2_2_DiscoverBenelux_11_November_2014_Q9_Scan Magazine 1 06/11/2014 23:09 Page 77 Discover Benelux |  Mini Theme |  Education

Thanks  to  having  specialists  on  site,  the schools have a large support network to give extra attention to gifted students and pupils  with  dyslexia,  dyscalculia  or  performance anxiety.

Ready for the world Florencius teaches according to the International Primary Curriculum (or IPC) which prepares  children  for  global  citizenship. From  a  young  age  students  are  taught English at a high level, there are exchange programmes  to  countries  all  across  the world and the curriculum is more themebased. Van Kranenburg explains, “We’ve combined  the  traditional  subjects  of  geography,  topography  and  history  and go through these subjects by theme. Take for  example  the  theme  ‘world  leaders’  – when  we  talk  about  Nelson  Mandela  we immediately include the history and  geo graphy of South Africa.” The schools also invest a lot of time in personal development. Every student has an individual  coach  appointed  to  them  to guide them through difficult situations like parents  divorcing.  “When  the  students leave,  they’re  socially-emotionally  very strong. It’s important to teach them to be confident because that gives them such a boost.  All  our  pupils  do  really  well  at  secondary school. We know this through our parent questionnaires and we stay in touch with our former students for several years,” Van Kranenburg continues. While Florencius is a private school, it aims to  put  students  in  public  education  after they leave. He says, “We want students to do well in general society so it’s important they return to ‘normal’ state schools and learn to function in common settings. We

make  sure  they  have  the  best  possible preparation.” One  way  to  achieve  this  is  through  the   lorenciPlus programme offering homework F support  for  students  in  secondary  education. “FlorenciPlus is an excellent addition to students in secondary schools. It combines the best of both worlds, the social aspect of state  schools  and  the  specialist,  individual approach of private education,” Van Kranenburg explains.

The best education When the first Florencius school opened in Laren, there were just four children. Now the  school  has  grown  to  50  and  Amstelveen – opened two years ago – has 30. Van Kranenburg wants to keep student numbers down per school, so he’s looking into starting schools in Haarlem and The Hague. “We found that there’s a clear need for private primary schools, so we will continue to expand. In state education classes have  been  getting  increasingly  bigger. Sometimes there’s only one teacher per 30 students,  so  they  don’t  get  the  attention they need and deserve.” Before he founded Florencius, Van Kranenburg worked in state education for 25 years and noticed much more could be done to help children  develop.  He  says,  “There  was  too much bureaucracy and red tape. At 29 years old  I  set  up  my  own  school  but  there  just weren’t the funds available to help children  excel.  That’s  when  I  began  to  think  about setting  up  a  private  school.  I  started  researching all kinds of educational systems in 2007  and  a  year  later  Florencius  Laren opened its doors.” www.florencius.nl

build up confidence. FQ contains physical intelligence and covers sports, music and other creative subjects. Then lastly there’s SQ or spiritual intelligence which means we help children set targets, learn to be ambitious  and  teach  them  about  their identity.” Florencius’  goal  is  to  develop  an  exemplary  education  system,  giving  students optimal  attention  in  a  safe  environment.

Issue 11 |  November 2014 |  77