Rygaards International School - Location

Location

The school is in Hellerup, a suburb about 5 km north of the centre of Copenhagen, and is easily accessible by bus and train. The main building is an old manor house situated in park-like grounds dating from the 18th century. Over the past 95 years alterations and additions have been made, however, the fact remains that the main building was not custom built as a school. Classroom sizes have traditionally been small, corridors are narrow in some parts of the building, there is a lack of cloakroom space, storage space etc. This has been relieved by the building of the purpose built Good Shepherd Building in 2007 which houses the one Reception Class, two classes each for Year 1 to Year 4. The older, smaller classrooms were converted into larger classrooms by knocking down some of the walls, thereby creating larger and better classrooms which were immediately put to use by the Danish Dept.

The school area is in a green belt zone and permission to build was not easily obtained from the authorities. However, permission has been granted to commence a brand new building project with 10 new classrooms, two new Art rooms and a Music facility. Again, the idea behind the project is not only to provide more modern and up to date facilities but also to provide larger classrooms that will give greater scope for teaching in terms of cooperative learning, group work and individual work. Concurrent with this project will be to turn the five-classroom Senior corridor into a three classroom corridor with the specific intention of providing more spacious classrooms for the pupils.

The main building is owned by The Sisters of the Assumption. The school pays rent for the use of the major part of the building. The newer buildings in the grounds have been bought by the school but most of the ground belongs to the Sisters, some to the Catholic Church. Ground rent is paid for these buildings.

There are no games fields or athletics facilities. The lawns provide spaces for games of rounders, simple football, or baseball. Students wishing to follow any serious outdoor sporting pursuits must join local sports clubs. This is in fact the tradition in Denmark. Competitive games are not part of the school’s domain, they are part of the social services offered by local communes.