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Our philosophy

At IFS we are committed to academic excellence while also encouraging personal development, taking the best of a traditional French education and merging it with the skills of tomorrow.

Our aim is to offer our pupils the perfect balance that will enable them to blossom and reach their full potential to face tomorrow's world. Multilingualism and openness to the world are at the heart of our educational project.

 

Member of the AEFE network

The IFS Amsterdam is an educational establishment approved by the French Ministry of Education and is an accredited member of the AEFE network (Agence pour l'Enseignement Français à l'Étranger).

We prepare our pupils for the official French diplomas, the diplôme national du brevet (DNB) at the end of middle school  and the baccalauréat and the end of Lycée, which opens doors to the most prestigious universities in France, the Netherlands and further afield.

A multilingual curriculum from preschool onwards

In preschool and primary (from nursery to 5th grade), our pupils receive a perfectly bilingual education in French and English with additional Dutch language learning. Curriculum topics are taught in both French and English by native-speaker teachers so that pupils begin to develop a rounded understanding of both languages.

By the time they reach middle school, our pupils have an excellent command of both languages. At middle school, pupils have the choice to take the British international track, for deeper study of curriculum subjects in English, or the traditional track, with increased hours in French. We also teach English literature in accordance with the British National Curriculum, and we have reinforcement courses in English and French.
In high school, pupils can opt for the classic French baccalaureate, or the BFI, the international baccalaureate with a bilingual French-English curriculum.

Positive education and differentiated support

Positive education aims to develop pupils' self-regulation, sense of responsibility, autonomy, desire to learn and mutual respect. We prefer to search for solutions over imposing punishments and sanctions, to highlight each person's strengths, and to see mistakes as an opportunity to learn. This approach enables constructive change and stimulates pupils' desire to learn, inspiring a circle of cooperation.

Positive education promotes the individual well-being of pupils and helps to create a calmer climate in the classroom. In practice, teachers offer their pupils a caring learning environment, actively listen to each other and value their pupils' achievements according to their individual learning profiles. 

We are constantly trying to rethink the way we teach, to find answers to these major problems, which often go unanswered in a traditional school system: how can we be as close as possible to our pupils? to their development? to their physiological and specific needs? to their pace? How can we provide them with differentiated teaching? Our aim is to give pupils a real say in what they learn and to make school a place where they feel at ease.

We are proud to be an inclusive school

At IFS, we firmly believe that every child has the right to access a quality education adapted to his or her needs, including those with disabilities or learning difficulties. This is how we cultivate diversity and develop the talents of all our pupils, giving them the tools they need to succeed. The teaching team, trained in educational adaptation, supports each individual. A coordinator for pupils with special educational needs works closely with teachers, management, families and specialists to ensure optimum care. 

This coordination enables us to put in place arrangements that allow each student to flourish in a caring environment, including the use of headphones, fidget toys, chairs with movement and more.

 

 

Sport, music and arts

At the International French School, the curriculum places a strong emphasis on sports, music, and the arts, aligning with the guidelines set by the French Ministry of National Education.

Creativity and entrepreneurial spirit

In recent years, the skills needed to succeed have radically changed. The key skills to be developed in the 21st century include creativity, critical thinking and entrepreneurship.

To achieve this, the International French School of Amsterdam uses an active, project-based approach which encourages our pupils to learn through experimentation and manipulation, and thus to take responsibility for their own learning.

Pupils at IFS also have access to a FabLab maker space, a digital fabrication workshop. In this workshop, our pupils from preschool onwards can learn about robotics and coding, design projects, build models, shoot their own videos and more. They learn to work in teams, to collaborate, and to be bold, to persevere and be creative. They are not afraid to make mistakes and become increasingly capable of correcting themselves. These are essential skills for the future.

Technology and digital culture

To support our ambitious pedagogical project, the International French School in Amsterdam has integrated digital education technologies (EdTech) to transform learning and classroom practices. 

Technology is an invaluable classroom tool for differentiating teaching methods and individualising learning. Students in the same class do not all progress at the same speed. So it's important to support them according to their specific needs. Thanks to digital technology, it is possible to offer different content and exercises adapted to each pupil, enabling them to progress at their own pace. For pupils with learning difficulties, such as dyslexia, digital books can be used to adapt the reading font, word size and sentence length, which represents a real revolution for these pupils.

Digital technology at school is a catalyst for pupil creativity: the many interactive multimedia supports (videos, green screens, etc.) and  innovative technologies (robots, etc. help to bring life to educational projects and encourage creativity. This helps to make learning fun, engaging and motivating for pupils. We have a FabLab where pupils can explore the possibilities of technology and creativity with hands-on activities including 3-D printers and computer programming tools. 

Finally, using technology in schools helps to develop 21st century skills, so that our pupils are better prepared for further study and the world of work. Projects using new technologies facilitate communication and exchange, group work, information processing, the development of critical thinking, self-assessment and learning by doing. These are all key skills for understanding the world around us.