The Day School at Tvind

is where students (14+) from PTG, Casablanca and Apollo (care homes in Holstebro) go to school. The school has different study lines. All students follow individual study or work plans. 

The school is equipped with servers, networks and a PC for each student, and the students on the study line use an extensive database (DmM) with access to study tasks at 12 different levels. The study line prepares for 9th grade exams, 10th grade exams or A-levels. The practical line carries out professional construction tasks and improvements indoors and outdoors. The one-off line students have specially designed programmes, usually including work experience in nearby towns.

See more at www.dagskolen-tvind.dk

DNS students along with the teachers run the school. As a teacher at the Day School we expect you to:

• Be curious. Interested in the students, and in how we can encourage them to explore themselves and the world.
• Be brave. Dont be afraid of  who you are, share your opinions, abilities and experiences with students and teachers alike.
• Be humble. Respect the students, regardless of how inappropriate their behaviour might be.They are here for a reason, and it is our task to find the key to their hearts and minds.
• Respect the traditions and frames of the school. No solo's - only team player.
• Learn to be encompassing. This means organizing after school activities: bird watching, skating, mending cars, shooting hoops, cycling, playing pool,games, cooking, going shopping, organizing special actions, watering the flowers, making breakfast, looking after pets and much more.
  This means social work: finding out who smokes hash and why, waking the lazy ones up in the morning, solving conflicts, celebrating birthdays, comforting the heart broken and generally being a grown up person they can rely on in all matters of life.
• Learn Danish!

Near a small town called Ulfborg, in western Jutland, surrounded by fields and farms, you can find an amazing sight. A windmill, different than any windmill you have ever have seen before, a windmill that once was the biggest of its kind, built by volunteers, teachers, students – amateurs – at the school centre in Tvind.

The school centre itself can look back on a long history, first founded some 40 years ago as an alternative school project for people who wanted to make a different kind of school.

A school that traveled to all kinds of destinations in old busses, meeting the people of this world, wherever they went, making friends with the locals and getting an insight of what the world really looked like.

Many things have changed since then, but still we want to have a lively place, with many different people living and learning together, fighting for more justice and equality in the whole world, making a political stand, joining forces with people alike and educating teachers who dedicate themselves to caring about the children they will teach, using new methods, trying new ways.

Today the Tvind school centre consists of :

• DNS ( Teachers Training College )
• The Heart Chambers ( Care homes for students with special needs )
• The Day school ( Integration school for youngsters between 14 and 25 years)
• PTG ( Practical Theoretical Basic Education ) for youngsters from 16 years and up
• Tvindkraft ( Wind energy centre )

Each school unit has their own programme and students, starting from around 14 years of age up to any age above, but the units also have a lot in common. They eat most meals together, they share responsibilities and they do a wide range of activities together. The students benefit a lot from an international environment, where there are adults as well as teenagers with and without social and/or learning problems. The integration of all these different students, with DNS students giving a lot of input to the other units, arranging programmes and activities for them and some also work during their teaching practise there.

For the DNSers it is a very good preparation for their teaching practise, to organize and take part in weekly activities, like Centre afternoons, with sports, handicraft, art, music programmes, Tuesday cafes, political discussion evenings for DNS and youngsters together etc.

Lille Bjørn is still in the planning phase. It will be a small school with sailing in it's profile.

This article is under construction

This article is under construction

Our "Villas" are home for a group of adults living in a number of houses. The adults live here because they have special needs. Here they get themselves a safe home with support, love and demands. Many of them live here for many years and get more and more control of their dysfunctions which can have background in abuse, health or psychological problems.
The program includes life-style-training, school and practical activities – all of it with an important element of integration with students from The Necessary Teacher Training College (DNS) and PTG-students.

