The Stedelijk Gymnasium Haarlem or the Latin School of Haarlem is a secondary school in

Haarlem Haarlem (; predecessor of ''Harlem'' in English) is a city and municipality in the Netherlands. It is the capital of the province of North Holland. Haarlem is situated at the northern edge of the Randstad, one of the most populated metropoli ...

, Netherlands. The school was founded in 1389 and is therefore one of the oldest schools in the world. The school offers ''

voorbereidend wetenschappelijk onderwijs ''Voorbereidend wetenschappelijk onderwijs'' (VWO, meaning "preparatory scientific education" in Dutch) is the highest variant in the secondary educational system of the Netherlands, attended by approximately a fifth of all Dutch high school stude ...

'' (preparatory scientific education) exclusively and is an independent gymnasium enrolling 822 students and 95 teachers, for a teacher/student ratio of 8.6.

Admission

The Latin School of Haarlem subscribes to a selective admission policy. A prospective student is required to provide for sufficient material e.g. standardized test scores and a primary school teacher's recommendation. The overall score of the National Standardized Test () most Dutch students take at the end of sixth grade has to be 85%>. If the student in question does not meet the requirements he or she is not eligible for admission.

History

In 1389 a

Latin school The Latin school was the grammar school of 14th- to 19th-century Europe, though the latter term was much more common in England. Emphasis was placed, as the name indicates, on learning to use Latin. The education given at Latin schools gave gre ...

was begun north of the

St. Bavochurch The Grote Kerk or St.-Bavokerk is a Reformed Protestant church and former Catholic cathedral located on the central market square ( Grote Markt) in the Dutch city of Haarlem. Another Haarlem church called the Cathedral of Saint Bavo now serves ...

in the Schoolsteeg. After the

Siege of Haarlem The siege of Haarlem was an episode of the Eighty Years' War. From 11 December 1572 to 13 July 1573 an army of Philip II of Spain laid bloody siege to the city of Haarlem in the Netherlands, whose loyalties had begun wavering during the prev ...

when the city council seized all Catholic possessions, the school moved in 1592 to the quarters of the old

Dominican Order The Order of Preachers ( la, Ordo Praedicatorum) abbreviated OP, also known as the Dominicans, is a Catholic mendicant order of Pontifical Right for men founded in Toulouse, France, by the Spanish priest, saint and mystic Dominic of Cal ...

monastery located behind the

City Hall In local government, a city hall, town hall, civic centre (in the UK or Australia), guildhall, or a municipal building (in the Philippines), is the chief administrative building of a city, town, or other municipality. It usually houses ...

. The current school is still located there on the Prinsenhof, that can be reached via the Jacobijnestraat. It still offers a classical curriculum, including studies in

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

and

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

. The first rector recorded is in 1301.''Deugd boven geweld, Een geschiedenis van Haarlem, 1245-1995'', edited by Gineke van der Ree-Scholtens, 1995, , p88 In 1389 the city was given the privilege of appointing the rector together with the pastor of the Bavo. The rector was paid by the fees paid by students. He also took in students from outside the city and received extra fees for room and board. From his income, he paid the teachers () himself. The basis for education was the

artes liberales Liberal arts education (from Latin "free" and "art or principled practice") is the traditional academic course in Western higher education. ''Liberal arts'' takes the term '' art'' in the sense of a learned skill rather than specifically th ...

, whereby parts of the Trivium were given in Latin and the Quadrivium included music, since the choir boys needed to sing in church. For boys studying theology, Hebrew lessons were given in addition to Latin (Greek only became available from 1522). Students wanting to continue their studies, needed to leave the country before the

Leiden University Leiden University (abbreviated as ''LEI''; nl, Universiteit Leiden) is a Public university, public research university in Leiden, Netherlands. The university was founded as a Protestant university in 1575 by William the Silent, William, Prince o ...

was founded in 1579. According to the archives of the , a religious institution formerly located at what is now the Hofje van Oorschot, they had a fund from 1502 to 1577 (the ) for sending good students to

Cologne Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western States of Germany, state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 m ...

to further their studies there. In 1553, when the school had been run by Junius, they even petitioned

Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, french: Charles Quint, it, Carlo V, nl, Karel V, ca, Carles V, la, Carolus V (24 February 1500 – 21 September 1558) was Holy Roman Emperor and Archduke of Austria from 1519 to 1556, King of Spain (Crown of Castile, Castil ...

for the right to found a university in Haarlem, but this was never answered. After the Satisfactie van Haarlem in 1577, the books of all the monasteries and cloisters in Haarlem were given to the Latin school and the rector Cornelis Schonaeus (1540–1611) took two weeks to draw up the inventory list. This same Schonaeus was the one who was in charge of moving the school from the schoolsteeg to the current location in 1583.Schonaeus
in the

KNAW The Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences ( nl, Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie van Wetenschappen, abbreviated: KNAW) is an organization dedicated to the advancement of science and literature in the Netherlands. The academy is housed ...

He almost lost his job when the council decided to start a or university there, but perhaps because Leiden had already been founded, this never happened. He did complete a major reorganization of the school that was then placed in the hands of his successor,

Theodorus Schrevelius Theodorus Schrevelius (25 July 1572 – 2 December 1649) was a Dutch Golden Age writer and poet. Biography He was born in Haarlem, and in 1591 went to study Greek and Latin at the University of Leiden. He became the assistant director of the L ...

. During the years 1864-1875 and again from 1925–1933, the school merged with the

Hogere Burger School (Haarlem) The Hoogere Burger School is a former HBS Hogere burgerschool on the Zijlvest, Haarlem, The Netherlands. It was one of the oldest public schools in Haarlem, moved from the Jacobijnestraat and built as a boys school in 1906.''Herinneringen aan de ...

, due to a decrease in enrollment. The Stedelijk Gymnasium Haarlem was the last school in the Netherlands where lessons were taught on Saturday mornings. This was finally discontinued in the school year 2000-2001. The Prinsenhof itself is a historic ''Hortus Medicus'', that used to contain medicinal herbs tended by the students, but is now a grassy garden - with a weeping beech in the middle - tended by the city parks service. A historic statue to

Laurens Janszoon Coster Laurens Janszoon Coster (c. 1370, Haarlem – c. 1440), or Laurens Jansz Koster, is the purported inventor of a printing press from Haarlem. He allegedly invented printing simultaneously with Johannes Gutenberg and was regarded by some in t ...

that was originally located on the city square, was moved here in 1823 to make way for a new one. Also located in the hortus is a small "peace temple" that was originally placed in 1648 to commemorate the

Peace of Münster The Peace of Münster was a treaty between the Lords States General of the Seven United Netherlands and the Spanish Crown, the terms of which were agreed on 30 January 1648. The treaty, parallelly negotiated to but not part of the Peace of We ...

Campus

The campus is located in the old city center of Haarlem. The Latin School occupies two separate building on opposite sides of the Prinsenhof in Haarlem. This arrangement means that public space is a large part of school life. The complex built in 1865 by J.E. van den Arend is restored recently.

Haarlem Model United Nations

The Latin School of Haarlem hosts an annual

Model United Nations Model United Nations, also known as Model UN or MUN, is an educational simulation in which students can learn about diplomacy, international relations, and the United Nations. At a MUN conference, students work as the representative of a count ...

conference which is organised by the Haarlem Model United Nations Organisation: the Haarlem Model United Nations Conference (HMUN). The Haarlem Model United Nations Organisation is a

nonprofit organization A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...

run by students of the Stedelijk Gymnasium Haarlem and the Board of Directors. The Haarlem MUN conference is a three-day conference during which students from schools in the Netherlands and other countries are assigned delegations consisting of countries or non-governmental organizations that they will represent during the conference. They do so in various councils and assemblies, similar to the ones of the real United Nations. In accordance with the policy of their assigned country or non-governmental organizations the students are involved in lobbying, debating, writing resolutions, and all things normally done by adult diplomats.

Notable alumni

* Amir Sjarifoeddin – second Prime Minister of the

Indonesian Republic Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guinea. Ind ...

Thierry Baudet Thierry Henri Philippe Baudet (; born 28 January 1983) is a Dutch far-right politician, author and self-declared conspiracy theorist. He is the founder and leader of Forum for Democracy (FvD), and has been a member of the House of Representativ ...

