Luzac
Playing top-class sport and studying? You can do it here.
DATE
05 May 2020
TEXT
Annerieke Simeone
IMAGE
Kim Vermaat
The Luzac offers tailor-made education to students. And that sometimes goes quite far. Schedules can be rearranged by mutual agreement. Useful when you have some top young athletes in the house, like Lily-More (14), who plays golf at a high level and sometimes trains for eight hours a day.
MIt is quiet in the reading room. Rector Joyce Doeze Jager-van Ham gazes through a glass window at a class of studying final exam students. "What concentration," she whispers to her colleague Wendy Braakman. The two then walk to her adjacent room on Oranjestraat. "So that's one of the great advantages of Luzac," she explains. "Here you do your homework at school.
Homework
School hours at Luzac may be longer, but in the evenings you can do what you want. Gaming, sports, meeting up with friends." Sounds ideal, but what if someone only pretends to have done their homework? Braakman, vice headmaster of this school, responds with a smile: "Impossible. Our team coordinators check that every day and students know the consequences if they don't do or learn the homework."
'When I hear at a birthday that a child has failed, I often ask if I can see the grade list'
More things do go differently at Luzac, which offers education at mavo, havo and vwo levels. For instance, the institution is not tied to a school year among exam students, as it also falls under the VAVO (Secondary General Adult Education) regulations. "Pupils who get stuck at a regular school in the interim or still want to get certificates can join us. By the way, the same applies to pupils who have just failed their final exams."
Doeze Jager-van Ham: "When I hear on a birthday that a child has failed, I often ask to see the marks list. The average of the central exams must be a 5.50 or higher. If I see that someone has just failed on, say, one compensation point short, I say: 'Boy, come and talk to us.' With an extra subject that has no final exam, you can still retake the school exam and you'll still be there.'
These students study for their school exams during the summer period and, if they get a good result, they can still start further studies. Saves them a whole year after all. We do not charge an annual fee for this, of course. If you do one subject with us, you also only have to pay for one subject."
Excellent customisation
Although it may sometimes seem otherwise, every pupil has the ambition to learn, Doeze Jager-van Ham knows. "The other day I spoke to a boy who wasn't feeling so good about himself. 'How come you try so hard on the hockey field and not for school?', I asked him. 'Yes, ma'am,' he replied, 'school isn't fun.' 'But surely there is one subject that is fun?', I asked. Then he told me he wanted to be a pilot. If you learn and you know why you are doing it, you can better motivate yourself to eventually achieve your goal, I told him."
'No point dwelling on a failing grade in biology'
"We want a child to get the most out of himself. Sometimes that means changing someone's subject package after the first week of tests. We puzzle until something fits a student well.
But you may not be good at some things either. There's no point in dwelling on a failing grade in biology. That makes someone insecure. It is better to say: if you get an 8 for Dutch, you can get a 4 for biology and still get your diploma. This is how Luzac tries to make dreams come true, partly by offering excellent customisation. There is a maximum of eighteen students in the upper school. Usually there are fewer."
Lily-More golfs at a high level.
Tailor-made education sometimes goes quite far at Luzac. Schedules can be rearranged by mutual agreement. Useful when you have some top young athletes in the house, like Lily-More (14), who plays golf at a high level and sometimes trains for eight hours a day.
Tiger Woods
Someday she wants to be as good as Tiger Woods or Lydia Ko. Her big dream is to win a Tour: the Ladies European Tour or even better the LPGA Tour in America.
But first, Lily-More, who is now in a 3 havo-vwo class, wants to go to 4 vwo. "Individual arrangements will be made with me about timetable and test planning, among other things, but the deal is that I get good grades," she said.
text Annerieke Simeone / image Kim Vermaat
The Luzac offers tailor-made education to students. And that sometimes goes quite far. Schedules can be rearranged by mutual agreement. Useful when you have some top young athletes in the house, like Lily-More (14), who plays golf at a high level and sometimes trains for eight hours a day.
MIt is quiet in the reading room. Rector Joyce Doeze Jager-van Ham gazes through a glass window at a class of studying final exam students. "What concentration," she whispers to her colleague Wendy Braakman. The two then walk to her adjacent room on Oranjestraat. "So that's one of the great advantages of Luzac," she explains. "Here you do your homework at school.
Homework
School hours at Luzac may be longer, but in the evenings you can do what you want. Gaming, sports, meeting up with friends." Sounds ideal, but what if someone only pretends to have done their homework? Braakman, vice headmaster of this school, responds with a smile: "Impossible. Our team coordinators check that every day and students know the consequences if they don't do or learn the homework."
'When I hear at a birthday that a child has failed, I often ask if I can see the grade list'
More things do go differently at Luzac, which offers education at mavo, havo and vwo levels. For instance, the institution is not tied to a school year among exam students, as it also falls under the VAVO (Secondary General Adult Education) regulations. "Pupils who get stuck at a regular school in the interim or still want to get certificates can join us. By the way, the same applies to pupils who have just failed their final exams."
Doeze Jager-van Ham: "When I hear on a birthday that a child has failed, I often ask to see the marks list. The average of the central exams must be a 5.50 or higher. If I see that someone has just failed on, say, one compensation point short, I say: 'Boy, come and talk to us.' With an extra subject that has no final exam, you can still retake the school exam and you'll still be there.'
These students study for their school exams during the summer period and, if they get a good result, they can still start further studies. Saves them a whole year after all. We do not charge an annual fee for this, of course. If you do one subject with us, you also only have to pay for one subject."
Excellent customisation
Although it may sometimes seem otherwise, every pupil has the ambition to learn, Doeze Jager-van Ham knows. "The other day I spoke to a boy who wasn't feeling so good about himself. 'How come you try so hard on the hockey field and not for school?', I asked him. 'Yes, ma'am,' he replied, 'school isn't fun.' 'But surely there is one subject that is fun?', I asked. Then he told me he wanted to be a pilot. If you learn and you know why you are doing it, you can better motivate yourself to eventually achieve your goal, I told him."
'No point dwelling on a failing grade in biology'
"We want a child to get the most out of himself. Sometimes that means changing someone's subject package after the first week of tests. We puzzle until something fits a student well.
But you may not be good at some things either. There's no point in dwelling on a failing grade in biology. That makes someone insecure. It is better to say: if you get an 8 for Dutch, you can get a 4 for biology and still get your diploma. This is how Luzac tries to make dreams come true, partly by offering excellent customisation. There is a maximum of eighteen students in the upper school. Usually there are fewer."
Lily-More golfs at a high level.
Tailor-made education sometimes goes quite far at Luzac. Schedules can be rearranged by mutual agreement. Useful when you have some top young athletes in the house, like Lily-More (14), who plays golf at a high level and sometimes trains for eight hours a day.
Tiger Woods
Someday she wants to be as good as Tiger Woods or Lydia Ko. Her big dream is to win a Tour: the Ladies European Tour or even better the LPGA Tour in America.
But first, Lily-More, who is now in a 3 havo-vwo class, wants to go to 4 vwo. "Individual arrangements will be made with me about timetable and test planning, among other things, but the deal is that I get good grades," she said.
