Nursery schools

Apply for a nursery place

You apply for a nursery place for your child in Valu. An application must be submitted by 1 March of the year the placement is requested. A child must be resident in Hafnarfjörður to receive a place at a nursery school, but they can be placed on a waiting list if they are resident elsewhere.

You can apply for more than one nursery in your application. Please take a look at the nurseries on offer, contact the relevant headteachers and find out more about their work. If there is no availability at your first-choice nursery, a nursery at your second choice will offer you a place; if there is no availability there either, you will be offered a place at a nursery where there is a vacancy.

You can choose a study period from 4 hours up to 8.5 hours a day, but always at the same time every weekday.

Allocation of nursery place

When your child is offered a place at the nursery, you will receive an email with an invitation to confirm the place with the nursery manager. Children are placed on a waiting list by their date of birth, and the order on the list determines which child is offered a nursery place. Older children are given priority over younger children. Children who qualify for priority can get in earlier.

Priority for nursery school

Children in special circumstances can be given priority for nursery places. Priority is applied for on Our pages. In some cases, a certificate from an accredited analyst must be submitted.

Priority can be applied for:

• Children with disabilities (diagnosis certificate).
• Children with developmental disorders (diagnosis certificate).
• Children experiencing difficulties, child protection issues (certificate from social services). 
• Children who have a parent or sibling with a serious illness or disability (certificate from a doctor or other official body).
• Children whose parents are under the age of 18.
• Children of single parents with three or more children to support, where the eldest child is 9 years of age or younger.
• Triplets.

Summer holidays and closures

Nursery schools in Hafnarfjörður are closed for 5 days a year for planning days, in addition, there are 4 shortened school days throughout the year for planning school activities. The school calendar for each individual nursery school can be found on the nursery schools' websites. 

Children are entitled to a minimum of four weeks' continuous summer holiday. Nurseries in Hafnarfjörður are closed for the last two weeks of July. No nursery fees are charged during the summer holiday and closures.

Independent nurseries

You can request a place in a private nursery school for your child and have the fee subsidised if the nursery has an educational philosophy that is markedly different from that of the nursery schools in Hafnarfjörður. Parents who are full-time students can apply for a place in a private nursery school from the age of 12 months.