ger

Hi...Our kids are in state school in the Netherlands, ages 5 & 6. All learning is through Dutch but we are intending to teach our kids, ourselves, to read and write in English. Current plan is to return to the UK in approx 3 years. Just wondering if anyone has any idea of how difficult or not it will be for the kids to integrate into the UK school system. Are they likely to be behind in any subjects?

furkew

I dont have any first hand experience in the matter, but my children are 8 & 11 and have only recently started to get them to learn English properly. We are headed for Australia middle of next year, and in the few months that they have been practicing, they learn very quickly.

If you are going in 3 years, I dont see that the language will be a problem.

With regards to the schools, becuase your children will be 8 & 9 at the time, they are going to be on a similar level as in the Uk. If they are behind, if they are average or above average learners, they will catch up very quickly.

Children adapt to situations much quicker than us adults, and learn languages in very short time periods. In Holland everything on the TV, Radio & computer games is English spoken, so they are learning subconsiously all the time.

Hope this helps,

Paul

Jenster

There are also loads of products on sale to help Dutch speaking kids learn English, the BBC sells some even. I'm sure it will be fairly easy. We've managed to keep our 3-year old pretty much bilingual although we've stopped speaking Dutch to her altogether as we get ready to leave Holland for the US. She's becoming more advanced in English every day, and she's not Dutch so there's little point in her keeping the language.
I can't help with the level side of things, except to give my personal opinion which is that the UK schools aren't very likely to be ahead of any other country's schools if what I hear from friends these days is true.

Mehari

Ger,

Don't worry about your kids intergrating in a UK school. I have first hand experience as we emigrated from NL to GB in 1978. We (+2 brothers)were only
couple years older then what your children will be in 3 years time. Only school subject they might fall behind in is : English history. NL schools are generally ahead with maths & World/European geography. You might want to ask new UK school head if your children could benefit from extra private English language tuition(sure a teacher will volunteer for small sum of money?)
You might want to contact NL Embassy in London to see if there are any Dutch clubs available in area you have planned to reside. We too at first missed Sinterklaas, etc. (As Dutch is now seen as a modern language, you might want to contact local Universities to see if they have a Dutch language courses.) There are a lot of Dutch expats living in UK, so it's important for your children to fill their social gap.
Don't worry about them picking up the language - To live in any country is the best and quickest way to learn that language !

Mehari