Support and Inclusion
The Primary Department at the International School Eindhoven (ISE) welcomes children from the age of four, regardless of religion, ethnicity, nationality, or beliefs. Rooted in principles of equality and respect, our multicultural environment prepares students for a global future.
Inclusive Education
The ISE is committed to helping each student reach their full potential through:
- Tailored educational environments that address individual needs
- Early identification and support for learning challenges
- Collaboration with parents and students in the learning process
- Clear staff roles in supporting additional needs
Our inclusive approach is built on these core principles:
- Inclusive: Removing barriers to learning and embracing diversity
- Student-Centred: Prioritising each student’s best interests
- Needs-Based: Adapting to strengths and challenges
- Prevention-Oriented: Emphasising early detection and intervention
- Results-Focused: Using evidence-based strategies for positive outcomes
- Collaborative: Involving families, teachers, and students
- Culturally Responsive: Reflecting the diversity of our community
- Equitable: Providing support tailored to individual needs
In order to organize support at school well, all primary schools work together in a ‘Samenwerkingsverband’. In this way, we ensure that all students in the Eindhoven, Best and Son & Breugel regions receive the education and support they need. The schools in this ‘samenwerkingsverband’ make agreements about basic support at schools, about additional support and about referrals to special needs schools. These agreements are recorded in a support plan.
The image below shows the support route within our school, and the other primary schools of the SILFO education foundation.
Within our educational foundation, the internal supervisors of the various schools work closely together, which allows the support to be tailored to the schools, and to support each other in guiding our students. The support for the students at our school is described below.
Basic support
Basic support is the support that is offered within the regular educational process of each school, plus the associated preventive and light curative support.
We work in a goal-oriented way (HGW: Handelingsgericht Werken) to get a complete picture of our students. Goal-oriented work is a systematic way of working, in which the offer is tailored to the educational needs of the students. Based on the child characteristics, we look at which educational needs the child in question has. The education is adapted accordingly.
Our learning support coordinator supervises the overall development of students, with a specific focus on responding to the needs identified by the teachers. She offers support, guidance and advice to both teachers and parents, and ensures that the learning needs of each student are effectively met. The learning support coordinator also works closely with external specialists, giving us access to additional expertise and services when necessary.
Additional support
The additional support is support that exceeds the basic support. The possibilities can differ per school and are described in the school guide. As soon as a student is eligible for additional support from external specialists, this is described in a development perspective plan (OPP), in accordance with the law. The additional support of the student deviates from the regular offer that falls under the basic support. An OPP is drawn up in consultation with parents and with the student. Each OPP is registered in the Register of Education Participants (ROD).
The ISE is a ‘language-friendly’ school. We offer our students additional support in Dutch and English language skills and pay attention to the home languages of our students.
We support students with mild to moderate:
- Language barriers
- Academic support needs
- Behavioural, physical and social-emotional needs
The table below shows the support we can offer our students.
Exemption from Educational Activities
The competent authority may, at the request of the parents, exempt a pupil from participating in certain educational activities, with the exception of the standardized test in group 8 (doorstroomtoets) as referred to in Article 45b, paragraph 3. An exemption may only be granted by the competent authority. When granting the exemption, the competent authority shall determine which educational activities will replace those from which the pupil was exempted.
Student Feedback and Input
Since the 2024/25 school year, students have been asked to provide feedback on the support they receive at school. They provide feedback on both the nature of the support they receive, and their feelings regarding that support. This feedback gives staff valuable insights into the effectiveness of the support strategies, the students’ sense of inclusion and agency, and areas for improvement in the way the support is delivered. At our school, we highly value our students’ right to be heard (hoorrecht); their voice helps us to continuously improve the education and the school atmosphere. To determine how our students experience the school, we conducted a carefully structured study. In groups 6 through 8, the students filled out a targeted questionnaire for this purpose, in which we also incorporated the results from the student satisfaction survey in Vensters. For the younger children in groups 1 through 5, we gathered this information through conversations. During these dialogues, the focus was on questions such as who helps the child when something is difficult, whether the assignments are usually clear, what helps best with learning, and if there are areas the school could address even better.
The results of this right-to-be-heard study show that the foundation at our school is warm and safe, which is beautifully reflected in the average score of 7.5 out of 10 that students give our school. The conversations with groups 1 through 5 reveal that the teacher is the most important anchor. Children understand the lessons well due to the clear explanations, although they also indicate that they learn a lot by working together and trying things independently. While the students are generally very satisfied, there is a clear action point for us regarding the early years (kleuters) to monitor supervision and peer interactions on the school playground even more closely. In addition, the children are immensely enthusiastic about the specific support outside the classroom, such as the guidance provided by teaching assistants, the English lessons, and the DAL class; they experience a great deal of help and positive outcomes here. However, an important point of attention is that some insecure or failure-anxious students experience tension during these support moments. As a team, we are exploring how we can make these moments more pleasant and accessible for them.
Among the older students in groups 6, 7, and 8, we see that language and cultural barriers play a major role in the outcomes of the study. A relatively large number of children chose the “I don’t know” option for questions regarding feedback, which can be explained by a still limited command of the Dutch language when faced with more complex questions. We also see cultural differences reflected in the areas of safety and bullying. As a school, we take every signal extremely seriously. We are therefore immediately using these valuable insights to further strengthen our communication, the social cohesion on the playground and in the classrooms, and individual guidance in the coming period.
Future Provision
Following the successful professional development of the team in the field of NT2 (Dutch as a Second Language) and the implementation of ‘Wereld vol Woorden’ within the DAL lessons, the next step is to structurally anchor the support for our non-native students within the new PYP framework. This will guarantee a sustainable integration of language support into our curriculum.
To enhance our students’ well-being, by the end of the 2027/2028 school year, social-emotional development (SED) will be fully integrated into all Unit of Inquiry planners, and we will have implemented a new anti-bullying protocol specifically for our department, featuring a step-by-step plan that is applied by the entire team during incidents.
