The last school days at Nordfjord folkehøgskule

The weeks here at Nordfjord is flying by so fast, suddenly we must start thinking about the last schooldays.

Here is some information, hopefully it will be helpful and please do not hesitate to ask us if you have more questions!

Mini-folkehøgskule
Thursday 2^nd of May – Saturday 4^th of May.

Dear parents, guardians, siblings and friends!
This is the chance you’ve been waiting for! Instead of just hearing about great experiences in Nordfjord, you now get the chance to take part yourselves. We invite you to a maximally compressed folkehøgskule-year, two days packed with good experiences.

We expect that you have received many reports from the student you have loaned us this year. About summit tours, bonfire evenings, boat trips and kayaking, cooperation, fellowship, sleeping in sleeping bags and starry skies. And then we expect that you are a little envious of everything they have been able to participate in. So – congratulations! You are hereby invited to a «mini-folkehøgskule-year» from 2^nd – 4^th of May 2024.

Who can join?
The answer is everyone. We have no age limits, and the tours are adapted to those who join. In parallel with «Mini-folkehøgskule», the students have their own programme, so this year’s students cannot take part in this event.

The event will be in norwegian. We can not promise that the staff will be able to translate everything at all times. We guess most of the norwegian participants can help with translating and talk english.

From Thursday afternoon to Saturday morning, you will get to see and experience some of the same things that the students have experienced this year. We will try some cooperative-activities, cook delicious food outside, spend the night in “gapahuk” and “lavvo”, go skiing (perhaps in shorts?) in the spring snow in the Nordfjord-mountains, kayak and row old Nordfjord-boats. In May, Nordfjord is at its best. The snow lies in the mountains, the green colour pops out, and there are good conditions for great outdoor life!

Where and when
The trip starts on Thursday afternoon at Nordfjord folkehøgskule and ends when it’s time to dress up for the graduation party on Saturday. If you can’t join the event from the start, there is an opportunity to jump in along the way! All the activities will be around the Gloppen-fjord, close to the school.

Program

Thursday
At 1630 Dinner in the dining-room at school.
At 1730 Gathering in a classroom at school with a cup of coffee. Official start of the «mini-folkehøgskule». Information about the tours. We get to know each other a bit, presentation, expectations, how many people want to ski/hike on Friday…
1800: Hike to the collaboration trail in the woods above school. Here we get to work on various problems that require cooperation.
Evening meal and spending the night in gapahuk.

Friday
Morning/daytime

For those who are morning-people, there is coffee by the fire before breakfast.
At 0730 we go down to the school.
At 0800 Breakfast at school.
At 0900 Ski trip. In Western Norway it is fantastic to go ski-touring in May. If we are lucky, it will be a ski trip in shorts! We drive to Ryggjastøylen and go ski-touring on the mountaion Berdalsegga.
At 0900 Hike. If you would rather walk, this is an option, then we go from the school area on a trip to Tysdadstøyen and perhaps further towards Haugsvarden which is a top not so far from school.

Afternoon

1630 Dinner at the school
1730 We walk down to the boathouse, find the kayaks and the old Nordfjord-boats. Then we paddle and/or row on Gloppen fjord to a gapahuk by the fjord. Here it will be barbecue and a bonfire. This night we also sleep outside or maybe in lavvo. The campsite is not far from the road, so it is also possible to get there by car.

Saturday
Morning

After breakfast, we paddle/row back to the boathouse, where fruit is served. We are back at school about 2 hours before the graduation party starts.

Price

There are opportunities to hop on the event along the way. To make it easy when it comes to payment, we have split the event in two, and you pay for the parts you are on. If you do not have the opportunity to join the whole event, we still encourage you to come on Friday. The mini-folkehøgskule is a great experience!

Price for the entire course: NOK 1,680 (Children/youth under 18 years NOK 840)

Price from Friday to Saturday: NOK 1,160 (Children/youth under 18 years NOK 580)

Equipment

-Bring a cup, plate and cutlery.

-You need equipment for sleeping outside: Sleeping bag, sleeping mat and warm clothes. A good hat and warm socks are a warm trick when you’re going to sleep outside!

-For the ski trip, you need alpine skis, preferably with steel edges and skins. If you do not have skins, you can borrow from students or from the school.

-Otherwise, you need clothes to be out in all kinds of weather. We hope for sun and warmth, but Western Norway also has a wet and cold side that can appear… In other words, you need both shorts, something waterproof and something windproof, warm clothes when you are going to sit still, and not so warm clothes when you are active.

-We will be fixing the «shelter» ( lavvo or gapahuk), camping stoves, food, kayaks, boats and floating-vests. If you need equipment to participate in the trip, just ask the pupils or the school. We are happy trying to help with finding you something to lend!

Graduation

Of course, we also invite you to a proper graduation ceremony for all our wonderful students!
It is Saturday 4^th of May at 1pm. The program will last for about 1,5 hours. After that, there will be served food for everyone, both the students and visiting family. In the afternoon, when the graduation and dinner is over, the family leaves the school and their student.
The students still have a few days left at school, Wednesday 8^th of May is the last day and the day they leave the school. On Wednesday there will be served breakfast, this is the last meal we serve the students. After this, whey start leaving trough the day, some leave early and others later, depending on how they are travelling.
The graduation party including food, does not cost you anything.

How to attend

Here is the registration form for both mini-folkehøgskule and graduation, one form for each event.

Mini-folkehøgskule: Please register for mini-folkehøgskule here

Graduation: Please register for graduation here

Accommodation options

Beacause our students use most of our rooms, we have limited capacity when it comes to accomodation for you who are coming to Nordfjord these days. We have a few guest-rooms here at school, to see if any of these are available, send an e-mail to: grethe@friluftslivskulen.no. Here are some other options close to the school:

Sandane
Gloppen Hotel in Sandane centre, 6,3 km from school.
Link: https://gloppenhotell.no/

Gloppen Camping in Sandane centre, 7,5 km from school.
Link: http://gloppen-camping.no/

Airbnb- there is several airbnb-options in the area, you can find options close to the school by searching for options in Sandane, or search for Gloppen / Nordfjord if you are interested in getting options from a bigger area.

Byrkjelo
Byrkjelo camping, Byrkjelo is a small village, 24 km from school.
Link: https://www.byrkjelocamping.no/

We hope this gave you a better overwiew of the last days here at Nordfjord folkehøgskule. Please no not hesitate asking us if you have any questions regarding mini-folkehøgskule, graduation or other things!
Of course, it is understandable that you might not have the chance to come here for any of the arrangements. Some of you are living very far away, others might not be able to make time in the schedule.
Nordfjord wishes you welcome in May!