We educate our students to become open-minded global citizens

To make this tangible for our community, we organise fun and educational activities throughout the year. For example, our Dutch Culture Program consists of celebrating and learning about all major Dutch celebrations. Furthermore, we also study the world via the other languages we teach including: English, German and Spanish. For example the celebration of “Dias de los muertos” and Thanksgiving. Our traditional New Year’s event is als an example of how we aim to broaden the cultural horizons of our students. During this event we incorporate the new year traditions of all of the community members by bringing food and games.

Global citizenship and international awareness are strengthened by the underlying values that we practice through our IST values and IB learner profiles. We encourage our students to embrace these goals, profiles and values. We integrate these in learning activities and use them to reflect on the students’ behaviour. Ultimately, by working on the different elements of the learner profile, our students learn to strengthen and expand their character. This process is different for every learner and we believe that this profile is not a goal in itself, rather a mirror and guide to grow oneself. Since in order to achieve more, it is important to know what one’s strengths and weaknesses are.

In our daily school practice, culture and different ways of looking at the world are common topics in the classroom. We learn to respect and understand each other’s perspectives. Through this reflection process we also study our own culture and foster open-mindedness. Being global citizens also means that our students practice leadership skills to actively contribute to the local and international context. Ultimately we aim for them to become leaders that inspire others and make a positive change to the world.