Sorø Privatskole is one of Denmark's oldest private schools: it opened on 1 September 1887 as the girls' school Sorø Pigeskole, has admitted boys since 1925 and has had its current name since 2003. It is a three-stream primary and lower secondary school from grade 0 to grade 9 with about 680 pupils, a preparatory group Spiren in the spring before grade 0, after-school care for grades 0-3 and a club for grades 4-6; teaching is in Danish following the common objectives of the Danish folkeskole and ends with the FP9 exams. The school emphasises well-being and traditions (weekly singing assemblies, the Christmas service in Sorø Klosterkirke, the Les Lanciers dance at graduation) and strong academics: in 2023/24 the average grade in the compulsory grade 9 exams was 8.9 against 7.3 nationally. The school has an international profile: it is a Cambridge International Associate School where grade 9 pupils can take the IGCSE exam in English, a German DSD language diploma school and an Erasmus+ participant. There is a talent programme and a music profile: younger pupils learn the recorder and the violin.
Key facts
Tuition
≈ $2 721 a year
1 800 DKK a month
The year is counted as ten payments: the school does not say how many payments it takes.
Programmes
Cambridge · IGCSE · National programme
Languages of instruction
Danish
Languages taught
English, German
Students
681 in the school (as of 5 September 2025), about 660 on the home page
Class size
no more than 24 pupils per class; grade 0 starts with 22 pupils, and classes currently have 15 to 24 pupils
Registration fee
≈ $151
1 000 DKK
About the fees From 1 August 2026 tuition in grades 0-9 is 1800 DKK a month, 12 payments a year (August to July), i.e. 21600 DKK a year; the school does not give a separate price for families without a Danish CPR number. A 20% discount applies to the second and further children registered at the same address. Extra: compulsory camps and trips (grade 2 1200 DKK, grade 5 2000, grade 7 500, grade 8 3500 to the Czech Republic, grade 9 3500 to Berlin), after-school care for grades 0-3 1760 DKK a month for 11 months, the club for grades 4-6 827 DKK a month for 11 months, and the Spiren group from April to June 1760 DKK a month. Without Betalingsservice there is an administration fee of 75 DKK a month. The state gives the school funds for income-based fee reductions (fripladstilskud), applied for in August.
Admissions There are no particular admission criteria: the school says it is open 'to all pupils regardless of gender, ethnic background or faith'. Children are put on the waiting list through a form on the website (the CPR numbers of the child and parents are required); places are offered by date of registration, but the school may give priority to siblings and consider the balance of boys and girls in the class. When a place becomes available, the parents are invited to a meeting with the head of department, then the child and parents meet the class teacher, have a tour and one or more trial days in the class. Pupils are admitted throughout the year when there is a place; a 1000 DKK enrolment fee is paid when a place is offered.
Stages and year groups Grades 0-9. Danish primary and lower secondary school, three streams from grade 0 to grade 9, following the folkeskole common objectives (Fælles Mål), with FP9 leaving exams; from April before grade 0 there is the preparatory group Spiren. Specialisation subjects (linjefag) in grades 7-9: Science and Global Perspectives, plus Drama & musik, Idræt i det fri, Kommunikation & medier and Kunst. Cambridge: the school is a Cambridge International Associate School; in grade 9 pupils who sign up can take the three-part Cambridge IGCSE exam in English (speaking, reading and listening, writing), prepared within English lessons; on its evaluation page the school also lists Cambridge IGCSE Global Perspectives as a specialisation subject in grades 7-9 (course description in a 2017 PDF). External candidates can also sit Cambridge exams at the school. German: the DSD I language diploma in grade 9.
Address Frederiksvej 8, 4180 Sorø
Accreditations and programmes verified against official registries
Cambridge · IGCSE · authorised programmePASCH · takes part in the programmeThe Cambridge register names the school as its centre: in Year 9 students can sit the Cambridge IGCSE English exam (the school is a Cambridge International Associate School). The main curriculum is Danish, with the folkeskole exams. The school is part of the PASCH network as a DSD school: students sit the German language diploma DSD.
