← Back to the rankingDen Norske Skolen Albir
L'Alfàs del Pi, Spain · est. 2001 · Private
Illustration · L'Alfàs del Pi
Den Norske Skolen Albir is a small private Norwegian school for grades 1 to 10 in Albir, in the municipality of l'Alfàs del Pi on the Costa Blanca. It was opened in the 2001-2002 school year by Lill Bakklund Strømsnes for children who do not always fit into a traditional school; it started with 18 pupils. Since the 2004-2005 school year it has been in its current building, and in the same year it was approved by the Norwegian authorities, gaining state funding and the right to hold grade 10 exams. The school is approved for 60 pupils and, it says, has mostly been full ever since. Teaching follows the Norwegian curriculum; all pages for pupils and parents, the rules and the calendar are in Norwegian, which indicates that lessons are in Norwegian. The school year is divided into six themed periods shared by the whole school, with many assemblies, activity days and outdoor lessons; traditions include a tapas evening and school elections. The website does not name which foreign languages the school teaches as subjects: the home page, history, practical information, class pages, news and school documents were reviewed.
Key facts
Tuition
≈ $2 598 a year
2 300 EUR
Programmes
Norwegian programme
Languages of instruction
Norwegian
About the fees The published price list is for the 2027-2028 school year: for the first child 1150 EUR for the autumn term and 1150 EUR for the spring term, 2300 EUR a year in total; for the second child 750 EUR and for the third 550 EUR per term, and the fourth child is free. New pupils pay within 10 days of being offered a place, current pupils by 15 January and 15 April.
Admissions Only Norwegian citizens are admitted; within that group the school is open to everyone who meets the admission requirements of a Norwegian public school, from the whole country. The deadline is 1 March, with the main intake no later than 10 March; if places remain, admission continues until 5 September, after which no pupils are admitted except children of staff. If there are more applicants than places, the order is: children of staff, siblings of pupils, full-year families ahead of part-year families, then a lottery; class size and composition are taken into account. On accepting a place the family pays an advance equal to five months of fees. Current pupils confirm by 15 February whether they will continue next year. A refusal can be appealed to the Statsforvalteren.
Stages and year groups Grades 1-10. Norwegian grunnskole for grades 1 to 10 following the Norwegian curriculum, with the right to hold grade 10 exams. Classes are combined in pairs: grades 1-2, 3-4, 5-6 and 8-9, with grades 7 and 10 separate. There is no upper secondary level (videregående). There are no international programmes (IB, Cambridge).
Accreditations and programmes verified against official registries
UdirThe Norwegian Directorate for Education and Training (Udir) has approved the school as a Norwegian school abroad under the Private Schools Act: it teaches the Norwegian curriculum and receives a state grant.
school is in an official registryconfirmed by a school document, by membership or by taking part in a networkclaimed by the school, no confirmation, not counted in the scoreGuide to all organisations → What stands behind each entry
UdirNorwegian Directorate for Education and Training (Utdanningsdirektoratet, Udir)
A Norwegian school abroad: the full-day Norwegian curriculum, approval by Udir under the Private Schools Act and a state grant.
What the badge means for this school. This is a Norwegian school abroad: it teaches the full-day Norwegian curriculum, and the Norwegian Directorate for Education and Training approved it under the Private Schools Act - this can be seen in the Statsforvalteren list. The entry is not a quality inspection. The curriculum and the qualifications are Norwegian. Whom the school admits and what it charges are on its own website. The entry stands in the organisation's public register - anyone can check it.
Register to check for yourself, and the full guide →Norwegian programme
The Norwegian school curriculum taught in Norwegian under the LK20 curriculum: barneskole and ungdomsskole (Years 1-10) and, at some schools, the upper-secondary videregående skole leading to the Norwegian vitnemål.
What this means for this school. The curriculum is set by the Norwegian state: the school is approved by the Norwegian Directorate for Education and Training (Udir) under the Private Schools Act, follows the Norwegian curriculum and receives a state grant. A child who returns to Norway carries on without switching from another system.
Exams and destinations from the school's official website
The school publishes nothing about where its leavers go: no share going on to university, no exam results, no list of universities.
Facilities from the school's official website
·Swimming poolnot stated on the website
·Sports hallnot stated on the website
·Laboratoriesnot stated on the website
·Theatre or assembly hallnot stated on the website
·Librarynot stated on the website
·Cateringnot stated on the website
·School transportnot stated on the website
·Boardingnot stated on the website
Campus: Since the 2004-2005 school year the school has been in the same building at Carrer Estrella Polar 37 in the Albiråsen area. For activity days it uses the municipal sports complex of l'Alfàs del Pi: tennis courts and a swimming pool. It is a mobile-free school: in grades 1-4 phones and smartwatches stay in school bags all day, and in grades 5-10 they are handed in to a phone locker.
Teaching staff from the school's official website
·Teachers listed by namenot published
·Teacher qualificationsnot stated
·Number of teachersthe school does not say
·Students per teacher or class sizenot stated
The staff page names the head of school, two heads of department, six form teachers and three subject teachers, as well as five social educators (miljøarbeidere). Two staff members have been at the school since its early years, one since 2002-2003 and one since 2006-2007; four current staff members are former pupils of the school.
Safety and wellbeing from the school's official website
·CCTVnot stated on the website
·Security staffnot stated on the website
·Access controlnot stated on the website
·Nurse or medical roomnot stated on the website
·Counsellornot stated on the website
✓Child protection policy
·Staff trainingnot stated on the website
✓Anti-bullying policy
The school rules approved by the board guarantee every pupil the right to be free from physical and verbal bullying and forbid bullying in any form, including online; tobacco, alcohol and drugs are banned on school grounds, and phones and cameras are handed in during lessons. The website links to Norwegian child helplines and anti-bullying resources.
Reviews
No reviews yet. The community rating counts towards the score once a school has five verified reviews - until then we do not show a zero, so as not to mislead.
Criteria breakdown criterion weight in brackets
Academics and programmes (16%)72 Community rating (16%)no dataparent reviews are needed: the criterion switches on at the fifth verified one Exams and destinations (12%) scored on disclosed data55 Safety and wellbeing (12%) scored on disclosed data65 Accreditation and verifiability (10%)85 Teaching staff (10%) scored on disclosed data55 Facilities (10%) scored on disclosed data60 Clubs and activities (8%) scored on disclosed data55 "Scored on disclosed data" stands where we count only what the school has written about itself on its own site: exams and destinations, safety and wellbeing, teaching staff, facilities, clubs and activities. A low score here means the school does not write about this, not that the school does not have it: a school with good security and a sparse site will score low. A school can fill in its profile, and the score will be counted again.
The score is counted from 8 of the 9 criteria.Only those with checkable data count: programmes and accreditations from official registers, the fee from a published price list. Where it says "scored on the median", the school has no data and the middle of the list is put in its place, so that a gap gives no advantage. Admissions, teaching staff and reviews come in as their data arrives.
The full methodology → Similar schools in the country