FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Why do you have gender divided school groups?

To promote equality in the classroom, Hjalli Model schools use single-sex groups for the majority of the day and mixed settings for the remainder. In single-sex groups, we focus on freeing children from traditional gender roles and stereotypes, ensuring that both girls and boys receive equal attention and opportunities.The goal of having single-sex groups is not an end in itself but a method to achieve equality.

When children are in mixed settings, we ensure their interactions are positive, fostering collaboration and mutual respect. It’s crucial that they enjoy their time together, feeling equally strong and capable.

In single-sex settings, we engage in compensation work to strengthen gender-specific characteristics that need development. Generally, girls are encouraged to speak out, take up space, and stand up for themselves. Boys, on the other hand, are encouraged to express their emotions and resolve disagreements. They also work on improving social behaviors, such as connecting with others and articulating their feelings.

Our Equality Curriculum consists of 3 social training courses and 3 individual training courses. This curriculum is exactly the same for girls and boys, but in our experience the boys need more support during the social training part and the girls need more support when practicing the individual skills. The Equality curriculum needs to be trained in single-sex groups, even if the school using the curriculum is otherwise mixed.

How does the Hjalli Model address children who don’t identify with their assigned gender?

Firstly, it’s important to note that in our single-sex groups, we eliminate the concepts of "boyish" or "girlish" since children are not exposed to traditional gender roles by constantly seeing the opposite sex in different activities. This reduces discouragement and promotes trying new things. Secondly, our school uniforms are unisex, and we avoid traditional toys that tend to reinforce gender biases. In both groups, children engage in the same activities, effectively "de-gendering" the environment through our carefully planned single-sex settings. Thirdly, based on our experience, children with a nonbinary gender identity simply choose whether they want to be in the all-girls' or all-boys' department, based on their preference.

Why are there no traditional toys in your nurseries?

We sometimes hear people wonder why we do not have traditional toys and whether we are just trying to be eccentric. Some even think we consider toys bad for children.  Far from it. What we do like is to stretch the children‘s imagination by using open-ended materials. Wooden blocks e.g. can be used for almost anything. They can be a tea set, roads and cars, the solar system...whatever you want. A toy car is more or less a toy car, and a doll is a doll. It does not leave as much scope for the imagination even though roleplaying is wonderful and dolls and cars are fun.

What it boils down to is this. It is desirable for the children to play with different materials at school than the ones they have at home and open-ended materials enhance the children‘s creativity, collaboration, and it prompts original problem-solving. The material comes to life in the children‘s hands.

Could you explain to me why the Hjalli model is pro-school uniforms? 

From the age of 6 months to 10 years old, the children at Hjalli nurseries and schools wear uniforms. We love it, and we will explain why. 

We primarily look at our school uniforms as workwear. Our uniforms are comfortable to wear and easy to put on as they consist of sweatpants or cotton leggings and tee shirts, hoodies or fleece cardigans. The children and teachers do not have to worry about the clothes getting dirty, spilling paint or food on them, or playing outside. Even if the clothes do get stains that can‘t be properly removed, there are no worries as they are workwear.  

When all the children are wearing the same uniforms, they belong to the same team. This gives them a strong sense of belonging. It also reduces the level of peer pressure to wear specific brands and fashion styles and of course, the socioeconomic distinction is removed, making the social infrastructure more balanced and equal. At last but not least, our school uniforms are gender-neutral to promote body confidence rather than fitting a certain gender stereotype. 

There is also less friction and struggle when getting dressed in the morning, as the attire is already decided upon, and our parents love it.

One might argue that uniforms limit the children's expression. That is debatable, and some people feel strongly about that. We, on the other hand, believe that when the clothes are taken out of the equation, the children focus on their abilities, become stronger personalities and their individuality is enhanced. Vision, focus, integrity and courage are some of the traits of a good leader. It has little to do with what she/he wears, though there is nothing wrong with being a good dresser.    

What does the word "hjalli" mean?

The word "hjalli" is an old Icelandic word and has been used in different contexts throughout time. It is sometimes used metaphorically when getting around a difficult obstacle in life. In some circumstances it can mean to break taboos, sort of being a free spirit. Hjalli also is connected to the women‘s jobs of old times, when they used to dry the fish by hanging it up on wooden racks that were called fiskihjallar.