On Wednesday evening a group of international parents celebrated completing a Language and Participation Program. New In NL offered this course. The programme is a pilot specifically put together to enable parents to support their children in the Dutch education system.
A group of parents and their children gathered in De Troubadour primary school to celebrate that, after 14 weeks of classes, the adults had successfully completed this programme. The parents brought food from their own country. While they enjoyed a drink, course organisers, Ljiljana Predragovic and Emdée Withaar, thanked the students for their trust in them and for the effort they had put into their participation.
All the parents who took the course received a certificate to indicate they have reached A1 level Dutch. After receiving the certificate, every participant stated that, after following the programme, they feel more confident to use Dutch and to support their children in the local education system.
Can now speak Dutch
The programme was developed with the aim of parents to immediately applying the gained knowledge. They can now communicate in Dutch with their kids and teachers. Ljiljana and Emdée, who teach the programme, explain that they developed the course while it was already being followed.
In this way, it was possible to adapt the content to the needs of the parents.“We wanted to create a programme that met the needs of parents with children who are growing up and going to school,” says Ljiljana. “The strength of the programme is the flexibility and the possibility to customise it,” explains Emdée.
One of the participants, Ender Kaynar, says, “They asked what topics we would like to discuss. The first week I told them I wanted to know how to select a primary school in the Netherlands. In the second or third week, we discussed that subject.” Another participant, Daniela Margiotta, adds, “I liked the course. With a small baby, I was worried about the future and how to communicate with his friends and teachers.”
The pilot programme was offered to these international parents from Korein Kinderplein at the Maria van Bourgondiëlaan and De Troubadour primary schools. Now that the pilot has successfully ended, Ljiljana and Emdée have started a new course. It is being held at the International Department of the RISE Salto International School. This is one group of parents. Another group of parents will start soon.
Reporter: Mirjam Tousain
Editor: Melinda Walraven