The students in the Villas experience bigger and smaller victories in Tvind:
They keep the park, drive the tractor and the lawn mowers.
They learn subjects like geography and biology in the "Villa High school".
They travel to far away counties – taking a bath in a bucket in Malawi, climbing a volcano in St Vincent or living in a folk high school in the USA.
They learn to speak English, learn house keeping and thoughtfulness.
They experience respect, get new friends and a broader out look.

What is PTG:

PTG is a combined school and care home for young adults 16+.

PTG is short for "Practical Theoretical Basic Education". The idea is that students learn to use both their heads and their hands - and not the least: their hearts.Together they plan and carry out the PTG programme. The idea is to get an education, to learn to contribute and do goo and to gain experience in a variety of fields. 

PTG aims to integrate students of different backgrounds.They live, study, work and do spare time activities together. Some youths arrive with a lot of personal strength and spirit, others have issues they need to put behind them. Together they practice life skills and create a positive youth culture with ample space for each and everyone, and with great opportunities for personal development and training.The institution has space for 25 students of which 10 come from difficult backgrounds and 15 are students that have a lot of personal surplus.

PTG is a boarding school. All students have single rooms, and share common facilities like kitchen, TV room, internet café, pool room, gym, etc. Cooking and other house chores are shared between the students. There are activities in weekends and holidays. Some students go home every second weekend.

Students at PTG and DNS share many activities at Tvind. There are many daily meeting points - at meals, sports, and in the evenings.

The DNS Day School is for the students from PTG. It is also for youngsters in care from the local area. DNS students participate in running this school, this is far more than simply a practice school for them.

 The 4 Programmes at PTG:

1.       Study Programme with studies and exams (Danish school leavers' certificates and HF exams—equivalent to German Abitur or British A' levels.)

2.       Practical Projects Programnes (building, carpentry, forestry, gardening, catering)

3.       The Travel Programme

4.       "One Off" Programmes - tailor made and designed to suit students' special needs. 

The Travel Programme at PTG:

The travel Programme focuses on acquiring knowledge about the world in general, and third world issues in particular. International Studies: basic knowledge in geography, history and social science.

Studies about the travel countries, the concept of poverty and poverty eradication models.

The HIV/AIDS pandemic. Other poverty related illnesses: e.g. malaria, TBC and measles. Food security, Water resources, Conditions of life for children around the world, Education as the key to development, Fundraising, Languages: English and the local language of the county they travel in.

All practical actions are planned by the students together with their teachers; study trips, fundraising activities and participation in different other events. Other important elements in the education are evaluation processes and information work.

More information ? Write to : Anna Hoas in English, Swedish, Norwegian or Danish. Anna is the headmaster at PTG. This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it   - or phone: +45 28 19 55 44. See : www.ptg.dk 

The PTG programme started in 1999, and was approved by Ringkøbing County in 2002.

DNS is an abbreviation for Det Nødvendige Seminarium, which in English means The Necessary Teacher Training College. DNS started in 1972 in Tvind, in the county-side of Denmark.

DNS Denmark has influenced many educators in Denmark and further proved with its pragmatic approach that through teaching and educating it can be at the forefront regarding pedagogical issues.
It is very necessary to educate good teachers for bringing up the many children in the world – the privileged as well as the underprivileged – and it is necessary to do this using many more methods than books and blackboards.
At the Necessary Teacher Training College the teachers and the students, together as partners, plan the education - both the content and the concrete details, in contrast with other overly structured school forms.
The programme is untraditional and challenging (Study trip to Africa, extensive teaching practice in Europe and /or with youngsters in Denmark) and covers a wide variety of theoretical and practical skills, a lot of experiences in many areas and emphasis of personal development of the future teacher through big challenges.
As a student in the DNS program you can regard yourself as part of a global movement. When facing huge tasks like education and development in rural areas, it is needed that many forces join hands. This is the road to actually influencing and changing the situation. This is also a tremendous inspiration to you as an individual teacher, who in this way will see your efforts as part of something bigger.
DNS in Denmark has so far trained app. 600 teachers that are now all over the world, teaching, training, educating, managing and leading.