Following the mission and vision of our school, we have formulated our school values.

• Enquiry
  We believe in developing enquiring minds through questioning, investigation and discussion. It is important to know we are free to ask questions and explore; free to think outside of the box.
• Adaptability
  We promote children’s self-confidence to explore new ideas, strategies and roles as we expose them to a range of new situations and promote an understanding that change is constant.
• Respect
  We encourage respect for each other, and others’ views, cultures and traditions and promote responsibility for the community, living things and our environment. We promote whole school and community respect, ensuring that children understand respect does not only relate to age.
• Resilience
  We encourage learners to try their best and to persevere and overcome difficulties. They must know their own strengths, develop their targets and be aware of their learning styles. We aim to stimulate children’s growth and desire to do well in all areas of learning.
• Morality
  We promote moral understanding using our school Golden Rules, praising positive behaviour through open discussions such as circle time sessions and assemblies. In child speak, we display the section of our behaviour policy which clearly explains levels of consequences. We ask even our youngest children to reflect on incidents and consider the difference between right and wrong. We always treat each day as a new one and learn from our behaviours.
• Communication
  We believe in a learning community that is committed to communicating in a variety of ways with children, parents, staff and all stakeholders. We endeavour to give challenging and effective feedback to children to enhance and encourage responsibility for their own learning. We are transparent with parents about their children’s progress and behaviour and are privileged enough to have open-minded parents who are similarly transparent with us. We teach the children to communicate clearly, respectfully and with confidence.
• Thoughtfulness
  We want learners to think beyond their immediate environment and to become informed, independent, responsible global citizens. We encourage children to read each other’s faces and be sensitive to each other’s emotions. Hand in hand with thoughtfulness, we encourage empathy.
• Cooperation
  We view education as a partnership; between parents, teachers and children. As a learning community, we acknowledge and promote cooperation and collaboration of all stakeholders, actively including parents in their child’s education. Similarly, we plan cooperative lessons in the classroom and team events on the field. As we encourage ‘Learning for Life’, we remind children at every learning curve that they must be able to work with others.
• Democracy
  We role model the concept of democracy at school and within our decision-making processes; for example, within the staff team and Student Council. Students understand the importance of listening, voting, transparency and accepting the views of others.
• Rule of Law
  We set rules with the children and not just for the children. Students are encouraged to understand the purpose behind a rule and the consequences of not following one. We refer to a ‘positive behaviour’ policy rather than a ‘behaviour’ policy placing at all times the importance on positivity and reflection. Children understand that if they follow rules well when younger; they are more likely to be law-abiding citizens when older.
• Individual Liberty
  We empower the students with a voice and a choice. We permit them to share their views in everyday interactions and also in terms of their learning; we encourage child-led lessons. Despite hosting many traditional cultures within our diverse school; we aim to give our children opportunities to express themselves and be themselves.
• Tolerance and Mutual Respect
  We instil the ethos that no matter how sure we are of our own opinions; we must listen to others, learn from them and be mindful of their possibly different views. Though we talk about respect as a ‘personal goal’ and in terms of respecting the property and the environment as well as individuals; here we focus more on our differing backgrounds, traditions, faiths and levels of spirituality. This tolerance and mutual respect we believe is fundamental in leading to the below term; ACCEPTANCE, which we feel umbrellas our twelve school values.

Our school aims to teach children that every member of every society should be treated with the above-mentioned personal values. We move, exist and learn in a small school with a large diversity. Hosting over thirty different cultural backgrounds, catering to special educational needs where possible and combining two different curricula, we are gaining a real taste of today’s world; a truly international one. We accept each other’s differences, listen to each other’s views and yet feel able to enquire and ask questions. Our school aims to make a significant contribution to the acceptance of other cultures besides the Dutch culture, yet we insist on a ‘touch of Dutch’ at all times. We are firm believers of self-identity and knowing one’s roots. Many of our students come from mixed-race families learning to accept differences and diversity within their homes not only at school. At NISL we believe the world comes together to learn from each other; something a textbook cannot teach.