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 in which the child is to start.

Legal residence and application

You can apply for a nursery place and be placed on the waiting list even if your child does not have a registered address in Hafnarfjörður. When your child's settling-in period begins, they must have a registered address in Hafnarfjörður. If the address has not been changed by then, the allocated place will unfortunately be cancelled.

Choosing a nursery school

You can select more than one nursery in your application. We encourage you to look at the available nurseries, contact the headteachers and find out more about their work.

• Main choice: We do our utmost to accommodate requests for a nursery school as the first choice.

• Optional extras: If there are no places available at the nursery you first chose, we will look at your next choice.

• Another free space: If none of the chosen nurseries can accept the child, the child will be offered a place. at the nursery where there is a vacancy.

Length of stay

You can choose a stay time from 4 to 8.5 hours a day, depending on what best suits your family. Flexible stay times are available for all nursery children, with a minimum of 4 hours per day.

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 a place in a nursery. You apply for priority at Our pages. In some cases, a certificate from an accredited analyst must be provided.

Priority can be applied for:

• Children with disabilities (diagnosis certificate).
• Children with developmental disorders (diagnosis certificate).
• Children experiencing difficulties, for example 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. There is no charge for nursery fees 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.