Concrete, with numbers, without panic. First the Amsterdam context, then what it means at our school. We end with what 197 parents told us in the survey.
Primary education in Amsterdam-Centrum is under pressure. Not at one school, but at nearly all of them. The combination of factors is the same everywhere:
The result is that schools have to trim their programme every single year. The cultural programme, PE taught by specialist teachers, extra language support, smaller groups for tailored teaching: those are exactly the things that go first.
It's not parents' job to fill the holes in government funding. But waiting for politics isn't an option.
Over the past few months we've spoken with the school's leadership, with the school council (MR), and with other parent groups across Amsterdam. Below, concretely, what's going on at the TTSA.
Next year, groups 6 and 7 will be combined. There's not much to be done about that — it's a consequence of pupil numbers. The school's leadership can still absorb it with a combined class, and with the loss of a few colleagues. But if the cuts continue at this pace, that won't be sustainable in the longer term.
We wanted to know whether there's support for what we're planning, how many parents want to contribute, and which programmes matter most to them. The outcome was clear and motivating.
When asked about specific measures (NT2 cut, visual arts halved), 79 to 92% of parents didn't know.
Together we're raising money to keep the top priorities going, and in parallel we're working on the political side of the story. We very deliberately see this foundation as an interim solution, not a new normal.
