Thor Heyerdahl Upper Secondary School
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Thor Heyerdahl Upper Secondary School ( no, Thor Heyerdahl videregående skole) is an
upper secondary school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...
in Larvik, Norway, named for the explorer
Thor Heyerdahl Thor Heyerdahl KStJ (; 6 October 1914 – 18 April 2002) was a Norwegian adventurer and ethnographer with a background in zoology, botany and geography. Heyerdahl is notable for his ''Kon-Tiki'' expedition in 1947, in which he sailed 8,000& ...
,"Sky's the limit: Thor Heyerdahl School of Advanced and Further Education, Larvik, Norway"
''World Architecture News'', 25 September 2009.
who was born in the city. It was formed by combining the previous upper secondary schools in Larvik. It is one of the largest upper secondary schools in Norway, with approximately 1,650 students , and offers 10 programmes or courses of instruction.Om skolen
Thor Heyerdahl videregående skole, updated 6 December 2013
The school was split between several locations until a new building, built as a combined project with Arena Larvik, opened on 17 August 2009.


History

Thor Heyerdahl Upper Secondary School was formed in 2004 by the merger of the previously existing upper secondary schools in Larvik: ''Farris videregående skole'' (previously known as ''Larvik handelsskole'', Larvik business school), ''Gloppe skole'' (previously ''Vestfold fylkes husflidskole'',
Vestfold Vestfold is a traditional region, a former county and a current electoral district in Eastern Norway. In 2020 the county became part of the much larger county of Vestfold og Telemark. Located on the western shore of the Oslofjord, it bordered t ...
handcrafts school), ''Kilden videregående skole'' (previously ''Larvik yrkesskole'', Larvik vocational school) and ''Larvik gymnas'' (Larvik '' gymnasium'').Svein Magne Sirnes
"Thor Heyerdahl videregående skole"
'' Store norske leksikon'', retrieved 13 December 2013
The ''gymnasiums history goes back to the foundation of ''Laurvigs Middelskole'' (Larvik Middle School) in 1824; the Thor Heyerdahl name was first used in 1994. The
municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the go ...
of Larvik bought the ''gymnasium'' building and acquired Ahlefeldtsgate 6, 8 and 10 for 30.3 million kroner, but did not acquire the Farris or Gloppe school sites. On 17 August 2009 the school's new building opened, uniting all courses on a single campus. The official opening ceremony took place on 18 September."Fakta om den nye storskolen Thor Heyerdal videregående skole"
'' Østlands-Posten'', 21 July 2009
The building was designed by the Danish architecture firm of schmidt hammer lassen, who won the design competition in January 2006 in collaboration with the SLA landscape architecture firm with a proposal named ''Synergy''. The project also included Arena Larvik, which the school uses for sports; foreseen in 2004 to cost 597 million kroner, after construction costs rose sharply the entire project was budgeted at 983 million kroner in November 2006. Construction began in June 2007 with the demolition of the old school;Thor Heyerdahl Videregående Skole
Veidekke ASA (contract builders), with pictures, retrieved 13 December 2013
ground was broken for the new building in August. In the interim the school was housed in temporary space including a tent. The new building has five storeys in addition to workshops; it is connected to the arena by a first-floor bridge. Interior decoration of the new building was budgeted at approximately 1.8 million kroner, the design scheme being chosen by a jury. The building was nominated for Building of the Year in its class by ''Byggeiindustrien''. In 2020, Lin Marie Holvik was announced as the school's new
rector Rector (Latin for the member of a vessel's crew who steers) may refer to: Style or title *Rector (ecclesiastical), a cleric who functions as an administrative leader in some Christian denominations *Rector (academia), a senior official in an edu ...
.


Educational offerings and facilities

The school offers three university-preparatory and seven vocational courses plus
special education Special education (known as special-needs education, aided education, exceptional education, alternative provision, exceptional student education, special ed., SDC, or SPED) is the practice of educating students in a way that accommodates th ...
; of the 12 national upper secondary courses of study or programmes, only agriculture is instead taught at another upper secondary school, ''Melsom videregående skole'' in Stokke. The school building covers an area square and has of instructional space, including 320 classrooms, of workshops, a six-hall arena space seating 4,000, three auditoria seating 45–180 people, and a professional kitchen. The library is named Fatu Hiva after the Polynesian island on which Thor Heyerdahl spent his honeymoon in the 1930s. 11% of Thor Heyerdahl Upper Secondary School students speak a language other than Norwegian at home. The school is a focus school for the ''Nasjonalt senter for flerkulturell opplæring'' (National Centre for Multicultural Instruction) and was the first upper secondary school in Norway to make systematic use of
bilingual education In bilingual education, students are taught in two (or more) languages. It is distinct from learning a second language as a subject because both languages are used for instruction in different content areas like math, science, and history. The ...
, beginning in August 2009.


Operasjon Peru

A former student, Dag Petter Svendsen, launched ''Operasjon Peru'' (Operation
Peru , image_flag = Flag of Peru.svg , image_coat = Escudo nacional del Perú.svg , other_symbol = Great Seal of the State , other_symbol_type = National seal , national_motto = "Firm and Happy f ...
) in 1992 at one of the precursor schools, Larvik Handelsskole, as an alternative to the national ''Operasjon Dagsverk'' (Operation Day's Work).Gro Mee Teigen, "Imponerende ny rekord", ''Østlands-Posten'', 13 December 2006
online
at Prosjekt Peru
Both are student-organised charity actions to assist children in other countries in obtaining an education: the primary form of participation is for students to donate their pay from a day's work. ''Operasjon Peru'' specifically aids children in Peru and operates at Thor Heyerdahl Upper Secondary School, Re Upper Secondary School in Re, and Holmestrand Upper Secondary School in
Holmestrand is a town and municipality in Vestfold in Vestfold og Telemark county, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Holmestrand. The town was established as a municipality on 1 January 1838 (see formannskapsdistrikt). T ...
."'Nok til å drifte neste år også'"
''Østlands-Posten'', 5 December 2013
In 1993, Svendsen founded La Aldea children's home on the outskirts of
Chiclayo Chiclayo (; qu, Chiklayu) is the principal city of the Lambayeque region in northern Peru. It is located inland from the Pacific coast and from the nation's capital, Lima. Founded by Spanish explorers as "Santa María de los Valles de Chicl ...
, and in 1996, ''Operasjon Peru'' also opened a school in
Monsefú Monsefú is a town in Northern Peru, capital of the Monsefú district in the Chiclayo Province that is part of the Lambayeque Region. It is renowned for its food and handicrafts, which are on display at the annual FEXTICUM festival, named in 1973 ...
; in 2013 students at the three schools donated 786,000 kroner.


References


External links

*
Operasjon Peru
{{Authority control Secondary schools in Norway Larvik Educational institutions established in 2004 2004 establishments in Norway