Rekentuin, Squla, Bareka, Gynzy and Snappet: the Dutch school apps parents hear about, what each one does, and which are worth your evening

Rekentuin, Squla and Snappet are the words that arrive in the first Dutch school year with no explanation, on a login sheet in the schoolbag or in a message on the parent app, and Indian parents, who come from a culture of tuition rather than apps, want to know which of them matter. The short answer: the ones the school runs matter for what the teacher sees; the ones families buy matter for Dutch reading practice; none of them stretches a child who is ahead. This post takes the apps one by one, says what each does and who sees the data, and ends with a rule for the evening.

The apps the school runs

Snappet. A complete maths and language method delivered on a tablet or Chromebook, used in a large share of Dutch primary schools from groep 4 upwards. The teacher gives the lesson at the board, then the children work on the device, and the exercises adapt: a child who gets the first ones right is moved to harder ones, a child who struggles gets more of the same. The teacher sees every child's progress live on a dashboard and gets a weekly report. Parents see very little unless the school opens a parent view. What matters for an Indian family: Snappet's adaptive level is the most honest picture the teacher has of your child's maths, more honest than the report, and it is worth asking at the tienminutengesprek to see it. How to ask is in the tienminutengesprek.

Gynzy. The teacher's digital whiteboard and lesson library, with a child-facing side, Gynzy Kids, where exercises are set. Less adaptive than Snappet, closer to the paper method. If the school uses Gynzy the paper workbook usually still exists and comes home.

Bareka. A tool for automatisering, the Dutch word for fluency: tables, addition and subtraction facts, done against the clock, with a diagnostic that shows which facts a child knows by heart and which they still count. Schools use it in groep 3 to 6 and sometimes give a home login. For an Indian child who knows the tables, Bareka shows it in a week and the teacher stops worrying; for one who counts on fingers in groep 5, it is exactly the right ten minutes a day. The tables story is in times tables the Dutch way.

Rekentuin and Taalzee. Adaptive practice gardens, maths and Dutch language, from the same maker. Each "plant" is a domain, tables, fractions, clocks, money, and the child waters them by playing short games at a level the app sets, aiming for about three-quarters correct so the child is neither bored nor lost. The teacher sees levels per domain across the class. Many schools give home access and ask for ten minutes a few times a week. It is genuinely good for what it does, which is keeping the Dutch curriculum ticking over at the child's level. It does not go beyond the curriculum, so a child at the top of a garden simply stays there.

The apps families buy

Squla. The best-known home subscription, all subjects, groep 1 to 8, in Dutch, with quizzes, games and Cito-style practice tests. Schools do not run it; families buy it for a few euros a month. It is strong for Dutch reading, spelling and begrijpend lezen practice in a form a child will actually do, and for getting used to the Cito question style before the January and June rounds. It is weak as a maths stretch, because it practises the groep's content and stops there, and it is weak as teaching, because it explains little. A useful three months before a Cito round; not a year-round tool.

Junior Einstein and the Cito practice sites. Websites with practice questions in the style of the monitoring tests, some free and some paid. Fine for a fortnight before the test to remove the surprise of the format. What the scores mean afterwards is in Cito scores explained.

The tables apps. Any of the many; the child needs the ten-minute daily habit more than the particular app. If the school gives Bareka or Rekentuin access, use that, because the teacher sees it.

What none of them do

No Dutch school app teaches a child something the curriculum has not reached. That is by design: they are built to consolidate the groep's content at the child's level, and a child who is ahead is held at the ceiling of the groep, watering a full garden. For an Indian child who arrived a year ahead in maths, the apps are useful for the Dutch words and the Dutch methods and useless for stretch. Stretch comes from a person: a teacher who offers verrijking, a plusklas, or a tutor. How to get the school's own stretch is in plusklas and gifted programmes.

The apps are also all in Dutch, which is a feature for the language and a barrier for the maths in the first year. A child who cannot yet read "Hoeveel wisselgeld krijgt Sanne?" will score low in Rekentuin's money garden for a language reason, and the teacher's dashboard will show a maths gap that is not there. Say so at the meeting.

A rule for the evening

Ten minutes, four days a week, on the app the school runs, and nothing else on a screen for maths. In practice:

• Groep 3 to 5: Bareka or the Rekentuin tables garden, ten minutes. The rest of the maths time is with a person.
• Groep 6 to 8: Rekentuin on the domain the teacher named as weakest, ten minutes. Three months before a Cito round, add Squla's practice tests twice a week for the format.
• Any groep, first year in the Netherlands: Taalzee or Squla for Dutch reading, ten minutes, every day, because the reading is the gate.

A child who does more than that on an app is not learning more; they are doing the same thing longer. The evening's real maths, the stretch, the Dutch methods explained in English, the word problems translated and solved, is a person's job, and it is the job we do.

What we do

We do not replace the school's apps and we do not sell one. We read what they show, ask the teacher for the Snappet or Rekentuin levels, and use them to decide what the lesson should be: the Dutch method the app is grading, the domain that is low for a language reason, the stretch the app cannot give. Bring the school's app logins to the free demo, or a photo of the Rekentuin gardens, and we will tell you what the levels say about the maths and what to do with the ten minutes.

Questions parents ask

See how we teach this, 1-on-1 online →