Public Bilingual High School fee in Amsterdam
 

I am Romanian and I am interested in found out the fee in public bilingual high school in Amsterdam. Thanks. :)

Re: Public Bilingual High School fee in Amsterdam
 

The public bi-lingual stream is VWO; I don't think you can enter these unless you speak Dutch first; there are no fees as such, although it's common in all Dutch schools for the parents to have to pay for school books etc.

Most expat kids who don't speak Dutch are entered into the MBO school level, which unless they are extremely bright, pretty much excludes them from VWO, without an extra year of school (which does have to be paid for and be recommended by the teacher). What are your intentions here?

Re: Public Bilingual High School fee in Amsterdam
 

Hi Cynic,
Thank you for your prompt response.
My son must study Dutch at a public school and then began to frequent objects of study in the same school? I understood well? How long has he been studying Dutch before all? ☺

Re: Public Bilingual High School fee in Amsterdam
 

Hi Elliana,

There are two basic issues here; can your son speak Dutch and how clever he is.

How the public school system works in Holland is that the schools are structured so that all kids, regardless of ability, are taught together up to age 12. When they reach this age, they are split into different streams appropriate to their abilities; these streams are:

Elementary school - age 4 > 12
VMBO/MBO - age 12 > 16/19
HAVO/HBO - age 12 > 22
VWO/WO - age 12 > 22

All Dutch public elementary schools teach in Dutch; there are no bi-lingual public schools until they reach the age where they split the children into their respective streams for further education and then only those streamed into VWO will have the possibility for bi-lingual education; which 2nd language can depend on where the school is; it pretty much falls into those in the West offer English, while those in the East offer German; even then, it is the specialisation subjects (sciences, engineering etc) that are taught in the 2nd language, everything else is in Dutch.

If your son is between 4 > 12, he will go to the Elementary school with all the rest of the kids. The younger he is, the better chance he will have of being offered the full stream of education as his written and spoken Dutch will hopefully be good enough to cope with the higher streams of education.

At age 12, if your sons Dutch is not good enough, regardless of ability, he will be streamed into VMBO/MBO; while in VMBO/MBO, if his Dutch improves enough and he demonstrates the ability to cope with the higher levels, he will get the chance to switch to the HAVO/HBO, or VWO/WO streams at age 16 and 19, like all the Dutch kids do. He may have to do an extra year of MBO (which has to be paid for).

The relevance of this is that MBO is generally regarded as providing for the vocational sector, while HBO/WO are regarded more as University level.

You can also consider sending your son to one of the many International schools in Holland (or anywhere else in the world) who teach in English; when we considered this, it was far too expensive to send our 3 kids, so they all went through the public school system I've described above. One went on to University in the UK, one is an electrician, the other is a nurse, they haven't suffered from going through public school.

Hope this helps.

Re: Public Bilingual High School fee in Amsterdam
 

Hi Cynic,

You're very kind giving me so much information.
Do you have knowledge of any list of public schools in Amsterdam?

Thanks again. ☺

Re: Public Bilingual High School fee in Amsterdam
 

Hi Elliana,

This link may help answer your question.

Re: Public Bilingual High School fee in Amsterdam
 

Thank you very much for your kindness.
All the best.