About eight years ago I first visited the International School of Almere for a job interview. ' "International School", that must be very grand,' I thought. So, naturally, getting off the bus at Waterwijk, I kept my eyes peeled for a majestic building that oozed tradition. Nothing of the sort. At the end of the street I saw an small old, slightly ramshackled building with a board nailed to the front, indicating the school's name. My job application went successfully, especially because I told Mr Bosman, the head, that in my last job I had to invent/create a lot of my lessons without much help. Just the sort of person they needed, for reasons that soon became obvious.
The school only had three classes at the time and they needed new staff because, for the first time, there would be a Grade 10. For a few years, student numbers remained more or less the same, between 55 and 65 and the small team of teachers worked away like army ants in the sometimes boiling, sometimes leaking premises at Waterwijk, without much support of either of its parent schools. We were left to our own devices and used books that almost fell apart in our hands and a handful of dinosaur computers.
After a couple of years we moved into a corner of Het Baken Trinitas, where we were regularly eyed with suspicion. Slowly, in obscurity - and not always without difficulty (space was an issue, e.g.) - we continued to build our masterpiece.
We wrote our unit plans, and re-wrote them again, and once more, to meet the stringent demands of the IB. One summer break, I spent 80 hours putting all my units into the digital system. All of us worked huge amounts of unpaid overtime. I myself must have put in a total of about 2000 (!) free hours over the years, nearly costing me my health. Others worked equally hard. The Bosmans left, having done their bit and soon we got a young and handsome new head Eric B., whom everybody (especially the female students) loved, but wasn't quite experienced enough to handle such a huge challenge. So, when he disappeared after eight months, Ms G. was kind enough to fill in as interim head.
We had several authorisation visits. We were promised several times that we were going to have the DP. We were often disappointed. And still we beavered away, not giving up.
But all the effort had not been in vain. Because finally, we got authorised for the DP, for MYP and, with these treasures in our pockets, we moved to our fabulous new building at Almere Poort. Our 4th head of school, Ms Devilliers firmly took matters in hand.
And people started to notice. While student numbers had been stable, but low, for years, while we operated under the radar, suddenly interest started to rise, to the point that for September 2013 we almost had to start turning down students; we were going to be 'full'.
They say it takes ten years to become proficient at anything, whether that be playing the violin, becoming an athlete or any other kind of professional. This is exactly the case for us. We celebrated our ten year anniversary this school year and today we are a school that not only has a sound curriculum and a solid team of teachers, but also a wonderful community of caring and principled students and parents - as was proven once again this weekend when they decided to occupy the school.
It is incomprehensible that such a good school should close, for reasons that nobody quite understands, while a school that has a history of stealing exams can stay open. One of the reasons would be that we don't have enough 'international' students. But defining 'international' is very difficult in this day and age. I have lived in two countries and feel equal ties to both, but I have only one passport. There are many people like me. What is also implied is that Dutch students don't have the right to an international education, which seems pretty ludicrous, especially in a country that wants to be a 'knowledge economy'.
Supposedly there is also a debt. Where this debt comes from and who is to blame is unclear, but certainly this is something that both boards must have been aware of before last week.
What they had not reckoned with is the strength of our community and the intelligence of both students and parents. The content as well as the timing of the bad-news meeting was an insult to everyone present. They must have figured: 'just before the start of the summer break, nobody will cause a riot. People will have their tickets booked and they will simply go away.' Hah! How wrong they were - and, to be honest, rather incompetent!
Today we heard that talks were going 'in the right direction', but no agreement had been reached yet. Whichever way this goes, I want to congratulate our students and their parents, and our entire team on our fabulous achievement. We have built something together that is worth being proud of, worth fighting for. And we won't give up. WE SHALL, WE SHALL, WE SHALL NOT BE MOVED!!!
P.S. In some obscure village in the middle of France, I just got the good news that IS Almere is to stay open. All the parties got around the table once more and slogged out an agreement. Hurray! This would not have been possible without the help of the Almere city council, so a big thank you to them!
And what a lesson to our students: sometimes, when you really fight for something, your dream can come true! The only thing is: now they can never complain about the school again, hahaha!
P.S. In some obscure village in the middle of France, I just got the good news that IS Almere is to stay open. All the parties got around the table once more and slogged out an agreement. Hurray! This would not have been possible without the help of the Almere city council, so a big thank you to them!
And what a lesson to our students: sometimes, when you really fight for something, your dream can come true! The only thing is: now they can never complain about the school again, hahaha!
