A connected community of learners and world travellers
The International School Twente serves as an important local meeting place for the international community.
Everyone should feel welcome at IST. We promote international-mindedness and we cultivate a school community that provides our students with an inclusive and caring environment within which they can build strong friendships that will hopefully last throughout their lifetime.
IST is a ‘community’ school that connects the international and the local community. We work together intensively with the Dutch departments at Prinseschool and Het Stedelijk Lyceum. Both schools’ bilingual programmes and their emphasis on internationalisation of their Dutch programs set them apart and make cooperation with IST an obvious development.
The development of the school also includes cooperation with the University of Twente as well as the vocational institutions in the region. By making the Dutch language and culture part of our curriculum, we encourage and enable our students to participate in the local community. IST is happy to assist you in finding and connecting with local cultural organisations, sports clubs, and child care providers.
We see the diversity in backgrounds and values of our community as an opportunity for international-mindedness and a stimulus to connect. Our school is a happy, safe, and inclusive environment for children of many different cultures to meet, learn and grow together in a unique Dutch context. We want our children to be excited to learn and to become confident in sharing their cultures, experiences and ideas. We strive to learn with and from each other and welcome parental involvement to broaden our cultural awareness.
Our community is also strengthened by the direct support and involvement of parents. The IST Parents Council and IST Parents Support Group play an important role in developing our school. Finally, our House system is an important part of our community-building efforts: all IST students are members of one of the four Houses so as to make them feel like a part of a group outside their class, too.