Pernille Kongstad

Head of School & Founder — Denmark & United States

Pernille was born in Copenhagen into a family of university professors, and grew up immersed in an inclusive Danish education built on autonomy, creativity and the active participation of students. Her father, vice-president of a university in Copenhagen, shaped the educational path in which Pernille thrived.

As a teenager, accompanying her mother — a researcher at Stanford, in California — she spent several months immersed in a high school that embodied the principles of American education: encouraging students and pushing past their own limits. That revealing experience awakened in her the possibility of dreaming in English, and deepened her sensitivity to cultural difference.

France

After the baccalauréat, she left to learn French by immersion in the south of France, then went on to business school. She went on to build a working life that was first international, then rooted in Castelnau-le-Lez.

Castelnau-le-Lez

The mother of three little girls and a boy — all enrolled in the French education system, and introduced to travel across the world from their earliest years — Pernille drew one deep wish from her international path: to create an international school offering children the best of both worlds:

• an international education that reaches beyond borders, nurturing language learning and intercultural understanding,
• and a French education, rich in its intellectual heritage and recognised for a structured system that fosters rigour and academic accomplishment.

A local commitment

In opening her school, Pernille also reaffirms her commitment to the community, educational and sporting life of Castelnau — a commitment her whole family has sustained since 2020 through a range of roles, all aimed at actively improving the quality of life in their town.

Open to the world

By creating her school in the region where she lives, Pernille wishes to give parents in and around Montpellier the possibility of applying for their children to join a school that is open to the world.

Driven by her passion for children, she is supported by experienced professionals who specialise in international early-years education.