O.S.G. de Ring van Putten

Spijkenisse, Zuid-Holland

School website: https://www.deringvanputten.nl/ 

Our school is situated in Spijkenisse, a city near Rotterdam, and has about 1200 students and about 100 teachers and other educational staff members. The school hosts 3 levels named mavo (vmbo-tl), havo and vwo (atheneum) and students generally are 11 (sometimes 12) when they come to this high school. They can finish at the age of 16 when doing mavo, 17 when doing havo and 18 when doing vwo. Our school is well-known in the area for being a UNESCO school and we host a flexible schedule in which students learn to take ownership and responsibility. Students can choose subjects from the international stream (Cambridge English, Spanish, Global Perspectives),  talent hours to explore new sports and hobbies (e.g. playing guitar, UNESCO youth committe, bullet journalling, bootcamp, skateboarding etc.), tutoring hours and homework hours to help divide the workload between school and home. We have regularly worked with partnerschools abroad through Erasmus+ and all students travel to a big city in Europe (Paris, Barcelona, Berlin, Prague) during their 4th year at school. Additionally, we work via e-twinning on a smaller scale and have kept into contact with our sister city Hürth (in Germany) with which we have our longest exchange (10 years and running). We value that students become world citizens by experiencing intercultural learning, thinking about sustainability as well as tolerance and peace. Furthermore, we have to complementary subjects that are not as frequent in the Dutch curriculum as it used to be, namely programming (ICT science) and music. Finally, staff members regularly visit courses and workshops to improve their pedagogical skills as well as build relations (inter)nationally via teacher courses (abroad). 

As you can see in the picture, many students take the bike to school ;).