In 16 schools across the country, a profound change is underway, driven by the Kata Foundation and its school development program, LEAPS, which is built on 10-year partnerships with schools and municipalities.
Many school development initiatives are relatively short, but we work in a very focused way over a long period, because school transformations takes time, and a long-term perspective is crucial if school practices are to be genuinely changed.
Peter Skat-Rørdam, CEO, Kata Foundation
Learning meets reality
The core of the LEAPS program is project-based and real-world teaching, where students immerse themselves in real problems. For example, a course where middle school students were tasked with designing the construction trailer of the future.
Here, they interviewed local craftsmen to understand their needs, wrote texts about working life, learned about crafts in a historical context, built scale models, and ended up designing a full-scale version of the future construction trailer. Suddenly, subjects like Danish, history, and mathematics became relevant in a completely new and concrete way.
A deep and long-term approach has secured broad support.
In addition to the Bitten & Mads Clausen's Foundation, which helped establish the Kata Foundation, the LEAPS program is now supported by a number of other prominent foundations, including the Købmand Herman Salling Foundation, the Villum Foundation, the Lundbeck Foundation, and the Novo Nordisk Foundation. The strong, joint funding underscores the confidence in the project as a sustainable way to renew the public school system.
More than just a project
To ensure that the change is not just a superficial initiative, the Kata Foundation works closely with each individual school. This requires perseverance and a strong management focus.
Peter Skat-Rørdam emphasizes:
If the goal is to transform school practice, it requires persistent, targeted efforts where you hold on to the long-term perspective. At the same time, the most important thing is that leaders, teachers, and educators are positive, because you don't get lasting school development by forcing people. A self-sustaining energy must be created.
Peter Skat-Rørdam, CEO, Kata Foundation
The Kata Foundation's employees are present at the schools weekly to help with everything from scheduling to facilitating cross-curricular team collaboration.
Today, 16 participating schools in eight municipalities are reaping the rewards of the long, hard work. And they are looking for more schools from 2027, when the Kata Foundation would like to collaborate with an additional 5-6 municipalities.
The results speak for themselves: increased engagement and motivation among students, growing satisfaction from parents, and great enthusiasm from both teachers and leaders.
The success is about a fundamental change in the joy of learning and teaching, which is now a regular part of everyday life at the 16 schools.
Read more about the Kata Foundation (in Danish) by following this link:
