receive pupils from the local refugee-centre, at the moment we have pupils from 12 different countries, this amounts to about 10% of our 230 pupils.

A multicultural school gives our pupils a valuable and lasting experience and an absolute advantage in preparing for a future in an icreasingly smaller world. We are also functioning as a consultant school for other schools in the county in this area. We have a class where the children get an introduction to the Norwegian language and the Norwegian culture.

We also engage teachers to teach the foreign children in their own language, and the school also offers a place to stay for the children before and after school hours.

Shielded from the busy centre, we find the school located in the oldest and the calmest part of Førde.

We still have an area reserved for outdoor activities, even though new buildings have taken up part of what we had.

Our school is situated North of the river, and close to the church on the part of Førde whilch still has some old buildings. The school-building that burnt in 2003 was more than a hundred years old, and one of the finest in this area. We have recently got a new office area for the teachers, at the moment we are building new areas for art, woodwork and cooking. We can now, at last, see the end of a long building period as we hear the sound of great expectations among our pupils and our employees.

Our history:

The first schoolbuilding in Førde was opened 113 years ago. Later this building has been used for every thinkable school-purpose on all levels up to and including A-levels.

During the second World War it was in use as a headquarter for the German troops stationed in this region.

Some years and events of interest:

1894: A new one-floor building became the first building to only serve the noble art of teaching. The school had up to this time been co-located with the public offices in Førde.

1921: Two top levels and a new cellar was built to house new pupils. At this stage there were different levels, ages 7 to 16 and different sort of schools preparing for different lines of education. Some were prepared for A-levels while others prepared for a vocational type education.

1960: The number of children increased and it was time to build even more. At this stage a new building including a new hall for PE, was erected, but still it was necessary to rent additional rooms for education in the area near by.

1966: Yet another building was erected, this time to cater for pupils ages

7-13. This called for 7 new classrooms. But it was still quite crowded.

1971: A new school was built, for pupils aged 13-16. This only helped partially, since the school still was left with pupils finishing their A-levels.

1974: Another school is built; Halbrend school and the A-level students moved to another location. This worked well for a while. But this school was still left with a lot of children, one year there were 507 pupils.

1994: Slåtten primary school (age 6-13), similar to our age group, really helped the situation. Still there were a few problems ahead. The working conditions for teachers and assistants had to find a satisfactory solution.

2003: The time had come to solve the working conditions for our employees. New offices and meeting facilities were built, this also meant that the areas used for offices earlier, could be taken over by pupils and then be used for the intended purpose, mainly classrooms.

The oldest part of the school burnt and in 2004 the community council decided that a new state of the art school, would be built.

An afternoon in November, a day not easily forgotten neither by employees nor by the pupils.

Behind the old oak trees the old school appeeared. Most people from Førde had a relation to this building.
In 2007 we will embrace a complete new area and another part of the premises, which is fairly rehabilitated.