yui

All schools are private here They are run along three lines: religions, openbare (non-faith, open to all), or teaching methods (Jenaplan, Montessori, etc) and all are publically funded so are free-of-charge to parents. And they are all Dutch speaking.

There are state-subsidised (is this what you mean?) schools that teach in English, and you are looking at around €3000 per child per year. There are also non-subsidised schools (these tend to follow their own country's system, eg American, Japanese, English, French, etc), - these cost around €12-15000 per child per year.

http://www.sio.nl/listofprimaryschools.html - this lists both subsidised and independent schools.

There is also this school in Delft, a University town just north of Rotterdam, which one of our old forum members posted about. All public transport is regular and efficient here, so reaching Rotterdam itself would be no problem, but I don't live in South Holland so can't advise on which are the best areas.

I'll be honest, Rotterdam was voted one of the worst cities to raise a child in. There is a definite lack of green space.

Do you want your child in a Dutch school or an international school? How long will you be here for?

I would say Hillegersberg & a part of Kralingen are nice.
There are also some nice places in the centre & south, but ask a real estate agent, because the good, bad & ugly tend to be close to each other or check the nabourhood foto's on www.funda.nl or google maps.

Rather go to Delft or Den Haag and commute!

Once again, I'll be honest. If you're just here for 2 years, the change from a US school to a Dutch school to a US school again will do more harm than good. The teaching styles are just too different and the language will present more problems. If he were 4 or 5, I'd say go for it.

I understand that you want your son to be exposed to languages and culture. We all want that. But I can only imagine the culture shock he'll face going back. He'll be so behind in English grammar for one thing.

I'm not trying to crush your hopes. I'm being very realistic. I've struggled through acclimating myself to a foreign school system. How are you going to be able to read what the schools send home? Communicate with the faculty and staff? My son's first primary school teacher spoke basically no English. If I hadn't had my husband's parents to help me, I would have been lost. Her lack of English was great for him, but without help, it would have been a total nightmare for me.

Oh lawks, soccer clubs are a dime a dozen and trust me, he'll pick up the language quickly just by playing soccer.

I really can't help you with international schools. Like I said, we're here for life, so we stay within the Dutch school system.

There is an international school in Leiden. Here

There is one in Bergen but that's north of Amsterdam.

The primary of the international school in The Hague is great. They're partly governemental funded and teach Dutch on several levels as part of their curriculum (www.ishthehague.nl).

If you're just planning to stay for 2 years, it will be very difficult (impossible) to get in the right dutch schools. By the way, both Kralingen & Hillgersberg have wonderful sportsfacilities / clubs & small lakes, so you can even sail there.
Commuting between the Hague & Rotterdam is bad both ways. (check www.anwb.nl / Verkeerssituatie) though ............

Probably the best thing is to call some of the Primary schools in Rotterdam in the areas you like to live (check www.goudengids.nl - type 'basisschool' and 'Rotterdam')

Hi there,

We are in a similar situation. We are relocating back to NL after being out of the country for 4 1/2 years. My husband is Dutch and I'm American, we have two children 2 1/2 and 8. At this point, neither one of them speak any Dutch. We are also moving close to the Rotterdam area. I have (American/English speaking) friends that live in a little town called Berkel en Rodenrijs. There are other English speaking families that live in this town. It's a decent town, with lots of neighborhoods that are child-friendly. It's close to Rotterdam and it has a tram that goes into the city center (Rotterdam and Den Haag). We're thinking of buying a house there once we arrive at the end of the month. There is also a town called Bergshenhoek, which also has similiar child-friendly neighborhoods. Not sure how the public transportation is there, but it's also very close to Rotterdam. There are other 'newer' developments close to Den Haag that have a tram/train that goes into Rotterdam -- like Ypenburg, Liedshenveen & Nootdorp, that all have neighborhoods crawling with children. All of these towns/neighborhoods have local schools. We are planning on sending our children to a local Dutch school. It will be tough, especially for our 8 year old (who was 4 when we moved away from NL), who basically doesn't speak Dutch anymore. For our 2 1/2 year old, we aren't worried about him picking up Dutch. There is an International School in Rotterdam called the Blijberg or Blijburg School. This is a public international school, which is about 3,000 euros per year to send your child there. I've heard it's a very good school. I'm not sure what they do for children who don't speak Dutch in the local primary schools, I'm hoping that they have some sort of tutor or class where the kids can focus on learning Dutch.. but we'll see once we arrive.
Good luck with your move.