SCHOOLS

Introduction The Dutch Education System Choosing a School Where to find information about schools? When does school start and how does it work? Arriving in Leiden with (slightly) older children Ouderbijdrage Secondary school Home Schooling SCHOOLS IN THE LEIDEN AREA, by neighbourhood Special Needs Education in the Netherlands

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Home Schooling

Home education is a worthwhile consideration in The Netherlands. Everyone that home educates has their own reason for doing so for example:

• A belief that children should be able to direct their own education.
• A feeling that class sizes are too large.
• That children don't need to start school so young.
• Because their child is sensitive or has special needs.
• Because the school system does not cater to their religious or spiritual philosophy
  etc.

It is important to know that it is a legal option so long as you can demonstrate that the school system will not meet your child's needs in your opinion. The most important thing to note is the Dutch government only accepts the last point (spiritual philosophy) as a valid reason, according to our local homeschoolers. There is a process to follow to obtain exemption from the school system with the local municipality. This must be done just before your child turns five (the legal age at which formal schooling is a requirement here, not four as you might think). Note that once your child attends school after the age of five it is more difficult to obtain permission to home educate.

It's also a really good idea to meet with homeschoolers and see what their days are like and to do a lot of your own research. There is an international homeschooling conference that happens every year in Hadel (Germany) and it is a good place to attend talks and to meet the community. Here is a link that is general and a good starting point to learn more about homeschooling. http://homeschooling.about.com/od/gettingstarted/p/homeschool101.htm.

There is a national website for 'thuis onderwijs' (home education) which is very informative and in English as well as Dutch: www.thuisonderwijs.nl.

There is a local e-group for home educators, most of whom reside nearer to Den Haag than Leiden. There are however, several home educators in and near to Leiden and trips to museums and playgrounds are organized very regularly: todenhaag@yahoogroups.com.

One of the homeschooling support groups in NL is at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/thuisonderwijs.

There is also a yahoo-group for unschoolers, and one to ask technical questions about the legalities surrounding homeschooling in the Netherlands. Our local homeschoolers would recommend (if you are interested) first visiting the sites linked here. If at some point you want to go further, you can get the links for other yahoo-groups from the people at the group listed above.

There is a list of HS-friendly gemeentes at http://www.prowat.nl/actieslpas.htm.

If you want to talk about home education in Leiden please contact:
Marie on 0624859763 or Rippy at: ripgray@gmail.com.