Principal

Dear RISS Community,

To you all, I would like to offer you a warm welcome to our academic year 2022-2023. And I would like to offer an extra special welcome to parents of our new students who are joining us this year.

We are delighted to start working together in the care, support and education of your children; our students. I want to share with you all some important information that will help the beginning of term get off to a smooth start and ensure everything continues smoothly throughout the year. For current parents this is, of course, a friendly reminder.

Home-school communication is important to us. All information regarding this process is in our new RISS Handbook 2022-2023 that you can find on our website. Remember, communication with the school always starts with your child’s form teacher. 

What’s more, we communicate with all families on a weekly basis via our Friday bulletins. Any relevant information about school life will be sent to you this way. I hope that you take the time to go through it as it really does help us work in partnership to support your children. 

It is important to bear in mind that, although we are an international school, responding to the demands of that particular environment, we also operate within the Dutch education system and are subject to the same requirements as any other school in the Netherlands. For example, Attendance and Lateness are highly regulated in the Netherlands and RISS has a legal duty when it comes to children coming to school and being here on time. Thank you for your understanding and cooperation in this really important matter. 

Of course, the quality of school life is determined by what goes on in and out of our classrooms. I am sure you will join me in welcoming back our teachers for this academic year as well as offering a warm welcome to the new staff joining us at this exciting time on our journey. 

Finally, we are very proud of the new, creative and hands-on curriculum we have developed in recent years and I am delighted that we are expanding this over the coming year. In this way we will be ensuring all children can enjoy their time here, enjoy their youth and genuinely flourish.

Thank you for your time and support and I look forward to meeting you all in person over the course of the academic year 2022-23.

Dr. Gilbert-Sáez
RISS Principal

"I like the coffee, cheese, and biking"

"The transition from Hong Kong to Rotterdam is not as great as you would think. Both cities are in safe countries and children are raised in freedom. You can see students bike through the city to go to school. And the commitment to education in both countries is great, from the government as well as parents." 

Please find the full interview with Ms. Gilbert-Saez by Stichting BOOR here.

"A remarkable school indeed!"

In the new edition of the XPat Journal, you can find a two-page article regarding RISS and we like to share it with you. In conversation with our Principal Ms. Gilbert-Saéz, the article tells about our mission statement and how we implement it within our school and through our community, the reaccreditation by the CIS and NEASC and how the school is a reflection of the city of Rotterdam. We invite you all to read and share it. 

Find the full article here.