Education in Almere
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International schools
Learn more about the Dutch educational system and the schools in Almere.
Almere is home to two international schools, two universities of applied sciences, 17 secondary schools and almost 100 primary schools. The city has public schools as well as schools that provide lessons based on a particular pedagogical vision or religious conviction. Examples of the former are the Dalton, Montessori or Jena-plan educational systems. There are also schools based on Catholic, Reformed, Protestant, Ecumenical and Islamic principles, along with schools that offer a high standard of special needs education.
Dutch Educational System
On October 9th 2019 the city of Almere, together with IN Amsterdam, organized the seminar ‘Understanding the Dutch education system’. The presentation which was given by Eline Hausel from Young Expat Services can be found here.
International Schools
Almere has two international schools: a primary school (IPSA) and a secondary school (ISA).
The International Primary School Almere (IPSA) offers the International Primary curriculum and focuses on developing its students into internationally minded global citizens. Children are taught the concepts of host country, home country and global interdependence, in classes of no more than 22 students. After-school care and care for children aged 2 to 4 is provided via Smallsteps, and extra-curricular activities via the Brede School.
The International School Almere (ISA) is a dynamic and growing IB World School located in a beautiful building on the edge of Cascade Park in Almere Poort. It offers quality international education in a safe and sustainable environment. The International School Almere inspires students to reach their full potential and contribute to a better and more peaceful world by striving for academic excellence, intercultural awareness and mutual respect. The school believes in holistic learning, focusing on developing core values such as celebrating diversity, service learning, and approaches to learning skills.
International Campus
In order to accommodate the growth in the number of international students in the Amsterdam Area, Almere is building the International Campus. IPSA and ISA will move into this new building together. It will be built in the new neighbourhood Stadstuinen Poort with capacity for 700 students.
Bilingual secondary education
OSG De Meergronden offers bilingual education (TTO). The program begins in year 1 and lasts until the Dutch exams. Choosing this program means the students receive extra English lessons and, in the lower forms, you will be taught in English half of the time. This means that complete subjects as History or Biology are taught in English and others in Dutch. This all leads to an IB English certificate or for the VMBO learners an Anglia certificate. Next to language lessons, students look at national and international issues from different perspectives and become true global citizens.
Taalcentrum Almere
The Taalcentrum Almere (Language School Almere) is a school for pupils aged 4 to 18 years who do not speak or understand the Dutch language. These students can be newcomers, such as children who are new to the country, or perhaps children born in the Netherlands not raised with Dutch skills. The Taalcentrum helps these pupils to reach the appropriate level of Dutch so that they can succeed in regular education. As soon as they reach the desired level, they continue their education at a regular Dutch school.
Students
Almere is home to two universities of applied sciences: Windesheim in Almere and Aeres Hogeschool. These institutions ensure that Almere has a large number of young, highly educated professionals – particularly in applied disciplines.
Windesheim in Almere is one of the Netherlands’ top universities of applied sciences, known for its personal approach and for working closely with the business community and public institutes. More than 5,000 students attend the university, following around 25 programme options.
Aeres Hogeschool is a versatile research institution in the green sector, with programmes ranging from primary agriculture to engineering and styling and design, intensive farming to biodynamic agriculture; city of greenery and ornamental plants and more. Aeres provides regular education programmes (TVET, bachelor and master), applied research and innovation and commercial learning activities for individuals and businesses.
Flevo Campus
The Flevo Campus was initiated in January 2017. This is a scientific hotspot for innovations relating to food and urbanisation issues for the future. Almere’s students, researchers and businesses are brought together under the roof of Flevo Campus to explore and test how food provisioning can change and innovate in growing cities. The ambition for 2022 is to ensure that the Flevo Campus consists of a variety of strong knowledge partners with a lot of collaborative efforts with businesses, aimed at open innovation.
In addition, a productive collaboration between research, courses, entrepreneurship and development will be in place. The Flevo Campus excels in terms of urban food provision, has appeal to international students, but also functions as a hotspot for international knowledge exchange between cities and universities. The Floriade Dialogues and other events such as the Summerschool, the Think Tank and Flevo Campus Live are all concrete examples. All of this comes together in a physical location at the Floriade terrain.