Welcome to the Danish School Down Under

“Danish School Down Under” is a small, not for profit, community school. The School began operating in early 1997 and has experienced steady growth since its inception. It meets on most Sundays during term time at Richmond Primary School, Mary Street, Richmond. Lessons start at 10.00am and finish at 12.30pm – getting there a bit earlier is a good idea.

Most years we arrange a School Camp and a Danish Christmas.

Why learn your mother tongue? Excerpts from “The importance of learning the mother tongue in an adopted country”, by ACSSO (Australian Council of State School Organisations):

It is through language that we develop our thoughts, shape our experience, explore our customs, structure our community, construct our laws, articulate our values and give expression to our hopes and ideas. ‘Mother Tongue’ is a common language that is freely and comfortably spoken by adult generations both at home and outside to their successors in a community and reflect one’s culture and ethnic backgrounds.

It is the means by which different groups within the society maintain their identities…
Encouraging young children to learn their Mother Tongue will help them to develop confidence, self-esteem and their unique identity within a multi-cultural society….

Culture and traditions essentially go hand in hand with language…. Incidentally, language background becomes a visible ingredient of one’s cultural heritage and ethnicity…

Through mother tongue children learn the everyday life patterns of their contemporary age group, cultural traditional social conventions, historical roots, relationships with other cultures, cultural achievements, current events and regional and geographical concepts, historical evidence of civilisation in different countries including their own…

Bilingualism assists the child’s general intellectual and conceptual development as well…
The objective of learning mother tongue should be to promote, foster and propagate the cultural heritage, within the framework of multi-culturalism with a view to achieve the goal — ‘unity in diversity’ in a more cohesive, equitable and harmonious Australia…

“The greatest and most powerful gift a parent can give their child is to pass on their language and their culture…”