Ms Alison Mitchell
Head of the Senior School
Meet the Head
I have been teaching at the School for over 20 years and am now very proud to be the Head of the Senior school.
Obviously a lot happens in the Senior school, not least GCSE and A level exams. We have a truly talented staff body here (unlike many international schools, a significant number of our teachers have been with us for a long time). These teachers, in all subjects, are tried and tested when it comes to preparing our pupils to give their very best when confronted with an exam paper. The secret, I think, is they do not teach what to think, but how to think.
We owe our reputation not just to our academic performance, but to a combination of factors. You will hear, from pupils and parents alike, that the atmosphere here is warm, friendly and resolutely positive. One big reason for this is our small class sizes, and another is our superb enrichment programmes that go way beyond what is normally available at school in this country.
Amsterdam is a fascinating, exciting and extremely multi-cultural capital. We have several different nationalities in our school and whilst for many English is not a first or even second language, I can assure you that, given the speed with which the young assimilate the new, spoken and written English is not an issue for us here.
Life in the Senior School
The Senior School runs a two week timetable (weeks A and B) with 25 lessons in each week. Attendance throughout the whole day is compulsory for all pupils including pupils in our Sixth Form who have timetabled study sessions.
The Curriculum
The Senior School follows the National Curriculum used in England where Years 7 to 9 follow the Key Stage 3 Curriculum, Years 10 and 11 study a combination of IGCSEs and GCSEs and the Sixth form follows the A Level programme.
Examinations
The British School of Amsterdam is an accredited centre for the following awarding bodies:
Cambridge International Examinations
Pearson (formerly Edexcel)
Assessment and Qualifications Alliance (AQA)
Oxford and Cambridge RSA (OCR)
This enables us to choose the most appropriate syllabus for each subject to suit our students.
Regular inspections occur during each examination period to ensure our examinations are conducted appropriately.
As a non-selective school our pupils attain excellent examination results. We hold exams once a year in May/June.
