Netherlands · Maastricht
A public Dutch secondary school with bilingual havo and vwo. The qualification remains Dutch, with additional certificates rather than the full IB Diploma.
Porta Mosana College is a public Dutch secondary school in Maastricht-Oost offering havo, atheneum and gymnasium, including bilingual tweetalig onderwijs (TTO) streams. Choose it for a Dutch diploma with substantial English-language teaching, not for the full International Baccalaureate Diploma.
The school’s contact address is Oude Molenweg 130, 6228 XW Maastricht. It describes provision in Scharn and Heer. The March 2026 version of its 2025/26 school guide reports about 1,360 pupils and 65 classrooms at Oude Molenweg, and mentions two locations linked by a cycle route. Ask which buildings the intended timetable uses. This is a day-school route, not boarding.
Havo prepares primarily for higher professional education. Atheneum and gymnasium are forms of vwo, the Dutch pre-university route; gymnasium includes classical languages. TTO changes the teaching-language balance within these Dutch programmes, not the underlying qualification.
The TTO page lists bilingual havo, atheneum and gymnasium. About 65% of lower-school lessons are in English, including English itself, biology, geography, history, science, arts, music, drama and physical education. In the upper years the proportion is about 35%.
Additional certificates named by the school are IB English A: Language and Literature, Cambridge Advanced (CAE) and Cambridge Global Perspectives and Research (GPR). The IB English certificate is not the full IB Diploma. Following a 2021/22 Nuffic review, the school reports TTO senior-school status for vwo and junior-school status for havo.
For TTO havo, the school expects a strong havo or combined havo/vwo recommendation from primary school. TTO atheneum and gymnasium require a strong vwo recommendation. Motivation and interest in English and the wider world also matter.
Compare UWC Maastricht if you need an English-medium IB sequence, primary provision or residential upper-secondary education. Those are different requirements from Dutch bilingual secondary schooling.
The published central digital application period for the brugklas, the first secondary year, ran from 25 to 31 March 2026 and has closed. The school says there was no lottery for that intake, and definitive placement letters were scheduled for 12 May. For a late first-year application, use the contact listed on the brugklas admissions page.
For years 2–6, apply directly through the team leader. The published procedure offered placement in the chosen stream for applications with an appropriate recommendation received before 20 April 2026. Later applicants enter a waiting list and can be placed only if space is available. That deadline has also passed.
According to the school guide, pupils arriving from outside the Maastricht region, including abroad, take an independent Dutch placement test whose result determines the stream. Ask what preparation, documentation and language expectations apply to the individual transfer; the research baseline does not establish a score threshold.
Porta Mosana is publicly funded. The school’s TTO contribution page expressly states that non-payment of the voluntary contribution cannot exclude a pupil from TTO.
The contribution was provisionally €475 for 2025/26, both on that page and in the March 2026 school guide. The available annual-cost forms also remained labelled 2025/26. This is a historical amount, not a confirmed 2026/27 charge. Request the current TTO and general voluntary contributions.
The described TTO contribution covers additional English and Global Perspectives teaching, coordination, Nuffic and IB organisation charges, Cambridge Advanced examinations in vwo year 4 and havo year 5, and IB English examinations in TTO year 6. The existing sources do not establish current meal or other additional charges.
Choose Porta Mosana when the child is ready for Dutch secondary schooling, has the required recommendation and wants the added English exposure of TTO. It is not an English-only alternative to a Dutch school, nor does its IB English certificate turn the route into an IB Diploma.
The Maastricht guide and Netherlands guide provide broader comparisons.
Official pages and documents we read. If a figure matters to your budget or your application, open the link and confirm it is still current.
Friendly orientation, not an application. Dates, fees, and programme details move. Confirm everything with the school.
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UWC Maastricht offers English-medium IB education and a residential senior programme. Porta Mosana combines Dutch secondary qualifications with bilingual teaching. They are different educational routes, not interchangeable international schools; age, eligibility and the intended diploma should guide your shortlist.
7 minStart with the qualification your child would actually receive. Then check its subjects, language demands, and recognition in the countries where they may study next.
7 minStart with your child and the family's likely plans. Define the non-negotiables, verify the school's claims, compare three realistic options and visit with specific questions.
7 minTuition is only one line of the budget. Separate charges from advance payments, record what each figure includes, and ask the school to confirm your calculation in writing.