Schools

Children in the Faroe Islands attend nine years of compulsory education. Children normally start attending 1^st grade in August of the year they turn 7 years old. Children may attend a public school, an independent school or receive home-schooling if certain standards are met.

Note that registration opens on Thursday, December 15^th 2022 at 9 AM and closes on Tuesday, January 17^th 2023 at 1 PM. Until then, and after this, the registration button above will redirect you to the page for changing schools (in faroese only). For more information on how to register, see the section »Useful information about your digital registration« below.

You need to get the digital key Samleikin in order to sign in to the booking system. To get your digital key, you have to register at the Samleikin website samleikin.fo. Your digital key comes as an app and is free of charge. Samleikin is available for everyone who is older than 15 and has a Faroese p-tal.

How to get Samleikin (samleikin.fo)

Children attend primary school from 1^st to 7^th grade and lower secondary school from 8^th to 9^th grade. Children may also attend an optional 0^th grade and 10^th grade of school. Public school education from 1^st to 9^th or 10^th grade is free.

After completing 9^th grade, children may attend a 10^th grade in the Faroe Islands for free or do popular options such as boarding schools (eftirskúli) in the Faroe Islands, Denmark or other countries, or do an exchange year abroad with a student exchange organisation.

Students, who have completed 9^th or 10^th grade or a foreign equivalent degree may apply to attend one of the Faroese upper secondary schools (miðnám) or vocational schools for free, and students with upper secondary degrees may apply to attend the University of the Faroe Islands for free, or other universities abroad either for free or at a cost.

Schools

Primary school and lower secondary school (fólkaskúli)

The »fólkaskúli« is the municipal primary and lower secondary school in the Faroe Islands. Tórshavn Municipality has 10 public primary and lower secondary schools, two independent schools and one special education school. This section will provide information on how to register your child for school and the contact information for the schools in Tórshavn Municipality.

The digital registration for schools is open from Thursday, December 15^th 2022 at 9 AM until Tuesday, January 17^th 2023 at 1 PM.

If your child needs extra Faroese lessons

Students with Faroese as a second language, or who haven’t learned Faroese before starting primary school, are entitled to extra lessons in Faroese.

Your child’s primary or lower secondary school can apply to cover the cost of extra lessons.

The lessons may be one-to-one with a student and a teacher, or group lessons with multiple students and teacher. The lessons will take place during regular school hours while the rest of the class has a different lesson.

The evening school in Tórshavn also has a free Faroese class for children aged 8 to 16 years. The children learn Faroese language and culture through games, hobbies, conversations and regular teaching. The classes are held during the day, not during the evening.

The evening school in Tórshavn – Faroese as a second language (kvoldskulin.fo)

Attending the after-school centre

Children can attend an after-school centre from 1^st to 3^rd grade. You can register your child to attend the after-school centre at the same time as signing up for child for preschool or primary school.

You can register your child for the after-school centre through the link above. The child will attend the after-school centre associated with its primary school, and all children from the same primary school attend the same after-school centre.

You need to get the digital key Samleikin to access the booking system BARN. To get your digital key, you have to register at the Samleikin website samleikin.fo. Your digital key comes as an app and is free of charge. Samleikin is available for everyone who is older than 15 and has a Faroese p-tal.

How to get Samleikin (samleikin.fo)

After-school activities

YOUTH CLUBS

Tórshavn Municipality has three youth clubs located in Tórshavn city centre as well as youth clubs in Argir, Norðasta Horn, Hoyvík, Nólsoy, Kollafjørður and Kaldbak.

The youth clubs and areas in Tórshavn Municipality are open to all young people in the Faroe Islands. The youth houses are meant for young people to hang out with friends, play games, play e-sports, do excursions, join activities and events and much more.

You are welcome to join if you are between 13 and 18 years old. You do not need to register before joining.

Attending the youth clubs is free, and you can use the youth clubs to create projects, do your homework, relax or just hang out with friends.

Sports

Tórshavn Municipality has a large number of sports available for children and young people. See the section »Sports« for more information and inspiration.

Members of sports clubs usually pay a membership fee, but many clubs offer free memberships to children and young people from low-income families.

Ask the clubs directly if you can try a few sessions before you decide whether to join.

Sports

Music school and evening school for youth and arts

Tórshavn Municipality has a music school and an evening school. The evening school offers a variety of classes such as arts, acting, electronics, cooking, filmmaking and languages, and also preparatory classes to improve your grades in specific subjects to apply for upper secondary school or university.

The evening school offers free classes in Faroese as a second language for children aged 8 to 16 years. The Faroese classes are held in the afternoon.

You need to register to attend the music school or evening school. Attending the music school or evening school has different costs depending on the activity.

Useful information about your digital registration

How to register for school

Step by step:

Registration opens on Thursday, December 15^th 2022 at 9 AM and closes on Tuesday, January 17^th 2022 at 1 PM
Log in by clicking the link »Register for school« at the top of this page
Choose »Register for 1^st grade, preschool and after-school centre«
Type in the child’s information: Name, birthdate, P-tal (civil registration number) and address
Choose »1^st grade« and rank your 1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd priority choices
Click whether your child has siblings at the 1^st priority school
Click whether you want to register your child to attend an after-school centre

If you choose Skúlin við Løgmannabreyt or Skúlin á Fløtum you need to comment whether the child wishes to attend the dual music courses that the schools offer. Please note, that participation in the courses requires an annual fee. Visit the schools’ websites below for prices and more information about the courses.

Choose »confirm registration« when you have entered all the information. You will receive a confirmation of your registration in your MínBoks when the municipality has received your registration.

Conditions for acceptance at a school

As a parent you are free to choose any school in the municipality. Whether your child may attend your preferred school depends on the number of places available and the number of applicants. If the number of applications exceed the number of places available, the places are allocated according to these conditions and in this particular order:

The registration was submitted before the deadline
Children living closest to the school will have a higher priority
The child attends the school’s preschool and has siblings in the same school
The child has siblings in the same school
The child attends the school’s preschool
Special circumstances. Children with special social or educational needs will be prioritised to the school that best fits their needs, such as schools with special education classes or smaller size classes

You can find out which school you belong to by typing your address in the search field on the map below:

Who can register the child?

You need to be registered at the municipality and be the child’s legal guardian in order to register it to a school through the digital registration.

Technological prerequisites to register digitally

In order to register digitally, you need to have access to: