You can also read the essence of this information in Arabic, Kurmanchi, Polish, Portuguese, Somali, Swahili and Tigrinia.

Structure of primary and lower secondary education (grunnskole)

• Compulsory education: Starts the year you turn 6 and lasts for 10 years. All children aged 6 to 16 residing in Norway for more than three months have the right and obligation to attend primary and lower secondary education, regardless of their residence status.
• Public and Private Options: Municipal schools in Trondheim are free, while Private and International schools charge fees. Two of the private schools, Trondheim International School and Birralee International School, offer instruction in English.
• Barneskole (Primary School): Grades 1-7, focusing on core subjects including Norwegian, Mathematics, English, Science, Social Studies, Religion, Arts and Crafts, Music, and Physical Education.
• What is SFO?: Skolefritidsordning (SFO) is a before- and after-school program for children in grades 1-4. It provides supervision and activities before and after school hours. Children with special needs are offered school day care through grades 1-7.
• Ungdomsskole (Lower Secondary School): Grades 8-10, with more specialized subjects and preparation for upper secondary education. You can also choose a second foreign language, which is typically German, French or Spanish.
• In this pamphlet you can read about school health services

Key features of primary and lower secondary schools

School year and daily schedule 

• School year: Mid-August to late June.
• Holidays: Includes Fall break (middle of October), Christmas break (late December to early January), winter break (February), Easter break (March/April), and a summer vacation.
• School calendar: You can find a list of school free days, holidays and vacations at the lower and secondary municipal schools in Trondheim on this Norwegian page.  Fri means Free. Ferie means Vacation. Summer vacation is only marked as event on the last day before (Siste dag før...) and  first day after (Første dag etter...). National holidays are not included in this calendar.
• Daily schedule: Typically from around 8:15 AM to 2:30 PM, varying by school and grade level.

Grading System 

• In lower grades (1-7), formal grades are often not given; instead, assessments are more descriptive.
• In higher grades (8-10), a grading scale from 1 (poor) to 6 (excellent) is used.

Parent Involvement

• Encouraged through parent-teacher meetings and school events.
• One meeting with the contact teacher about your child’s development pr semester.
• FAU (Foreldrenes arbeidsutvalg): A parent committee that works closely with the school.

Inclusive education

Norway emphasizes inclusive education, meaning students with special needs are integrated into regular classes and provided with additional support when necessary.

Practical aspects of schooling 

School Meals 

Most students bring packed lunches (matpakke) from home.

Transportation 

Students often walk or bike to school. Public transportation is also widely used, and discounts are available for students.

Clothing

• Ensure your children have appropriate clothing for different weather conditions, especially for outdoor activities. Children are outdoors in most recesses in all kinds of weather.
• Layers, waterproof outerwear, and sturdy shoes are essential, along with indoor shoes.

Enrollment and Required Documents 

Documents Needed 

• Proof of identity (passport or birth certificate)
• Residence permit
• Previous school records/transcripts
• Vaccination records

Contact for Enrollment 

Your local school handles school enrollment. They can guide you through the process and provide information on the required documents.

School Zoning - Which school do you belong to?

Each address in Trondheim is associated with a specific school. You can find out which school your address belongs to by using our online school zone map.

Application for SFO (before- and after-school program)

Apply online for a place in a school day-care via Vigilo, our education administration portal. First graders can start in SFO 1st August the year they start in school. We recommend that you apply by 15th April to make sure you have a place when school commences. If you need help filling in the form, contact the school in question directly. Vigilo also has a user guide, currently only available in Norwegian, but with a step-by-step description.

Applying for Upper Secondary Education 

Applications for upper secondary education (videregående skole) are typically done online through the Vigo.no portal. You will need your previous school records and proof of residence. The county has made an information film about the application process and the different education options in high school. The film has an English transcription. Contact the county government if you have questions about the high school system. The ordinary deadline for application to upper secondary education is 1st March. If you arrive in Norway after this date, you may have to wait until the next school year before you can start in upper secondary school.

Adapted Education for Immigrants 

Adapted education in Norwegian

Newly arrived immigrant children receive additional support to learn Norwegian until they can follow a regular class. Language skills are continually monitored.

Bilingual Education

Programs that provide instruction in both Norwegian and the child's native language to facilitate learning and integration. 

• Reading and writing instruction in mother tongue (Morsmålsopplæring): The right to reading and writing instruction in the mother tongue follows the right to adapted education in Norwegian. This means that your child is not entitled to instruction in his or her mother tongue unless he or she also receives adapted Norwegian education.
• Bilingual subject education (Tospråklig opplæring i fag): Bilingual subject education implies that the teacher utilizes both the mother tongue and Norwegian as a means to assist the child’s learning process in various school subjects. The municipality of Trondheim has bilingual teachers in many languages. If the municipality does not have qualified teachers with your mother tongue, your child will receive extra hours with adapted Norwegian education instead.

Introduction Classes  

Special classes for children of immigrants to help them learn Norwegian and integrate into the regular school system.Trondheim offers a place in introduction class for students at level 3-10 for a maximum of 2 years. Your local school applies for a place on your behalf if your child would like to attend an introduction class. Trondheim has nine schools with introduction classes for newly arrived minority language students, six primary schools (Berg, Bispehaugen, Huseby, Ila, Lilleby, Kattem) and three secondary schools (Huseby, Rosenborg, Åsheim). You are free to choose to attend the school your address belongs to, with adapted education in Norwegian. You always have the right to a place at the school your address belongs to.

SFO - Before and after school program

SFO is an abbreviation for skolefritidsordning.

Fees and hours of attendance

Part-Time Place (up to 12 hours per week)

• Grades 1-3: Free*. Placement can be used on Mondays and Tuesdays during autumn, winter, and summer holidays within the opening hours determined by the school. *Due to the calculation of reduced parental payment, the invoice and the Vigilo portal will show a price of NOK 2290 for half-time placement. However, the final amount on the invoice for half-time placement will be NOK 0. 
• Grade 4: NOK 2290 per month. Can be used on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday during autumn, winter, and summer holidays. 
  
  

Full-Time Place (over 12 hours per week)

• Grades 1-3: NOK 1710 per month*. *Due to the calculation of reduced parental payment, the invoice and the Vigilo portal will show a price of NOK 3420 for full-time placement. However, the final amount on the invoice for full-time placement will be NOK 1710. 
• Grade 4: NOK 3420 per month. 
  
  

Additional Information

• A daily meal fee applies to all types of places, determined by the School Cooperation Committee.
• Fees cover attendance on school-free days (holidays, school planning days, etc.).
• Annual payments are divided into 11 monthly installments, with no invoices in July.
• Payment for an SFO place starts from the day it is offered. New school children starting in August must pay for the entire month if the place is offered before August 15th.
• To change attendance hours, use our parent portal Vigilo. Changes take effect from the 1st of the following month with a month's notice.
• To change the invoicee, complete the required form and send it to the For assistance with changes or termination of a place, contact the Education Administration.

Fee reduction

If your child has been absent from SFO for more than a month in a row due to illness, you can apply for a refund of the monthly fee and the daily meals fee. You send your application to the SFO principal.

Families with low income can apply for fee reduction in SFO. No families are to pay more than 6% of their gross income for school daycare. If you do not have a taxable income, you can apply for a free school daycare program. Even if you get a free place or a reduced school daycare fee, you will still be required to pay for meals at SFO.

You apply for fee reduction online(instructions currently only available in Norwegian).

As of 2024, any family with an annual taxable income under 642 700 NOK can apply for reduced parental payment for a full-time place in SFO. If you have a half place and an annual taxable income under 430 962 NOK, you can also apply for fee reduction in SFO.

You will have to enclose a copy of your last tax report or other documentation of your taxable income. If there are major changes in your taxable income during the schoolyear, you can apply for reduction again.

Decisions about reduced payment at SFO are valid from the month after you send in an application. It may take some weeks to process an application for reduced parental payment and make an official decision. Meanwhile you have to pay the bills that are due.

Termination of a place in SFO

You can terminate a place electronically at the same site where you accepted the offer. Places must be terminated a month in advance effective from 1st of the next month. You have to pay the parental fee and the daily meal fee during the termination period. The same deadlines apply when you terminate a place you have received and accepted that you later decide not to use after all.

The municipality may also terminate your place with one month's notice from the 1st of the next month if you have been granted a place based on wrong premises, if you fail to pay your bills, have a lot of undocumented abscence or move out of the municipality.

Contact us

Regarding questions concerning application, admission, transfer and fees, please feel free to contact us:

Education Administration (Virksomhetsområde skole)
Phone: +47 97 99 61 00 (8.30-11.30am Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays)
Email:

You can download your last tax report from Altinn.

You find your invoices from the municipality at my page (in the top right corner of this site).

Statutes of municipal school day care services (SFO)

The city council has adopted the following municipal bylaws for the municipal School Day-Care Programme (Norwegian abbreviation SFO – ”skolefritidsordning”) in the municipality of Trondheim. These bylaws are in effect as of 1 August 2023.

1. Ownership

Trondheim local authority is responsible for operating the municipal School Day-Care Programme (SFO). The local authority operates SFOs in rented or owned premises.

2. Objective

SFO shall aim to provide supervision and care to children in the first four years of primary school and to children with special needs in the first seven years of primary school. Children with special needs must also be given good conditions for development (cf. section 13-7 of the Education Act). SFO shall facilitate for the development of each child through communication and social interaction, with focus on what is in the child’s best interest and where playing is the main activity. Children play to learn, and learn through playing. The children in SFO shall be given the opportunity to actively exploit their leisure time to take part in versatile play and in culture and leisure-time activities according to their age, functional level and interests. This shall be done in close understanding and collaboration with the children’s homes and in accordance with the objectives of the school as expressed in section 1 of the Education Act. SFOs shall be operated in accordance with central provisions, municipal decisions, the municipal framework plan for SFOs and plans for each entity.

3. Play and activity areas

SFOs shall have indoor and outdoor areas that are suitable for the activity the children are taking part in and that have a minimum of four square metres per child. In the function and area programme, 0.35 square metres per child is earmarked for SFO. The rest of the area requires shared use with the school’s other functions (general and special learning areas, PE gym, canteen etc.).

4. Admission

All children in years one to four in primary school and all children with special needs in years one to seven in primary school have the right to day-care facilities before and after regular school hours.

Children with special needs are defined as children with long-term functional disabilities which lead to comprehensive and lasting needs for assistance, and who receive differentiated instruction in ordinary teaching and also possibly special education.

The Education Administration office is responsible for admissions. When children with special needs, see the definition in section 4 paragraph two, apply for a place, the head of school makes the decision about granting a place in SFO. The governing board of the municipal council is the appellate body.

SFO has two time-period offers: Up to 12 hours a week, and more than 12 hours a week.

The time the child may spend in SFO before and after school hours shall correspond to the number of hours that are paid for.

It may be agreed to balance the hours over longer periods of time when parents request this due to their working hours.

5. Parental fee

The City Council determines the rate of the parental fee when setting the annual budget, as well as special rules for discounts and free places.

Information about the parental fee and the calculation base for setting the fee is put together during the annual budget processing period.

All activities, including whole-day trips during school vacations, shall be free and available to all children in SFO.

A place in SFO must be paid for from the day it is offered.

The period of notice is one month from the first of the month. The notice is to be sent electronically via the application portal.

The fee must be paid during the period of notice.

The local authority can terminate the place in SFO if the fee is not paid. Admission to SFO cannot be allowed if there are unpaid fees from previous stays in kindergarten or SFO.

Any change in the hours in SFO will take effect from the first of the month with one month’s notice.

For children with special needs in years five to seven, there is no parental fee for the offer of a place in SFO.

6. Opening hours

SFO is open from 1 August to 31 July.

The daily opening hours shall be within the time frame of 7 am to 5 pm adapted to the requirements of each school and after discussion in the user board.

SFO is closed for five planning days and during weeks 28 and 29 in the summer vacation. On Christmas Eve, New Year’s Eve and the Wednesday before Maundy Thursday (Easter), SFO closes at noon, unless otherwise stipulated. The opening hours are decided by the head of school in collaboration with the user board.

Beyond these closing days SFO offers a programme all weekdays. On school holidays, a number of SFOs may cooperate to remain open.

All children must have three weeks of vacation during the summer vacation.

During the weeks when schools are closed in the summer, autumn and winter holidays, pupils with stays over 12 hours per week have access to SFO on three full days, i.e. Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays.

If staffing allows for it, one can make agreements for an exchange of individual days for a child with a part-time position.

7. Leadership and staffing

The head of school is the administrative and professional leader of SFO. There must also be an SFO manager (generally serving as a department head). This position requires relevant higher education, and time shall be allocated for administration duties in accordance with the collective bargaining agreement.

Staffing at SFO shall as a general rule be up to 15 children per adult. Staffing shall be adapted to the age of the children, and also to any needs for special follow-up of individual children or groups.

The municipal director is given the authority to make minor amendments to the bylaws that do not have an effect on the basic principles and are in accordance with the municipal or state guidelines.

Additional resources

Utdanningsdirektoratet (Norwegian Directorate for Education and Training): Provides detailed information about the educational system in Norway.

Forms in English: You can find the school related forms that are translated to English by writing "SFO" or "school" in the search field on our Forms from A to Z page.