International school possibility

Last activity 23 August 2024 by Droplover

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Jp123456Member23 September 2023 08:16:13

Hello,

Thanks for all the fantastic contributions to this forum, often so useful to me. We live in the Netherlands since 2018 and my child was born here in 2020. We are now deciding between international and Dutch school.

My son attends an international day care. The main language is English with some very occasional Dutch. We, as parents, have very limited Dutch skills and my child even less. He can understand some words and say certain things but his English language skills are far superior. We certainly don’t think he has enough Dutch to enter a Dutch school in less than a year.

I am interested if others have any past experience in this regard. Our current plan is to enter our child in an international school when he is 5. We are certainly open to him moving to a Dutch school after a few years if our long term plans are to reside in NL, once his Dutch language skills are higher and his academic confidence established. Ideally he would attend one of the International schools which are partially subsidised and therefore have reduced fees. I understand there are certain admission requirements for this and would be interested if others have experience of how to provide evidence you meet these requirements.

None of us have Dutch nationality and our future is not entirely certain - we both work freelance on a project/ contract basis remotely, usually with international clients. We could remain in the Netherlands (I am British and we moved here before Brexit) but we don’t have permanent employment here. Interested in others with any similar experience giving insight on the admission process for those particular International Schools.

Much appreciated,

CynicUK / Netherlands Expert23 September 2023 09:12:29

7647

My opinion. Send your son to a Dutch school; you will be amazed at how quickly he will pick up the language.

When we moved to the Netherlands, we faced a similar dilemma, except my wife being Dutch, they had always experienced the language from her and my wife's family. Our eldest had already spent 3 years in an English school before we moved there, with our twins reaching school age just as we moved, there was no way we could have afforded an international school for all 3 of them, so they went to Dutch school. Today, we have ended up back in the UK, the kids all speak Dutch, English and German fluently, 2 went on to an English Uni, and one a technical college, they have thrived from their multicultural childhood.

I'm not knocking International schools, they have a place for those migrants who only intend to spend a limited time in the country and they want their kids to follow the UK or US (or whatever) school programmes so they will find it easier when they eventually move back to their home countries.

I wish you all the best of luck in your future and hope this helps.

Cynic

Expat Team

DroploverContributor23 September 2023 14:17:59

131

Good morning! We moved to the Netherlands from the US when our daughters were 2 and 3 years old. They did not speak dutch. We arrived in September and our oldest daughter turned 4 in December. In dutch schools the children start on their 4th birthday. Our second daughter started in a dutch preschool 2 afternoons a week and then started public school on her 4th birthday as well. Our oldest daughter did not speak at all in school for several months (dutch or English) but she did start speaking dutch with other children within a few months. She always was happy to go to school and was popular among the other kids but she likely decided not to speak until she was fluent which she became within 6 months. Our second daugher spoke dutch when she entered school because of her sister and dutch friends from preschool. I would consider putting your son in dutch schools. Not only for him to learn dutch but also for you as parents. You will form many friendships fast through your children with dutch people. We moved bck to the US after 2.5 years and our kids never had an issue adapting back to English speaking schools. Just keep speaking english to your son at home and he will grow up bilingual. Good luck!

WalthamstowNew member16 August 2024 06:31:55

@Droplover

hi there, where abouts in Netherlands did you move to? Did you find it easy to integrate into a comminity?

DroploverContributor23 August 2024 14:50:37

131

We lived in Haren, near Groningen in the North. Integration was easy for us but I was born and raised in the Netherlands so I am fluent in dutch. As you probably know everyone in the Netherlands speaks English well.

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