Start of school?

Question

I heard that in the Netherlands the land is broken up into 3 parts and this determines when schools start and end. Is this true? if so, when are the starting dates? Do the universities start on the same day as the public schools do in that area or are they like some US colleges that start 2-3 weeks before the public/private school? Any other information about the schooling system that you think I might find interesting please add. I am going to college to become a teacher and would love to learn about other culture's schooling.

I am thinking of studying abroad. With the university I attend, the teachers are usually sent to Maastricht to gain more knowledge on foreign teaching. However with my minor of German I get the added option of going for a semester to either doing teacher assisting in Maastricht or doing my Student teaching in Germany.

Answer 1

Hi,

you heard correct.
In order to make sure that not everyone goes on holiday the same day, The Netherlands has 3 zones.
North, Middle and South.

There are no set starting dates, as they vary each year a bit, but generally zone 1 starts, zone 2 a week later, and zone 3 another week later - where the south is the first.

High schools and universities usually have a main (summer) holiday of 1 week more than "lower schools" .

Some colleges and universities offer summer courses, but i guess that would not fall under " starting early" - as these are extra, and not regular programs.

If you want to learn about the system here - why not come and visit us ?

Answer 2

University courses may start later than the secondary school start after summer, but the new students will get an introduction week before that, and as far as I know that has already happened for most or all of the universities in the Netherlands while 1/3 th of the country is still having holidays. (The last primary school children start coming Monday, the secondary schools the next week.)
The order in which each part of the country is getting holidays moves on per year, if you had an early holiday this year, you will not have it the next.

Many of our schools are private in that they are started, governed and run by private people, but all have get state funding (except very few secondary and few colleges.)
They also have to teach the same subjects up to the same level and include the same information on each school.
Mostly the only difference between a state and a private school is that on those private schools that have a religious base you get religion as one of the subjects.
Very few schools will use the bible as the whole truth, unlike what I hear from the USA where that is more common.

When I went to school we had kindergarten, age 4 to 6 and not compulsory,
Primary school, age 6 to 12, Now these two are rolled into one, starting at age 4, compulsory at age 5, still up to age 12.
Secondary school, 12 to 16, 17, 18 or if you did a combination older.
Tertiary school, all the schools, colleges and universities, you need to have finished secondary school to the level needed to enter the one of your choice. No entry exams, final exams on the level below are conclusive, but some places they have a ballot or an interview system to select students. (Now the top of the secondary school, VWO only, can get in without having to go through ballot.)

Vincent has given good information on how the secondary schools used to be organized, but the gouvernment has changed a lot in the last 10 years and I also do not know a lot about the situation now. The thing that has changed most is the amount of subjects in which you have to take exams, and where you used to be free to make any combination of subjects, now you seem to have to take sets of related subjects.
And I think Maths is also compulsory now.

If you want to study in the Netherlands next year you will need to start getting information pretty soon, as selection and paperwork may take a while.
And do not wait with looking for a place to stay till the schools start after summer, as all students have to find their own accommodation, and most start as soon as they know which town they want to study, even before they are sure they are accepted.

Answer 3

yes, the devision is made to releif the roadnetwork on the first days of holliday. the three regions are split into north midle and south. the only exception being rotterdam, which is in hte mid and counts as south.

the starting dates are tied to the schoolyear and are all 1 week apart. The dates differ each year. the schooyear usually ends in june or juli and starts in august or september.


this whole system only applies to primary and secondary schools, universities have set dates. (starts 1st septembre)
for the south, this year, the schools start on the 3rd of september.

Answer 4

Hi, I went to Dutch schools most of my life, but I also went to some international schools and even a US High School for a while so I can make some comparisons, but my high school days are well behind me and a lot has changed in Dutch schools since then, so I'm not really up to date... Enterprise is correct about the starting dates/zones btw, afaik, so I won't go into that any further, except that the reason for it is traffic... We have serious traffic problems on our highways and if the entire country would come back from vacation in the same weekend there'd be very serious problems on the roads...

Ok, here's a few differences between Dutch and American schools...

1. Apart from a very small number of exceptions there's no school busses in the Netherlands (Holland from now on as it's easier to write)... Most kids in Holland ride their bikes to school.
2. There's physical education in schools and a bit of sports here and there but most kids who do sports don't do them in school but in separate sport clubs...
3. We don't have a single High School system where everybody goes to High School but we have various kinds of High Schools at various levels that all prepare for a different kind of work/higher education.
4. When they're about 11 years old, Dutch kids take a kind of SAT called CITO-toets, the outcome of which for a very large part decides what kind of High School a child will then go to.
5. These different kinds of high school, to name a few, can be called VMBO, MAVO, HAVO, VWO for instance, there's more kinds I think, and I think VMBO isn't called VMBO anymore cause it had a bad rep... MAVO is 4 years, HAVO is 5 years and VWO is 6 years... You need HAVO to go to a vocational college and VWO to go to a "real" university.
6. We grade from 1 to 10... 5,5 is pass, less is a fail...
7. Apart from Dutch, English is mandatory in almost all schools and every Dutch child gets at least a few years of English in school... Most Dutch children also learn a third (mandatory for various schools HAVO and up)or even a fourth language in school and in certain VWO schools Latin and ancient Greek are also mandatory...
8. We have different kinds of universities, "real" universities and pseudo-universities (HBO) that are not allowed to call themselves university in Holland but ARE allowed to call themselves University to foreign students... HBO is where you can go with HAVO and a real university requires VWO (Example; University of Amsterdam is a real one, University of The Hague is not, it's HBO)
9. There's some extracuricular activities in Dutch schools, but nothing like in the States... The choice of classes is also much more limited... For instance, I did MAVO, HAVO and VWO (which is unusual, most people only do one) and the classes I took were Dutch, English, German, French, Geography, History, Economics 1 and 2, Chemistry, Physics, Biology, Sociology (kind of, more social awareness/government studies, maatschappijleer) and mathematics... If you're in a certain grade and want to take History for example, you can, but there's not any options like European history vs. American History or anything like that... and math is math and includes algebra and all other kinds of math there is...
10. At the end of your 4, 5 or 6 years you take an exam in at least 6 or more of the subjects you took classes for that are part mandatory depending on what school system you have done... Dutch and English I think are always mandatory, no matter what system and a third language is mandatory in many... Out of all the 13 (or more if I forgot any) classes I took I ended up taking final exams in only 7. You need passing grades in each except for one or two where you're allowed a 4,5 or 5 or something to get your diploma, again depending on the system I think...

That's all I can think of for now, let us know if you have any more questions...


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Ok, please don't be insulted by me saying this, but you're aware that the Netherlands and Germany are separate countries with different languages, right?