I gained information from a trainee teacher in Holland to find out about the different types of schools in Holland the curriculum and teaching methods used.

1. COMPARING
THE
CURRICULUM
BETWEEN
ENGLAND AND
HOLLAND

2. CONTEXT OF PRIMARY SCHOOLS IN HOLLAND
In group 8 children takes
a test to determine the
level they will move
onto.
Children start school
when they are 4 years
old.
There are 8 different
groups in Primary
schools.
Children must stay at
school until they are 16.

3. CONTEXT OF PRIMARY SCHOOLS IN ENGLAND
Children also start
school at the age
of 4.
Reception is the
first year of
primary school.
The last year is
year 6 where
children take SATs
before moving
onto secondary
school.
Children must stay
at school until they
are 18.

5. ‘REGULAR’ SCHOOLS IN HOLLAND
Textbooks gives teachers all the information
they need and all materials they need to
teach a lesson.

6. FREE SCHOOLS
• Free schools were set up in England in
2010 to give parents more choice and
create competition and they do not
have to follow the national curriculum
Wiborg et al, 2018

7. JENAPLAN EDUCATION
Family Groupings so all
the children can
cooperate together Azevedo and Ferreira, 2012

8. JENAPLAN
PEDAGOGY
Children’s participation.
Relationships and interactions between children and
teachers that promotes the children’s participation.
The effects of school time, space and materials on
children’s participation.
“Could represent a
significant step for
knowledge of children
cultures at school as well as
enhancing learning”
Lave and Wenger, 1991
Azvedo and Ferrerira, 2012

9. DALTON SCHOOLS
Planning Boards- Children use
these to choose their activities.
“Schools implementing the Dalton plan recognise the fact that the
pedagogical model ensures the development of the student's
individuality and social experience”.
Vorobiova, 2019

10. MONTESSORI
SCHOOLS
• Practical Learning
• Refinement of the senses
• Communication, language and
literacy
• Mathematics
• Cultural aspects of life
• Creativity
• Isaacs 2007
Areas of Learning:
The Montessori curriculum aims
to educate the whole child based
upon a broad cultural curriculum
(Kirkham and Kidd, 2015)

11. CURRICULUM SUBJECTS
Subjects in Holland
 Physical education
 Mathematics and arithmetic
 English- in the last two years
 Expressive activities
 Self-reliance
 Healthy living
 Number of factual subjects, for example
history and geography
Subjects in England
 Physical Education
 Mathematics
 Literacy and Reading, including phonics in the early
years
 Science
 PSHE
 Topic subjects
(Ruddock and Sainsbury,
2009)

12. AIMS OF THE CURRICULUM
Aim for Dutch Primary education: “provide a
broad education addressing children’s
and intellectual development, the development
of their creativity and their acquisition of social,
cultural and physical skills” (Ruddock and
Sainsbury 2009 p. 264).
Aim for English Primary Education: “The
national curriculum provides pupils with an
introduction to the essential knowledge that
need to be educated citizens. It introduces
to the best that has been thought and said; and
helps engender an appreciation of human
creativity and achievement” (Department for
Education, 2013, p.6).

13. OVERALL COMPARISON
 Dutch schools have always been free to choose the religious, ideological and pedagogical
principles on which they base their education and have freedom on how they organise their
teaching activities.
 In the late 1980’s a national curriculum was formed for all state schools in England which gives
teachers in schools less choice on what the children learn, the teachers do not have much
freedom on what they teach and follow guidelines of how to teach.
 Dutch schools get set several attainment targets for example in literacy there are 58 but they
have freedom in the choice of methods and may emphasise different areas of the curriculum.
 In all areas to English curriculum is more detailed than the Dutch and covers a broader range
of subjects.
 Dutch schools also have more freedom in deciding how much time is spent on each subject
set by the national curriculum.
Ruddock and Sainsbury, 2009

14. REFERENCES
 Azevedo, S. and Ferreira, F. (2012) ‘Participation and Learning in a Jenaplan School in
the Netherlands: An Ethnographic Research with Children’, Social and Behavioural
Science, 82 (2013), pp. 559-603.
 Department for Education (2013) The National Curriculum in England, Key Stages 1
and 2 Framework Document. Available at:
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachm
ent_data/file/425601/PRIMARY_national_curriculum.pdf. (Accessed: 14th May 2020).
 Isaacs, B. (2007) Bringing the Montessori approach to your early years practice.
London: Routledge.
 Kirkham, J.A. and Kidd, E. (2015) ‘The effect of Steiner, Montessori, and National
Curriculum Education upon children’s pretence and creativity’, Journal of Creative
Behaviour, 51(1), pp. 20-34.
 Lave, J. and Wenger, E. (1991) Situated Learning: Legitimate peripheral participation.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
 Nijhuis, E. (2020) Email to Bethan Tracey, 24th March.
 Ruddock, G. and Sainsbury, M. (2008) Comparison of the Core Primary Curriculum in
England to those of other Higher Performing Countries. National Framework for
Educational Research.
 Vorobiova, L. (2019) ‘American Experience of the Dalton Plan in the Dutch Schooling’,
Comparative Professional Pedagogy, 9(2), pp. 74-79
 Wiborg, S. et al (2018) ‘Free Schools in England: ‘Not Unlike other Schools’?’, Journal of
Social Policy, 47(1), pp. 119-137. DOI: 10.1017/S004727941700023X.