January 9, 2021 - Happy birthday!

The day we've been counting down to for so long, the day where a big event was planned to start our anniversary year.
The day Sogndal Folk High School turned 150 years old,
January 9, 2021.

Instead of an event today, we're celebrating school in true corona style.

On January 9, 1871, Jakob Liv Rosted Sverdrup founded Sogndal Folk High School, making it one of the first folk high schools in the country. The school started in Sorenskrivargarden at Loftesnes, where the building still stands today. After three years at Bahus in Sogndalsfjøra, the school moved on November 15, 1875 to Nes and was named Helgheim, where the school still stands today. Today, only Haugehuset remains in the yard of the ordinary buildings.

In 1871, Sogndal Folk High School, as the school was then called, was an all-boys school. The first year, 36 boys started and the year was completed by 31 of them. It was not until April 1879 that Henrik Mohn Dahl, the director who took over after Sverdrup, started girls' courses. And so it continued for several years with courses for boys from October to early April and girls' courses from mid-April to mid-July. In 1890, there seems to be a change in the winter and we see that girls participate in what they called the "winter course". Until now, this had been called the "boys' course". But the girls' courses continued until 1926. For quite a long time, there were separate boarding houses so that boys and girls were separate, but in the late 1980s, boys and girls began to live in the same department, which they still do today.

Previously, it was a much more practical subject, but there has been an increasing emphasis on taking a gap year between studies. Many call it a year off from grades and other pressures that today's youth experience.

In reality, it is a year where you get to know yourself better, learn things you didn't know so well before, and both cultivate existing interests and gain new ones. Many make friendships that last a lifetime, and we have heard several stories of couples who fell in love while they were here.

Today, Sogndal Folk High School consists of 6 lines;
Photo trip
Outdoor activities
Outdoor activities Norway
Sports
Skiing and climbing
Skiing and cycling

This year we have 7 classes, as we have 2 classes on the Outdoor Activities course. There is no doubt that this course is highly regarded by today's youth and with the nature we have around the school, outdoor activities are our great strength. Here the students can get their feet wet and be at Nuken shortly afterwards, or take a bike ride to the climbing area in Kvam. Not least, it is a short drive to the ski paradise in Sogndalsdalen where many of our ski-enthusiastic students (and the principal) go on a lot of top trips.

The folk high school year so far has been special in many ways and it wasn't how we wanted our anniversary year to start. But we are making the best of it and looking forward to celebrating our school's 150th anniversary.

Congratulations on your day!