A Danish school without chairs in North Jutland is being presented as a practical example for other schools across the country, after years of experimenting with classrooms built around flexible seating rather than fixed rows of desks and chairs.
At Grindsted School near Vodskov, pupils can choose where and how to sit during lessons: on boxes, beanbags, stools, window ledges, the floor or, in some cases, outdoors. Traditional chairs have not disappeared entirely, but they are no longer the default. The approach has been in place since 2017, when the school built new classrooms and chose to align furniture with its teaching methods rather than adapting teaching to old furniture.
Why Grindsted School replaced traditional classroom seating
The idea, according to headteacher Søren Kold Madsen, was to start from pedagogy rather than from inherited classroom design. Instead of asking pupils and teachers to fit into a traditional setup, the school redesigned the learning space around how teaching is carried out today.
That shift reflects a broader debate in Denmark about how schools should support concentration, participation and different learning styles. In practice, Grindsted School begins some lessons with pupils gathered together on stacked boxes in the middle of the room. After that, children can choose a place that suits the activity and their own way of working.
Teachers at the school say this can make a visible difference, especially for children who struggle in a conventional classroom. The more open setup allows some pupils to step back from the group without being fully excluded from it.
How flexible classrooms can support focus and inclusion
Pupils interviewed by TV2 described the system as giving them more control over how they learn. Some said they feel more alert because they can move to a different place when they need to refocus. Others said the possibility of sitting near a window or on softer stools makes schoolwork easier to manage.
That element of choice is central to the school’s argument. Teachers say that when pupils are given some influence over their learning environment, it can strengthen both motivation and a sense of responsibility. The model also appears to support a more inclusive environment for children who may find a standard desk-and-chair setup restrictive.
Why the model is not a simple fix for every school
Grindsted School is not presenting the approach as a miracle solution. Kold Madsen also pointed to the limits of the model. Flexible classrooms require practice, clear routines and guidance from teachers, because pupils still need to move without disturbing others.
For that reason, the school has kept the option of returning temporarily to more traditional desks and chairs if a class becomes too unsettled. In other words, the project is based on adaptation, not on ideology. The underlying point is not that all chairs should disappear, but that school furniture should serve pedagogy, inclusion and concentration.
A national Danish debate on school spaces is taking shape
The story now has a wider significance because Grindsted School has been included in Skolens Rum (“The school’s spaces”), a new publication released on 9 April 2026 by Realdania together with major Danish school organisations. The publication draws on the experiences of 18 schools across Denmark and has been distributed to the country’s public schools and all 98 municipalities.
According to Realdania and its partners, the aim is to show how school design can support motivation, community and varied forms of teaching. The initiative comes at a time when Denmark is investing heavily in school infrastructure. Realdania notes that the 2024 Folkeskole agreement set aside 2.6 billion Danish kroner (about €348 million) to upgrade school facilities.
That gives this local North Jutland case a broader policy relevance. Grindsted School is being used not simply as an unusual experiment, but as part of a national discussion about how physical spaces can improve learning, wellbeing and inclusion in Danish public education.
What other schools in Denmark may learn from the example
The most transferable lesson from Grindsted School may be less about removing chairs than about rethinking the relationship between space and teaching. The Danish example suggests that relatively simple design choices can help schools accommodate different needs, especially when they are tied to clear educational goals.
Whether other schools choose beanbags, stools, movable zones or only partial redesigns, the broader message is the same: classrooms do not have to remain organised around a single model of attention, behaviour and learning. As Denmark’s debate on school reform and learning environments continues, cases like Grindsted School are likely to be cited as a concrete example of how everyday school spaces can be redesigned from the ground up.
