Welcome to Nordfyns Højskole

The first week of the semester is a special time. You will have a special introduction schedule focused on community, team building, getting to know all the staff and students and getting familiar with practicalities. This is also when you choose your elective subjects and find your way into the routine of life at Højskole.

When you get to the school you will get a user for the schools communication platform called Viggo. This is the place for you to find your schedule, where you report if you are sick, write to all staff and students and much, much more. If you need help with Viggo during your stay here, then find Jeppe at the office during office hours after lunch.

If you need to talk to someone about everything from classes, social life or your plans for the future, your A-subject teacher is your contact teacher. You can always ask for a conversation and you will find a time to talk together.

If you are sick, you have to report it to Babak and your teacher in the morning using the message function in Viggo. When you have reported yourself sick, you stay in your room all day, also if you get better during the day, you have to stay in your room to recover completely. For meals, you make an agreement with your roommate or another student, to bring you food after mealtimes.

If you are so sick that you need to see a doctor, you can get help to call the doctor, their office hours are between 08.00-09.00 a.m. so come to the office early.

If you need a dentist appointment the office can also help you with that.

Acute help outside office hours:
On call doctor: 70 11 07 07
On call dentist: 65 41 45 51

Everyday one or two teachers are "teacher of the day". In week days they will be at the school from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m.. In the weekends, the time interval the teachers of the day are at the school varies depending on activities and trips planned, but most often they get to the school in the early afternoon and stay until 9 p.m.. The information about weekend activitis, duties, and when the teachers will be at the school will be informed during the weekend meeting during the week. If you want to plan an activity at the school you can often find help from the teacher of the day, regarding materials, ideas or other things you might need.

You can information about who the teacher of the day is on Viggo and the big screen in the dining hall.

You can call the office on weekdays between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m., if you are out of the school and need to contact us. When you are at the school the office is open for students in the time after lunch 12.45 to 1.30 (Wednesday from 12.15-12.30). If you have a question you are also more than welcome to ask using Viggo, all school staff read and reply to massages on Viggo daily.

Smoking indoor is not allowed anywhere in the school. Smoking on the school property has to happen in the designated smoking areas. Student smoking areas are located by 'nr. 18' and next to the main building.

For alcohol, it is allowed to drink one or two "standard drinks" like a beer on week nights after dinner. This means that it is not accepted to be drunk on weekdays. In the weekends, it is allowed to have small parties and drink alcohol to a degree where you don't loose control. Excessive use of alcohol is not tolerated at the school.

All kinds of drugs are banned from the school.

During your stay at the school, you are responsible for your own room. This means cleaning, keeping it tidy, and reporting it to the janitorial team if something in the room is broken. We strongly recommend that you clean once a week, as it will make the end of semester cleaning so much easier for you and probably also make your relationship with your roommate better. You will find everything you need for cleaning your room in the area where you live. If anything is missing, please feel free to tell the cleaning staff and they will refill it.

You will find laundry rooms in different places around the school. To use the machines for your laundry, you need a laundry card. During the introduction week you will get the opportunity to “lease” a laundry card by paying a deposit of 100 dkk. One wash is 15 dkk and drying is 10 dkk, you recharge your laundry card with money by finding Masha after lunch time during office hours. For this, you need cash.

During the introduction week you will get a personal access to the school wifi. You have free access but we kindly remind you that illegal downloads are equally illegal on the school's wifi.

All classes and scheduled hours in the week days are mandatory! In the weekends you are on your own time and schedule. We strongly recommend that you stay at the school, and if you should choose to travel and see some of Denmark, you must be back for assembly Monday morning. We encourage students to participate in planning activities and trips for each other in both weekends and week days. If you have an idea for an activity or trip, please talk to the teacher of the day if you need any assistance.

In the weekends, mealtimes are a bit different than in the week days as breakfast and lunch on Saturdays and Sundays are served as brunch. During brunch time you can pack some food to eat during the day until dinner.

