Newcomer?

Abstract Families, pupils, and students from the Dutch-Caribbean islands sometimes choose to migrate to the European part of the Dutch kingdom for work or educational purposes. Within the EDINA framework, pupils that migrate to the Netherlands who do not (fully) master the school language may benefit from a classroom environment where their rich linguistic and cultural repertoire is acknowledged and utilised as a tool to help them adjust to the Dutch school system. While Dutch-Caribbean pupils are not exactly ‘newcomers’ they are also not ‘fully’ Dutch; that is to say, the differences between sociolinguistic contexts in the two parts of the Dutch kingdom may lead to Dutch-Caribbean pupils needing extra support during their first year(s) in Dutch secondary school. Similar to newcomer pupils, the international transition classes (ISK) may offer exactly that. This study examines the scholastic performance by Dutch-Caribbean pupils in their first year of secondary school by looking at their grades for Dutch, English, and mathematics in relation to the age at which the pupils started ISK and their country of origin. The results show that neither age at the start of ISK nor the country of origin significantly affected pupil’s grades.