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
CambridgeCambridge International Education
Part of the University of Cambridge. It allows a school to teach the Cambridge programmes and to enter pupils for the exams. There are four stages and they are authorised separately: primary, lower secondary, IGCSE and A Level. If the stages are known they are named in the line below; if that line is missing, the school does not publish them, and the Cambridge registry does not show stages either - it gives only the name of the centre, the country and whether private candidates are accepted. Cambridge calls what it does registration rather than accreditation, and the network holds about ten thousand schools.
What the badge means for this school. The school is allowed to run this programme and to award its certificate. This is a confirmation of the programme, not a judgement on the school as a whole. The entry stands in the organisation's public register - anyone can check it. At this school: IGCSE (ages 14-16). IGCSE means exams at around Year 10 or 11, the British counterpart of a lower secondary leaving certificate.
Register to check for yourself, and the full guide →PASCHSchools: Partners for the Future, an initiative of the German foreign ministry
More than two thousand schools in about 120 countries. A school cannot apply for itself: participants are chosen by German agencies in agreement with the embassy. Very different schools sit under one mark - full German schools abroad, and ordinary national schools that simply teach German well.
What the badge means for this school. The school belongs to a German support programme. By itself the mark means neither a German curriculum nor the right to award a German certificate: of the two thousand PASCH schools, about seventeen hundred hold no such right. Look for a ZfA status next to it - that is the one that is about this. The entry is confirmed in the organisation's open directory.
Register to check for yourself, and the full guide →National programme
The state school programme of the country the school stands in: it is set by that country's ministry of education, which also licenses the school and awards the leaving certificate. That certificate is used for entry to local universities, and abroad it is matched to the local one.
What this means for this school. This entry does not count towards the score, and that is deliberate. Every lawful school in a country works to the national programme, so on its own it tells one school apart from no other - unlike the French, German or Russian programmes, which are carried abroad and confirmed by the register of their organisation. We show it because a parent needs to know what programme their child is taught and what certificate the child will get. Counting it would lift the whole ranking at once and still tell nobody apart.
Exams and destinations from the school's official website
Exam results In 2023/24 the average grade in the compulsory grade 9 leaving exams was 8.9 against 7.3 nationally; the school says it does best in Sorø Municipality at raising pupils' attainment and is among Denmark's 36 best schools out of 1409 on this measure. The school does not publish Cambridge exam results.
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
✓Catering
·School transportnot stated on the website
·Boardingnot stated on the website
Clubs and activities: Drama & musik (drama and music) · Idræt i det fri (outdoor sport) · Kommunikation & medier (communication and media) · Kunst (art) · Science · Global Perspectives · Talenthold (short courses for gifted students) · DM i fagene (national subject championships) · Georg Mohr-Konkurrencen (Georg Mohr maths competition) · International Language Competition · Erasmus+ · Skolepatruljen (school road-safety patrol) · Klub (club for Years 4-6)
Summer programme away from campus: . The school runs no camp of its own on campus
The club for grades 4-6 goes on a camp (koloni) in the first week of the summer holidays and organises two day trips in the last week of the holidays. Pupils in the talent programme can attend TalentCampDK camps.
Teaching staff from the school's official website
·Teachers listed by namenot published
✓Teacher qualifications
·Number of teachersthe school does not say
✓Students per teacher or class sizein the key facts above
What the listings show: teacher training or another pedagogical or academic background
According to the 2025 annual report the school has 51.2 teacher full-time equivalents and 13.3 pupils per teacher post. From grade 1 to grade 9 all subjects are taught by subject teachers working in subject teams; in grades 0-3 each class has an attached pedagogue. The school has trained talent counsellors, a reading counsellor and a Cambridge exams officer.
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 room
✓Counsellor
✓Child protection policy
·Staff trainingnot stated on the website
✓Anti-bullying policy
The school has an anti-bullying policy with an action plan involving the school psychologist and nurse, policies on absence, mobile phones, grief and crisis, IT security and data protection, and rules of conduct. The school is phone-free: in grades 4-9 phones and smartwatches are locked away in the morning. Every class has a weekly well-being lesson, there is a team of adults pupils can turn to, and class well-being is measured with the Bloomsights tool. Pupils have access to a school psychologist from the municipal PPR service, a school nurse and an SSP consultant.
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 data80 Safety and wellbeing (12%) scored on disclosed data75 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 data78 "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
Soro, Denmark · est. 1887 · Private