Before the project was started a growing number of Danish parents opted out the school because of the increasing number bilingual pupils. Furthermore, there was a political wish to distribute the children of ethnic minorities around the schools in the municipality so that no school would have a degree of ethnic minorities above 25%.

The Enghøj School in Hvidovre Municipality has since the mid 80’s focused on the school’s ethnic minorities. Though, the project “The Enghøj School as a magnet school” has pupils of Danish origin as its focus and only indirectly ethnic minorities.

The purpose of the project is to hold on to and attract Danish pupils, which is sought by improving the school’s educational and free time offers. This improvement consists of enhancing the quality of the education in Danish, art and music, giving homework assistance to pupils interested and increasing the teachers’ and pupils’ access to and knowledge of information technology. Concerning the free time offers, the schools sat up offers available for the school’s pupil and for other children from schools and institutions in the area (i.e. a visual arts school, a theatre club and drama lessons to daycare centres). The open free time offers were an indication of that the school prioritized co-operation in the area where it was situated, hence creating local ownership and hereby improving the image of the school in the local area

The magnet school project mainly consisted of two action areas. On the one hand there was a focus improving the school’s educational offers for the benefit of the pupils and on the other hand an improvement of the free time offers. In addition, the teachers’ training college has been working actively with attitudes to integration i.e. that there is a difference between Danish as one’s native tongue and Danish as one’s second language, and that integration is a process which does not come automatically and that intercultural understanding is something teachers and educators must relate to. By engaging in the local area i.a. through day-care centres, the school has furthermore increased the knowledge of the school which can help to break down prejudices and make Danish parents choose the school.

In the four years the magnet school project lasted, the Enghøj School succeeded in holding on to and attracting pupils with Danish origin from the school district so that the degree of bilingual pupils maintained around a third, even though there were more bilingual pupils in the new classes. Today the Enghøj School has around 50% bilingual pupils but it is the view of the school that the number would have been higher if it had not because of the positive results of the magnet school project.

Irrespective of origin, the project has been for the benefit of everyone since the project resulted in a more balanced composition of pupils with different origin. Furthermore, the project has been of use for the school as an organisation given the positive effect the balanced pupil composition has i.e. on the teachers' work climate.

The project costed 20 million dkr.

The first year was financed through 75% state funding and 25% municipal funding. Subsequently a gradual increase in the municipal funding so that the financing the last year consisted of 75% municipal funding and 25% state funding.

The Enghøj School in the Municipality of Hvidvore
Denmark
Elin Juel Christensen, tel. 0045 36 34 43 34

01/01/1994

case

Urban Policy

Social inclusion & integration