Local schools or international?

[Abrico]

We live in the Netherlands (The Hague) and are having a lot of discussions on schooling at the moment.
DC1 (6) is in an international school, because that seemed the best option when we moved here as he did not speak any Dutch. But now we need to make a decision for DC2 (3), as to whether he goes to international or local school.
I would be grateful to hear of your experiences of both options, especially long term.

We are planning on staying here, and I worry that the kids will never feel at home here if they go to international schools. At the same time I worry about them feeling "other" if they go to the local schools.

Also, if you sent your kids to a local school in a country where you the parents did not speak the language, how did that work out?

I get what you're saying *steppemum It's just its someone everyone seems to say to me 'ah but it'll come back to them'. No they have just spent two weeks in an environment where no one else speaks English and they still haven't progressed much past 'bonjour'!

zimmer - they may be understanding more than you think, and they may not even realise it. (My son sometimes says something which makes me realise that witout realising it he has picked up something that was said in the other language). I say that because they are repeatedly exposed to that language, and having been fluent in the past, there is probably residual understanding.
It would take a couple of months to get them back up to speaking again probably, and then longer to get back up to fluency, but it wouldn't take as long as it did the first time for them to get fluent. Keep exposing them to it.

(And also, from my experience, protect them from the high expectations of others, as it is quite stressful I think when other people expect them to speak in a language they don't speak in.)

I think they might understand a bit but they just refuse to speak it (the language being French). Ah well, as long as they're happy I suppose. They were getting after school classes twice a week but they were so anti I decided I didn't want them hating the language and so stopped the classes.

Don't get me started Arabic where they've been having two or three hours a week in school of for the last four years and are surrounded by but also claim not to be able to say much more than hello in! I'm sure they must understand some in reality.

For expat kids who have grown up surrounded by different languages they're amazingly scared about having to communicate in other languages.

The Arabic here is more about reading and writing than knowing vocab or grammar. So the calligraphy is improving, but ask them for more than numbers and alphabet and they are stumped.
tbf, this is the 4th language and 3rd "alphabet" they have been subjected to aged 6 and 8. If the Arabic comes to nothing when we leave, well, that's the alphabet I would prefer to be lost of the choices?

OP do you have a place at a Dutch school? Because 3 is late for The Hague - the good schools are fully subscribed when the children turn 1 (as I'm sure you know).

It depends too if you're staying permanently or not and who is paying the school fees! And also if you're not permanent, who you work for and where future postings are likely to be i.e. if it's Shell and you'll find Dutch schools abroad.

And if you have a place in a Dutch school it's easier (but hang on) to switch to an international school than going international to local. If you were to try that the gemeente is not obliged to find you a place in your neighbourhood school, only a school place. The schools with places tend not to be the areas where "expats" live near. If you're in local trying to switch to international, then depending on the work situation of you and/or your partner, your child may not get in for a number of years, because there are waiting lists in many and priority is given to children who are arriving from abroad and/or who can't go in the Dutch system.

The other issue is managing pickup and drop off - I've got friends with kids in different schools and it is a bit of a nightmare - different inset days (so double days off for parents), similar pickup times etc.

The other thing is that the international schools have smaller class sizes, with assistants. The Dutch classes are around 30 pupils and rarely have an assistant. Logically this means a different type of interaction with the children.