– politician, academic and journalist *

Hadrianus Junius Hadrianus Junius (1511–1575), also known as Adriaen de Jonghe, was a Dutch physician, classical scholar, translator, lexicographer, antiquarian, historiographer, emblematist, school rector, and Latin poet. He is not to be confused with several ...

(1550–1552) *

– humanist, writer and poet *

Job Cohen Marius Job Cohen (; born 18 October 1947) is a retired Dutch politician and jurist who served as Mayor of Amsterdam from 2001 to 2010 and Leader of the Labour Party (PvdA) from 2010 to 2012. Cohen studied Law at the University of Groningen obt ...

– former

Mayor of Amsterdam Below is a list of mayors (Dutch: ''burgemeesters'') of Amsterdam, capital of the Netherlands. The city had four burgomasters, serving four years. Since 1389 the mayors were elected on 1 February. In the 17th and 18th century, a new mayor was ele ...

and in 2010 leader of the

Labour Party (Netherlands) The Labour Party ( nl, Partij van de Arbeid, , abbreviated as ''PvdA'', or ''P van de A'', ) is a social-democratic political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular country's el ...

Jessica Durlacher Jessica Durlacher (; born 6 September 1961) is a Dutch literary critic, columnist and novelist. Her father is the sociologist and writer Gerhard Durlacher, who survived the Auschwitz concentration camp. She is married to novelist Leon de Winte ...

– writer *

Hamengkubuwono IX Hamengkubuwono IX or HB IX (12 April 1912 – 2 October 1988) was an Indonesian statesman and royal who was the second vice president of Indonesia, the ninth sultan of Yogyakarta, and the first governor of the Special Region of Yogyakarta. Hamen ...

– ninth Sultan of

Yogyakarta Yogyakarta (; jv, ꦔꦪꦺꦴꦒꦾꦏꦂꦠ ; pey, Jogjakarta) is the capital city of Special Region of Yogyakarta in Indonesia, in the south-central part of the island of Java. As the only Indonesian royal city still ruled by a monarchy, ...

Ed Spanjaard Eduard Philip Spanjaard (born 22 December 1948), known professionally as Ed Spanjaard, is a Dutch conductor and pianist. Early life Spanjaard was born in 1948 in Haarlem. His father was a psychiatrist and amateur pianist, and his mother a fl ...

– conductor * L.H. Wiener – writer *

Jan Kops Jan Kops (6 March 1765 Amsterdam - 9 January 1849 Utrecht) was an Anabaptist Dutch agronomist and botanist. His most notable contribution to botany was the founding of the long-lived journal "''Flora Batava''" in 1800 and contributing text for th ...

– Baptist preacher and professor agronomy at the University of Utrecht *

Edward Brongersma Edward Brongersma (31 August 1911 in Haarlem, Netherlands – 22 April 1998 in Bloemendaal/ Overveen, Netherlands) was a Dutch politician and doctor of law. For a number of years he was a member of the Dutch Senate for the Labour Party, an ...

– Dutch politician, lawyer, jurist and criminologist * Christianus Cornelius Uhlenbeck – Dutch linguist, anthropologist and writer * Jan Kruseman – Dutch jurist and president of the Court of Amsterdam *

Guido van Rossum Guido van Rossum (; born 31 January 1956) is a Dutch programmer best known as the creator of the Python programming language, for which he was the " benevolent dictator for life" (BDFL) until he stepped down from the position on 12 July 20 ...

– Dutch computer programmer *

Martijn Bolkestein Martijn N. Bolkestein (born 13 March 1972) is a Dutch politician who served as a member of the House of Representatives between July 2020 and March 2021. He is a member of the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD). Prior to becoming a me ...

– Dutch politician *Jochem Tinbergen - Jochem Tinbergen

References

External links

Website of the Stedelijk Gymnasium Haarlem
{{Coord, 52, 22, 54, N, 4, 38, 02, E, display=title, region:NL_type:edu_source:nlwiki Educational institutions established in the 14th century Schools in Haarlem Gymnasiums in the Netherlands Rijksmonuments in Haarlem 1389 establishments in Europe