Bilingual education
Bilingual education
The best way to learn English is to go to an English-speaking country and immerse yourself. Of course, that's not possible if you have to go to school. That's why we have a good alternative: bilingual HAVO and bilingual VWO. You've been able to follow bilingual education at Werenfridus since 2002. Since 2009, Werenfridus has even been the only certified senior TTO school for bilingual education in West Friesland, which means you can also follow bilingual education in the upper years. (The Nuffic has been designated by the Ministry of OCW to stimulate and support bilingual education. One of the Nuffic's tasks is to inspect and certify schools.)
We offer bilingual education for HAVO, Atheneum and Gymnasium. Each year, we look into opportunities to work on international projects with schools abroad.
Internationally recognised qualifications
If you successfully complete our bilingual havo or vwo, you can leave school with various internationally recognised diplomas, including the Cambridge Advanced Exam (CAE) and the International Baccalaureate programme (IB). You can read all about the internationally recognised diplomas here.
Are you curious about the costs of bilingual education? View the full overview of our school fees here.
High Tea
Are you already certain you're going to do a bilingual education? Or would you like to know more about what it entails so you can make a well-informed choice? If so, come along to the High Tea! This information session is for pupils and their parent(s)/carer(s). There will be a central start where (former) pupils will share their experiences. The Year 6 pupils will then participate in taster lessons in English. For parent(s)/carer(s), we are organising a session where we will provide more information about costs and exams, among other things. And of course, a high tea is not a high tea without English treats.
What makes bilingual education at Werenfridus so special?
Bilingual grammar school
What's special about Werenfridus is that from the first year, bilingual education can be combined with the gymnasium: two birds with one stone. You'll be exposed to the fast-paced international world, but also to the classical world from which our society has its roots. It's a challenging course, but you learn a lot.
At the grammar school, we organise a wide range of cultural activities. The planning of the grammar school activities is well-coordinated with the busy bilingual programme, so you can participate in everything.
Global citizenship
The ‘Global Citizenship’ subject is an interdisciplinary component of the course. During the lesson, students only speak English. Projects are being undertaken in which different subjects focus on various aspects of European unification and global orientation. Pupils are introduced to the fundamentals of international thinking and practice.
This subject is included in the timetable for Year 1 in both the HAVO and VWO streams. Within the VWO (pre-university education) study programme, the GC objectives in years 2 through 6 are part of the curriculum in subjects and projects. In year 4 t-VWO, GC is again included as a subject in the timetable. During GC, students work on their international portfolio. During classes for this subject in Year 4 (the fourth year of secondary school), world problems and debate techniques are addressed, using Unesco and the UN as examples to make global issues discussable. In Year 4, students also begin preparations for the international work experience placement that takes place in Year 5.
Travel
Our bilingual first-year secondary school students will be going on a multi-day excursion at the end of the school year. In the bilingual third year (HAVO and VWO together), the cultural and international activities will be concluded with the final trip to England. A versatile trip where sporting activities are interspersed with various cultural activities. Pupils stay with host families. In the upper grades, a final trip is organised for 4 t-havo and 5 t-vwo students. The destination of this trip may vary from year to year.
Book clubs
Voor zowel leerlingen als collega’s organiseren we een Engelstalige book club onder leiding van een native speaker. We komen regelmatig samen om Engelse boeken te bespreken. De deelname hieraan is vrijwillig.
Theatre
We regularly organise English-language lectures and invite English-language theatre groups to our school, such as the Phileas Fogg Theatre with ‘Little Victorians’ for the first year group, and ‘War Poets’ for the fourth year (t-vwo).
De sessie was gezellig, leerzaam en goed voor de Engelse taal. Ik hoop dat dit voor herhaling vatbaar is.
– IMANI, DEELNEMER EYP 2025
European Youth Parliament
Sinds 2007 participeert Werenfridus in het European Youth Parliament (EYP). Dit is een internationale organisatie waarin leerlingen uit heel Europa discussiëren en debatteren over verschillende onderwerpen, zoals klimaatverandering of xenofobie. De hoofdtaal is Engels. Een aantal leerlingen van het t-vwo mag aan de activiteiten meedoen. Jaarlijks worden er een nationale voorronde, een nationale finale en een aantal internationale bijeenkomsten georganiseerd. Er zijn diverse debat activiteiten waar Werenfridus aan meedoet.
If you want to know more about bilingual education in general, go to www.ikkiestto.nl.