Rotterdam International Secondary School Reviews (11)

My daughter graduated from RISS two years ago so I can give you a good perspective on it. RISS is good if you’d like to spend carefree high school years, but think twice if you’re aiming for high grades. I’ll just show you what this means in terms of teachers, lessons, students and facilities. #1. Teachers. Most teachers are kind and friendly but aren’t knowledgeable. They like talking to students but most don’t have the know-how to make them succeed. Keep in mind this is what most teachers are like. There were two terrible teachers during my daughter’s time at RISS. One was the ICT teacher. He was incredibly brusque, shouting at students, kicking chairs and raving at an innocent child. The guy was an utter brute. What’s surprising is that the school never fired him. The other was the head of middle years. He was incredibly pig-headed and inconsiderate. This guy hated solving serious issues, even when they were urgent. He’s since left school. #2. Lessons. There’re good lessons in early years but they progressively deteriorate. At JC, there were a lot of hands-on learning like experiments, craft, etc. The IB teachers are unmotivated stock giving boring lectures. Some of them aren’t clever enough to answer basic questions, so I had to pull out books with my daughter. Just to add, there’re huge discrepancies in teacher quality across different subjects. Generally, geography, history, English and economics teachers do a good job while STEM teachers are a crap. #3. Students. Academically most students are mediocre. But personality-wise, they’re confident, mature for their age, and caring. RISS students are generally better at assignments than written tests. Sports, arts and music aren’t a big part of RISS culture. The students are more cooperative than competitive. #4. Facilities. There’re a library, science labs and a playground. The library has many books from university textbooks to novels. The science labs are poorly equipped for IB standard - they don’t have motion sensors, centrifuge or oscilloscope. The playground is dark, small and dull.

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