Primary schools in Utrecht/the Netherlands

[Ladydutchalot]

Hi,

My dd is enrolled in an international primary school, and due to start next week, on the strength that my father said he would pay the fees, and I was to pay him back next year. He has now decided against paying them, and there is no way I can meet the cost of them, so it looks like I am going to have to take her out and enrol her in a dutch primary. He has never done anything this mean before, and it has left me reeling!

Will she cope in a dutch school? She is 6.5 and finding it hard over here not being able to speak dutch, so I am really really worried now. Does anyone know the enrolment procedure? I have a handbook from the internet, but it is all in dutch, and I don't speak any yet either.

I know not so much about Dutch schools, but I do know you need to look for a "lagere school" primary school or "basischool" primary and kindergarten.

There is alot of choice in the Netherlands, either on grounds of religion (or none) or on grounds of teaching method. Look at the following website, it gives you a list of every school, plus you can search according to religion and also according to teaching method.

Use an online translator to translate the website.

I cannot help you with enrolment procedures, I'm sure someone living near you will be able to help you there.

Try and choose a school not far from home, then your daughter can be near her friends too.

6.5 should be easy to pick up Dutch within a year. If Netherlands is like Belgium in division of school years, your daughter will be in 1st year of primary, that would be ideal, hope this is the case as just the right age to learn to speak and write too.

www.basisschool-info.nl/utrecht
Oops forgot the link.

Try googling "dutch education" or "netherlands expats" for useful links in English explaining the education system.

I think you will have to find some help locally to figure this one out. I was just having a long discussion with my parents about the daftness of the Dutch school system (I'm Dutch, but live in UK) - my DN was signed up for her primary aged 2 weeks! And that is common practice for all 'special' schools, i.e. the ones that distinguish themselves on account of teaching methods or religion (and often the ones that have the best reputation).

So yes - there is a lot of choice in theory, but in practice, in your situation, I suspect choice will be limited to the 'openbare' schools (public ones). These can not refuse pupils (if I understand correctly), whilst all others can. This link shows all openbare schools - maybe try and find one close to you and take it from there?

Good luck

O yes - and they start primary on the first day after 4th birthday, so your DD will probably enter in Group 3 or so

Thank you both so much. I am really worried, she is struggling so much, and it feels like it is just going to get worse. Her school was one of the first things I got organised, as it was so important, and then this happens a week before term starts. I don't know what I am going to tell her.

Sorry - it must be tough; I can't really offer any advice on how she'll cope. I guess the good thing is that lots of even young Dutch kids will be understanding some english - so not being able to speak Dutch may not be a major obstacle initially. And she'll probably pick up the language quite quickly once she's fully immersed

Do you know anyone locally who can help? Which part of town are you in (I used to live there as a student)?

We are just off Janskerkhof (I'm here with the university too). I think I'm going to wander around schools and ask if they have spaces, but we go back to England for a week on Thursday, which makes everything even worse. If only Dad had told me two weeks ago, grrr!! Serves me right for relying on him really.

Children play pretty easily at 6 don't they? We haven't made any friends yet, but once term starts I am hoping we will. What a faff!!

Get yourself a big fold-out map, those links above give you the addresses of each school, mark each school on the map working outwards from your accommodation (with their type, openbare Catholic, Protestant, Jenaplan, Montessori), remember what Oricella said about the "openbare" schools being the ones most likely to have places. Hopefully you´ll be able to mark out around a dozen schools within 2 kms of your accommodation, or perhaps looking at public transport, mark schools along good transportaation routes. You might want to use a mapping website to help you, such as www.mapmyrun.com or www.viamichelin.com to give you distances.

I use this method when helping people find schools where I live, after a while I know almost by heart the location of every school.

Good Luck. 6 years old is a great age to adapt. Out of my brood, it was the 6 year old who adapted the easiest, mine were aged 12 to 3 when they changed language. The 6 year old now prefers her new language, she reads and writes better in it, it is quite an effort to get her to write in English.

2 schools near you :

Vrije school Utrecht - free school, Rudolf Steiner philosophy
www.vrijeschoolutrecht.nl/site.php
Hiëronymusplantsoen 3
3512 KV Utrecht

de Twijn School - Dalton philosophy, openbare schol on 2 sites
www.twijn.com/Piet.aspx
Pieterskerkhof 10
3512 JR Utrecht

wow that's bad luck with your dad deciding not to loan you the money for the fees after all.

Heck

I think your dd will pick up Dutch at that age in a regular Dutch school. I have no idea what the Dutch public schools are like, I suppose it will depend a bit on the area. If you look at the local public schools and aren't sure about them, go round and see the faith ones and throw yourself at their mercy. They may just take her in to help you out even if they fill up way in advance. In my dd's year 1 class (they were age 6) we had a boy from France who did not have a school place and they made an exception for him to help the family out. He picked up the local language in that year. The teacher spoke some French so could hlep if he was stuck. Dutch teachers will all speak English. She'll be fine onthe language/friendship score. Don't worry too much about that.

You need to see which schools look nice an friendly and are convenient. Good luck.

isthere a school dept sort of LEA office in utrecht near you. They would all speak English there and might be able to help you find something. They'll know ifthere are any public schools with Engl-Dutch bilingual options for instance. On the info you have is there an office like that listed? If so , I would just go in and ask

One bit of good news is that, because you are slap bang in the middle of town, it may be easier to access places because your DD is a little older. Often people move out to the suburbs, meaning that it's easier to grab a place in group 3 than in group 1

But as natation suggests - get your map out and try and visit as many schools as you can

good luck