Starting school with Danish as a second language - language screening

If your schild has Danish as a second language he or she may need support in developing their Danish language skills. Therefore, we carry out a language screening before your child attends a public school in Aarhus. 

Your child is given three small assignments by one of our consultants. We then assess your child’s language and comprehension.

• If your child is in kindergarten and will be starting school, the language screening will take about 45 minutes.
• If your child is moving schools or is new to the municipality, the language screening will take about 60 minutes.

The screening is made up of three sections:

• Introduction
• The three assignments
• Conclusion

The language screening, which is carried out by a speech-hearing consultant, examines whether the child's language is as expected from a child about to start school. The screening takes place as a conversation between the consultant and the child using different assignments. The child is shown different pictures and answers questions or points out things in pictures. The child's answer is used to give an overall assessment of the child's Danish language skills.

If your child is transferring from kindergarten to school

The language screening is carried out at the district school in connection with school enrolment.

If you have moved to Aarhus or from a private to a public school

Suppose you have moved to Aarhus or moved from a private school to a public one. In that case, the language screening will occur at Læssøesgades Skole. 

You are welcome to attend your child’s language screening, but you cannot help your child with the assignments.

The screening may show that your child's has age appropriate Danish language skills and therefore does not have a need for support in developing his or hers language skills. If this is the case your child is entitled to admission to the district school, but you also have the option to apply for admission to a school other than the district school. Your child can be admitted to the desired school, if there is space available.

The language screening can also show that your child has a need for language support, and thus needs help to support the Danish language development. In that case, we will refer your child to the school that can provide the best learning offer. If there are more than 20% of children with a language support need at the district school or at the school of your choice, your child will be referred to another school. This school will have less than 20% of children with Danish as a second language who need language support, and will therefore be a better learning offer.

You should contact your child’s district school to book a language screening. We call this a school beginner screening.

• The screening takes place at the district school in January and February.
• In mid-April, you will receive a letter from us. This will tell you in which school your child is going to start and give you the result of the screening.

Any further questions on the language screening of your child? Then contact your child’s kindergarten, the district school, or the City of Aarhus' Department of Pedagogy, Education and Leisure (Pædagogik, Undervisning og Fritid).