Every week you must fill out a weekend questionnaire about meals on Viggo before Wednesday. If you leave the school during the weekends, you must check out of the weekend meals. If you stay at the school, you must check in to the weekend meals. This is important, both so the kitchen staff know how many people they are cooking for and so that the teacher of the day know how many people are at the school in case of an emergency.

The school has bikes available for free use. If you want to have ”your own bike” during the semester, you can rent a bike lock for a deposit of 100 dkk. You get the deposit back when you return the lock. If you want to rent a lock please find janitor Anders during the introduction week.

If something breaks on a bike you are using, please notify the bike smith by placing the bike including a note of the faulty by the bike shed by nr. 18.

Even though you can use your credit card in almost every store, restaurant, and café in Denmark, here at the school we only accept cash. This is to pay for drinks at parties and to top up your laundry card among other things.

All meals are community meals that we eat together in the dining hall. Mealtime is a very special and important part of højskole. Therefore, it is very important for us to underline again that meals are communal and that we all eat together. This means that it is important that you show up for the meals on time. During the meals, cell phones and other devises are not allowed at the table unless it is used for the conversation. Mealtime ends with messages from staff and students, this could be about the next class or the evening activities. You stay seated with your plate and cutlery until messages are over. After the meal, students takes turn to have kitchen duties. These includes helping the kitchen staff clean the dining hall and wash the dishes. Duties are announced on lists in the dining hall. If you have a duty that you are not able to fulfil it is your responsibility to swab with a friend, who can do it for you.

During the week days mealtimes are:
07.30-08.30 Breakfast
12.00-12.30 Lunch
18.00-18.30 Dinner

In the weekends mealtimes are:
09.00-10.30 Brunch
18.00-18.30 Dinner

During the day, the kitchen will also serve 3 smaller snack meals.

All mornings begin with assemblies (except Wednesday). Assemblies are a shared beginning of the day for the entire school. Assemblies can be about big or small topics, it can be a personal life story from a teacher, it can be about a current topic that they are passionate about or it can be a student who share about their culture. Assemblies are a mandatory part of the schedule.

You are more than welcome to invite guests to visit you at the school during your stay. As a standard, all visits should be scheduled in the weekends and be outside of classes. If you want to invite a guest, you have to make the arrangements in agreement with the principal or viceprincipal, the price will depend on the lenght and time of the stay.

• The school strives towards being a platform for a community based on trust, equity, and mutual respect. ’Højskole’-life arises and persists when we are present and aware of one another, the conversations we are having, and the things we are doing. We don’t believe in a community based on too many rules, but instead we set out a framework based on mutual trust and respect with the purpose of securing the well-being of the community and protecting our values.
• All classes (including assemblies, evening lectures etc.), common classes, meals, cleaning, and kitchen duty is mandatory. We expect you to show up ready and well rested for all classes.
• We expect everyone to clean up after themselves and to help each other with keeping the school nice and tidy. We also expect everyone to be considerate and kind to each other and to the people living in Harritslev and the area around the school. E.g. Don’t play loud music outdoors or with open windows.
• A good and thriving community is based on mutual respect. Read each others' signals and respect everyone’s boundaries. The school does not tolerate sexism, ableism, racism, homophobia, or any other form of harassment or bullying, neither physically nor verbally.
• It is the school’s conviction that the use of alcohol should be very limited on weekdays and under all circumstances only take place after dinner. All parties are limited to the weekends and to the student café. All school classrooms are alcohol free. To lay the best foundation for our community and life together at the school the introduction period will be alcohol free. Please refer to the alcohol- and narcotics policy for further information.
• All common rooms should be quiet and clean at 11.00 pm on nights before ’school days’.
• Use or possession of hash/weed or other narcotics is strictly prohibited. Please refer to the alcohol- and narcotics policy for further information.
• Smoking is only allowed on the assigned areas, and are under all circumstances never allowed indoors. This includes vaping, shisha, pipe, cigarettes, and all other forms of smoking. Please refer to the smoking policy for further information.