Principal of Ørestad School

Can you unite high ambitions, strong communities, and clear leadership?

Ørestad School is seeking an experienced and engaged principal who can set a clear direction, bring the organization together, and create strong frameworks for students' learning and well-being. You will enter an ambitious and development-oriented school with a strong pedagogical profile, engaged staff, and high expectations for the future.

Your most important task will be to create coherence between the school's visions and daily practice – and through proximity and clear leadership ensure both smooth operations, professional development, and strong child communities. This requires a school leader who can both set strategic direction, develop his/her leadership team, and stay close to the school's day-to-day life.

Ørestad School is a profile school with a virtual and aesthetic learning environment, where creativity, innovation, and digital learning forms are part of the school's DNA and daily life. We are a school where safety, a sense of community, and innovative learning activities frame an inspiring everyday life for children, staff, and leaders.

Our vision is to form children who meet the world with curiosity, courage, and a desire to make a difference. We believe that children learn with head, body, and heart, and that strong, committed communities are the foundation for both academic development and well-being.

Ørestad School is part of Ørestad's shared school district and consists of approximately 704 pupils spread across 32 classes from 0th to 9th grade.

The school day is distributed across three campuses in Ørestad City. The main building on Arne Jacobsen's Allé houses the majority of the school's teaching and shared facilities, while the oldest students spend their daily time in Mediebyen near Field's. Additionally, HUB1, located on Kay Fiskers Plads opposite the main building, houses specially equipped facilities for, among other things, crafts, design, and visual arts.

Diverse child communities

In the City of Copenhagen's Department of Children and Youth, the ambition is that all children should be part of strong communities where they meet with high expectations and feel that they have something valuable to contribute. At Ørestad School we therefore work with diverse child communities where diversity is seen as a strength, and where high pedagogical quality, clear frameworks, and predictability form the basis for well-being and learning.

The school is characterized by pedagogical ambitions and development and is for example in the process of introducing project-based learning as a lever to strengthen students' immersion and creativity across subjects and year groups. As school principal, your task will be to create coherence between the ambitions and the school's daily practice. You must ensure that development occurs with attention to staff professionality, students' varying needs, and a stable, well-functioning operations.

It requires clear prioritization, the ability to make decisions, and a leadership style that creates trust, engagement, and common direction.

In the role you will be crucial in maintaining a sustainable school culture, ensuring well-being, safety, and academic excellence, which must support both pupils, staff, and parents. You must be able to make difficult decisions, set clear expectations, and ensure follow-up across the organization.

“Our new school principal must lead to secure a clear common direction for a diverse, development-oriented, and ambitious school. It requires being close in everyday life and able to bring together staff, leaders, and parents around the shared direction. At the same time, you should actively contribute to the strong leadership community across the district's schools, where we jointly take responsibility for developing our entire school system,” says your upcoming area manager Birgitte Flansmose.

Your main tasks

As principal you will have overall responsibility for the school's academic, pedagogical, organizational, and strategic development.

Your main tasks will be to

• create clear direction, structure, and followership in an organization with complex operations and high ambitions
• lead and develop the school's department heads and strengthen a committed leadership collaboration across the school, KKFO, and other partners
• build trusting relationships with a engaged school board, staff, parents, and students
• ensure that the school's pedagogical direction and visions are felt in teaching, leisure activities, and children's everyday life
• maintain strong collaborative interfaces to the local community and cross-disciplinary actors in a diverse district with more than 70 nationalities
• prepare and lead the school through a forthcoming major renovation and relocation within the next few years
• and most importantly: ensure high quality in teaching, students' learning, and well-being

Nurture, dialogue, and inclusion are important elements of your work. Our principal must dare to assume responsibility, provide direction, and be a listening partner that engages both staff and parents.

“We want a principal who provides us with both sparring and constructive challenge. We have good initiatives underway that must be carried through, and at the same time we must become even better at leading the school together across departments and disciplines,” says deputy head and head of the upper secondary department, Mads Dyrby Aarø-Hansen.

Who are you?

We imagine that you have

• significant experience in school leadership, e.g., as a principal or deputy principal, and it is important that you have experience in leading leaders
• experience with stable and secure school operations, including responsibility for finances, strategy, and development
• ability to set direction and build trust through open and clear communication
• a relevant educational background and a passion for promoting learning and well-being in a diverse environment

What do we offer?

• a unique opportunity to run an ambitious school with a modern virtual-aesthetic profile and its own design wheel
• an opportunity to strengthen a school focused on committed communities and high academic quality
• a collaborative environment characterized by engagement, a high dedication to core tasks, and respect for diversity
• an workplace that prioritizes staff well-being and professional development
• a close leadership community with the district's three other school leaders and cluster leaders with opportunities for sparring about leadership possibilities and challenges

About Ørestad School

Ørestad School is an ambitious public school located in the heart of Ørestad City in Copenhagen, in an architectural school building with modern learning facilities. The school has a strong virtual-aesthetic profile and works with the Global Citizen as its pedagogical formation ideal. The aim is to create strong, committed communities where children learn with head, body, and heart and develop courage, curiosity, and a desire to take an active part in the world.

Conditions of employment

Salary and terms of employment according to current collective agreement and within the framework of local pay formation.

Start on January 1, 2027 or as soon as possible thereafter.

In connection with the appointment we will obtain a criminal background check and references.

More information

You can read more about the position in our detailed job profile .

You are welcome to call Bjarke Müller, partner at Mercuri Urval, at 91 35 69 01, or Mia Persson, consultant at Mercuri Urval, at 53 82 98 84. You are also welcome to contact Birgitte Flansmose, area manager in the Department of Children and Youth, at 40 24 48 10 for a confidential background conversation.

Together with your application please attach your CV and educational certificate.

Apply via the link no later than Friday, November 15, 2026

First interview on November 19, 2026 and second interview on November 24, 2026. We use tests in the selection process.