• Tuesday, September 19th

Topic: Aruban / Dutch curriculum: similarities and differences.

You will receive an invitation for this.

• Wednesday, October 18th

Topic: information for the first and final classes.

You will receive an invitation for this.

• You can read further and more information in the school guide.

Every school year there are adjustments to the school policy to improve our offering and to ensure that the school's growth runs smoothly.

Experience shows that new agreements in a school environment often need some time to allow everyone to get used to them and to see and experience where we need to make adjustments.

What is different at the start of this school year:

Start conversation

• You may have already noticed that this school year we will not start with a joint starting moment with the mentor in a class setup with all parents. We have chosen to schedule an individual moment and we have called this moment the starting conversation. This means there is a more personal attention and we can make agreements about how communication should proceed this school year. We can also discuss the goals of this school year with the students in a more targeted manner.

Upper level (MAVO and HAVO 4, VWO 4 and 5)

Study guides in SomToday

• For MAVO and HAVO 4, the study guides are now in SomToday instead of Google Classroom. Students and teachers now have insight into the homework and the planned test at a glance. This will expand to HAVO 5 and VWO 6 in the coming years.

Annual schedule

• During 3 of the 6 test weeks per year, these classes have a test week, while the other classes have a TTO week. For a quiet testing environment, we have decided that the tests will take place in the main building. This prevents students from being bothered too much by other students.

At the end of the test week we will evaluate how the students liked it.

Frequently Asked Questions:

Test pressure

Transition years students (year 1, 2 and 3)

• Instead of 6 test weeks, we work with 3 test weeks. There are more small tests in between where all kinds of different forms of tests can be used that are better suited to modern education and the development of students' skills. The other 3 weeks we have 2 TTO weeks and one week is a regular teaching week.
• We believe that homework and test pressure should be balanced. We assume that students spend an average of 1 to 2 hours per day on school work at home. It is appropriate that students take some time to get used to the start of a new school year and that more is expected of them in higher level years. Experiences may also differ per student. Students may take 2 tests per day and a maximum of 5 tests per week. This school year we will look again at the testing policy to see whether we can improve it.

Detention

• Every day we now organize a detention afternoon immediately after the student's last lesson instead of one detention afternoon per week at a fixed time. This policy has more effect than a postponed measure. If a detention afternoon is planned, this will be noted in Somtoday so that the student can see where he needs to be and what time he needs to be there.
• In Somtoday you will receive a notification if your child has been registered for the detention afternoon. It is the student's responsibility to inform you further about this.

We hope that the detention room will remain empty every afternoon. Because you as a parent and we as a school at indirectly affected from it. When a measure is changed, there is often a peak at the beginning. Students soon experience that the detention afternoon is not something to look forward to. We are already seeing a clear decrease in participants and hope it stays that way.

Students remain on school grounds during the school day

• You may not be aware of the following: during break times, students stay in the hall or under the gazebo. Our students remain on our own grounds throughout the school day so that we can maintain an overview. Students over 18 are also expected to remain on school grounds.

Side entrance is closed between 8AM and 12AM

• The side entrance is closed between 8AM and 12AM. If you want to bring or pick up your child in this time window, you can use the roundabout at the main entrance.

It is important that we have a good picture of the situation. If there are any signals about these adjustments, we would appreciate it if you would send an email to your child's mentor.

Schakel Board

Since last school year, we have been working with 2 Schakel Councils within our foundation. One Schakel Council is for the Primary School and Prikichi and one Schakel Council for the Schakel College. Each Schakel Council has room for four parents and two team members. We are happy to announce that we have filled all vacancies and that the Schakel Board is complete.

Members deriving from parents:

Esther Mennen

Shahaira Labad

Maartje Groot

Sonja Veldhuizen

Members deriving from the team:

Mohamed El Oualkadi

Melany van Trigt-Tweboom

The Schakel Board is the body within the school in which parents and team members contribute ideas about school policy. They provide advice to the management and the board.

The Schakel Board can be reached via email: schakelraad@schakelcollege.com.

The student board will start again this year. In addition to organizing all kinds of activities for the students, they can also contribute ideas about school policy.

The student board currently consists of about 25 students from grades 2 to 6. Students from the 1st grades who would also like to join can send an email to leerlingenraad@schakelcollege.com.