Walburg College is a medium-sized public (openbare) secondary school in Zwijndrecht offering mavo, havo and atheneum, plus Technasium (research and design on company briefs) for havo and vwo and practical subjects in mavo. Its bilingual stream for havo and vwo is recognised by Nuffic: until the end of year 3 more than three quarters of lessons are in English, and Cambridge Global Perspectives is studied in years 1-3. In year 3 bilingual students receive the TTO Junior certificate and take the Cambridge English First or Advanced exam; in upper vwo they can take IB English A Language and Literature with an exam, continue with Cambridge exams or take English early. The rest of the school is taught in Dutch and ends with the national eindexamen. The school takes part in the Eumind exchange network with schools in India, and has its own theatre, the Sport Talent Team and the Talent op Maat programme for gifted students.
Key facts
Programmes
Cambridge · Lower Secondary · National programme
Languages of instruction
Dutch, English
Languages taught
French, German
Class size
20 to 30 students in year 1 pupil
About the fees Education is free; the school is state funded. For 2026-2027 the school asks for voluntary parental contributions by year: for example the XTRA fund 20, 30 or 40 EUR, parents' council 16 EUR, culture card 11 EUR, insurance 7 EUR; in the bilingual stream saving for the Cambridge exam, exchanges and trips is 250 EUR in year 1 and 520 EUR in years 2 and 3; in vwo with the IB course, materials 50 EUR, an extra English lesson 100 EUR and the IB exam 185 EUR. Some activities only go ahead if enough contributions are paid.
Admissions Each year the school admits 250 students to year 1 in 9 classes: mavo, mavo/havo, havo/vwo, plus havo/vwo with Technasium and havo/vwo with bilingual education; classes have 20 to 30 students. Technasium is open to students with a havo, havo/vwo or vwo recommendation. Year 1 enrolment is via an online form from March, followed by an introduction at the school. Detailed rules are in the admission policy. The school does not write separately about admitting children of foreign families.
Stages and year groups Grades 1-6 (mavo 1-4, havo 1-5, vwo 1-6). Dutch curriculum: mavo (vmbo-tl) with practical subjects, havo and atheneum with four profiles, Technasium for havo and vwo, the national eindexamen. Bilingual havo/vwo stream: more than 75% of lessons in English in years 1-3, Cambridge Global Perspectives in years 1-3 (Cambridge International: challenges and a research project in year 3), the TTO Junior certificate and a Cambridge English exam (First or Advanced) in year 3; in upper vwo, IB English A Language and Literature with an exam. The school does not run Cambridge IGCSE, A-Level or the IB Diploma.
Address Norderstedtplein 6, 3332 GK Zwijndrecht
Accreditations and programmes verified against official registries
Cambridge · Lower Secondary · authorised programmeThe Cambridge register names the school as its centre: on the bilingual track all students in Years 1-3 take Cambridge Global Perspectives. The main curriculum is Dutch.
school is in an official registryconfirmed by a school document, by membership or by taking part in a networkclaimed by the school, no confirmation, not counted in the scoreGuide to all organisations → What stands behind each entry
CambridgeCambridge International Education
Part of the University of Cambridge. It allows a school to teach the Cambridge programmes and to enter pupils for the exams. There are four stages and they are authorised separately: primary, lower secondary, IGCSE and A Level. If the stages are known they are named in the line below; if that line is missing, the school does not publish them, and the Cambridge registry does not show stages either - it gives only the name of the centre, the country and whether private candidates are accepted. Cambridge calls what it does registration rather than accreditation, and the network holds about ten thousand schools.
What the badge means for this school. The school is allowed to run this programme and to award its certificate. This is a confirmation of the programme, not a judgement on the school as a whole. The entry stands in the organisation's public register - anyone can check it. At this school: Lower Secondary (ages 11-14). Lower Secondary is the middle stage, ages 11 to 14, with the same optional Checkpoint test at the end.
Register to check for yourself, and the full guide →National programme
The state school programme of the country the school stands in: it is set by that country's ministry of education, which also licenses the school and awards the leaving certificate. That certificate is used for entry to local universities, and abroad it is matched to the local one.
What this means for this school. This entry does not count towards the score, and that is deliberate. Every lawful school in a country works to the national programme, so on its own it tells one school apart from no other - unlike the French, German or Russian programmes, which are carried abroad and confirmed by the register of their organisation. We show it because a parent needs to know what programme their child is taught and what certificate the child will get. Counting it would lift the whole ranking at once and still tell nobody apart.
Exams and destinations from the school's official website
The school publishes nothing about where its leavers go: no share going on to university, no exam results, no list of universities.
Facilities from the school's official website
·Swimming poolnot stated on the website
·Sports hallnot stated on the website
·Laboratoriesnot stated on the website
✓Theatre or assembly hall
·Librarynot stated on the website
·Cateringnot stated on the website
·School transportnot stated on the website
·Boardingnot stated on the website
Clubs and activities: Theaterclub Walburg College (theatre club and musical) · Sport Talent Team · Talent op Maat (gifted programme) · Eumind · Junior Speaking Contest · Leerlingenraad (student council) · FLOW
Teaching staff from the school's official website
·Teachers listed by namenot published
·Teacher qualificationsnot stated
·Number of teachersthe school does not say
✓Students per teacher or class sizein the key facts above
The school publishes a full list of teachers with their subjects; every student has a mentor, and there are student coordinators per stage, a bilingual stream coordinator, a care coordinator, a school social worker and a dyslexia coach.
Safety and wellbeing from the school's official website
·CCTVnot stated on the website
·Security staffnot stated on the website
·Access controlnot stated on the website
·Nurse or medical roomnot stated on the website
·Counsellornot stated on the website
✓Child protection policy
·Staff trainingnot stated on the website
✓Anti-bullying policy
There is an anti-bullying protocol, an external confidential adviser of the school board, school rules, dyslexia and dyscalculia protocols and an absence protocol. Students can take Un(b)lock your Brain training against stress and fear of failure and Rots en Water training on confidence and communication.
Reviews
No reviews yet. The community rating counts towards the score once a school has five verified reviews - until then we do not show a zero, so as not to mislead.
Criteria breakdown criterion weight in brackets
Academics and programmes (16%)72 Community rating (16%)no dataparent reviews are needed: the criterion switches on at the fifth verified one Exams and destinations (12%) scored on disclosed data55 Safety and wellbeing (12%) scored on disclosed data65 Accreditation and verifiability (10%)85 Teaching staff (10%) scored on disclosed data55 Facilities (10%) scored on disclosed data60 Clubs and activities (8%) scored on disclosed data78 "Scored on disclosed data" stands where we count only what the school has written about itself on its own site: exams and destinations, safety and wellbeing, teaching staff, facilities, clubs and activities. A low score here means the school does not write about this, not that the school does not have it: a school with good security and a sparse site will score low. A school can fill in its profile, and the score will be counted again.
The score is counted from 8 of the 9 criteria.Only those with checkable data count: programmes and accreditations from official registers, the fee from a published price list. Where it says "scored on the median", the school has no data and the middle of the list is put in its place, so that a gap gives no advantage. Admissions, teaching staff and reviews come in as their data arrives.
The full methodology → Similar schools in the country
Zwijndrecht, Netherlands · State