February 27, 2010 1:11:44 PM CET
Hi there, I do not know Rotterdam much. We only go there for special events like Chinese New Year or an occasional Sunday roast at an Irish pub or go shopping for English books. They have a neat children`s museum where children can do short hands on activities and their zoo is really cool. I do not know about Dutch primary schools there.
You might want to contact
http://www.intouchnl.com and or the Rotterdam expat desk
http://www.rotterdam.nl/expatdesk_english or ACCESS a great support foundation for all international in The Netherlands
http://www.access-nl.org/our_services/index.htmto research what to expect in Rotterdam. If you like city environments Rotterdam is for you with all its advantages and inconvenients.
I enjoy Delft for its more quiet pace, beautiful surroundings, less crime though lots of contruction work at the moment to modernize it making it temporarily more difficult to access. They have a great multi media library with story time in different languages. It is not far from Rotterdam and The Hague (which has a lot of great pregnancy and parenting courses)
I run a non profit organization for international moms in Delft so of course I have a positive view of my city otherwise we would have moved already. My son goes to a Dutch primary school.
There are several approaches to primary schools in The Netherlands all learning the same curriculum and being tested on a national test but the pedagogical approach is very different from one to the other.
Feel free to contact met through email address at www.delftmama.nl if you want more info about schools in Delft. This is what we have as public information on our site
http://www.delftmama.nl/index.php?option=c...0&Itemid=83You need to scroll down to see info on schools. We are working on reorganizing the info.
Parents are supposed to register children by age 3 (kids are allowed to start the day of their 4th birthday,becomes compulsory by their 5th birthday) but for most popular schools it starts way before this and you are supposed to register for after school care as early as that as well if you know that you will need it otherwise school days finish early (some days are half days, longer ones till 3:00 PM). Think about whether your children will come home at lunch or will bring their own lunch to go and eat it supervised by a paid mom in their own classrooms together with their classmates (called overblijven) and the n play outside till school starts again.
Of course a lot of people move within the city or further away leaving some spots for incoming children looking for a school. The challenge as a parent is to understand what your values and preferences are and then apply to the matching schools that fit that perspectiev better and are easier to go to every day.
For children under the age of 3 you have daycares for full days "kinderopvang" or peuterspeelzaal 3 hours mornings only to help child socialize and in our cases also get used to the language and culture. It is useful to go to a school with at least a couple of international moms who can help you find your way in the beginning.
Kind regards
Lucie
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