← Back to the rankingThe British School of Amsterdam
Amsterdam, Netherlands · est. 1977 · Private
Illustration · Amsterdam
The British School of Amsterdam (BSA) is a British international day school for children aged 3 to 18. It was founded in 1977 by three British families who began teaching their children at home so they would not fall behind the British system; over time it grew into a kindergarten, a primary school and, by 2000, a full senior school. Since 2021 the whole school has been in one building on Havenstraat, a converted 19th-century former prison. The curriculum is the English National Curriculum: the Early Years Foundation Stage, primary school, then GCSE and IGCSE in Years 10-11 and A Level in the Sixth Form. Lessons are taught in English. About 980 students of 71 nationalities attend, 85% of them not British; about 470 are in the senior school. The school is not-for-profit, a foundation (stichting) under Dutch law with no funding from the UK or Dutch governments.
Key facts
Tuition
≈ $21 458–25 957 a year
18 994–22 976 EUR
Programmes
Cambridge · IGCSE, A-Level · Pearson Edexcel
Admits from
3 years · Pre-School
Languages of instruction
English
Languages taught
Dutch, French, German, Spanish
Class size
Up to 24 students per class in Early Years and the junior school, up to 22 in the senior school.
Registration fee
≈ $282
250 EUR
About the fees Annual fees 2026-2027: Nursery from 9497 EUR for five half-day sessions a week to 18994 EUR for ten; Reception and Year 1 - 20461 EUR; Years 2-6 - 21077 EUR; Years 7-9 - 22583 EUR; Years 10-13 - 22976 EUR. Fees include compulsory trips, textbooks and exercise books. Fees are invoiced annually; families paying themselves can pay in three instalments.
Admissions The school is non-selective and welcomes students of any nationality: 85% are not British. English is not a prerequisite; newcomers are supported with English as an Additional Language lessons. Year group is determined by age on 31 August. Nursery entry is from the term of the third birthday; children must be fully toilet trained and attend at least five half-day sessions a week. The school does not accept applications for Years 11 and 13, as GCSE and A Level are two-year courses; testing may be required for senior entry, particularly for Years 10 and 12. The application requires an online form, a photo, a notarised birth certificate and parents' documents in English, proof of address, the latest school report translated into English and a reference from the current school; the application fee is 250 EUR. The school does not enrol students who will live alone in the Netherlands; guardians appointed by parents must be at least 25. Children with additional needs are assessed individually; the school may decline if it cannot support them.
Stages and year groups Grades Nursery, Reception, Years 1-13. English National Curriculum: Early Years Foundation Stage (Nursery from age 3 and Reception), primary (Years 1-6), Key Stage 3 (Years 7-9), Key Stage 4 (Years 10-11) with a combination of IGCSE and GCSE exams, Sixth Form (Years 12-13) with AS and A Level: students take four subjects in Year 12 and continue at least three to full A Level in Year 13. A Level subjects include Global Perspectives. The school is an accredited centre for Cambridge International, Pearson, AQA and OCR and chooses the syllabus for each subject. Languages: Dutch for all from primary (separate lessons following the Dutch school programme for native speakers), French from Year 3, and in the senior school a choice of Dutch, French, German and Spanish.
Address Havenstraat 6, 1075 PR Amsterdam
Accreditations and programmes verified against official registries
BSO · accreditationCambridge · IGCSE, A-Level · authorised programmePearson · authorised programmeCOBIS · membershipHMC · part of the allianceThe Cambridge and Pearson registers name the school as their centre: in Years 10-11 students take IGCSE and GCSE, then A Level. Its core is the English National Curriculum. The school is inspected under the British Schools Overseas scheme. The school is an accredited member of COBIS. The school is a member of HMC.
school is in an official registryconfirmed by a school document, by membership or by taking part in a networkclaimed by the school, no confirmation, not counted in the scoreGuide to all organisations → What stands behind each entry
BSOBritish government inspection of schools overseas
A scheme of the UK Department for Education: a school abroad is inspected against the standards for independent schools in England, including safeguarding and the standards for boarding. The inspections are done by independent inspectorates approved by the department, and the inspectorates themselves are monitored annually by Ofsted. The reports are published in full on the government website.
What the badge means for this school. The school has been through this organisation's accreditation. It was judged as a whole: governance, safeguarding, staff, premises, teaching. The entry stands in the organisation's public register - anyone can check it.
Register to check for yourself, and the full guide →CambridgeCambridge International Education
Part of the University of Cambridge. It allows a school to teach the Cambridge programmes and to enter pupils for the exams. There are four stages and they are authorised separately: primary, lower secondary, IGCSE and A Level. If the stages are known they are named in the line below; if that line is missing, the school does not publish them, and the Cambridge registry does not show stages either - it gives only the name of the centre, the country and whether private candidates are accepted. Cambridge calls what it does registration rather than accreditation, and the network holds about ten thousand schools.
What the badge means for this school. The school is allowed to run this programme and to award its certificate. This is a confirmation of the programme, not a judgement on the school as a whole. The entry stands in the organisation's public register - anyone can check it. At this school: IGCSE (ages 14-16), A-Level (ages 16-18). IGCSE means exams at around Year 10 or 11, the British counterpart of a lower secondary leaving certificate. A-Level is the senior years, and their results are what British and many other universities admit on.
Register to check for yourself, and the full guide →PearsonPearson Edexcel, a British exam board
It gives a school approved centre status: that means Pearson exams can be sat in the school itself. What is checked is the premises, the equipment, the secure storage of papers and the presence of trained invigilators.
What the badge means for this school. The school can run Pearson exams on its own premises. The status says nothing about teaching, about results or about the school itself: any school able to run an exam securely holds it. The entry stands in the organisation's public register - anyone can check it. Which Pearson qualifications this school is approved for is not stated here.
Register to check for yourself, and the full guide →COBISCouncil of British International Schools
An association of British schools abroad with a quality inspection of its own. It has nine membership categories, and the word "accredited" appears in seven of them, although COBIS does its own inspection in one: in the rest it recognises an accreditation granted by somebody else.
What the badge means for this school. The school belongs to this organisation but has not been through its accreditation. The difference matters: membership is usually paid for and has no external inspection behind it. The entry is confirmed in the organisation's open directory.
Register to check for yourself, and the full guide →HMCConference of heads of British independent schools
It is a head who becomes a member of this conference, not a school: membership is offered to the head, and in some categories the logo is marked as personal. A badge on a school's website means its head belongs to the conference. For full international membership there is a check - two people, two days - but no live external inspection is required.
What the badge means for this school. The school belongs to this network. That is not a quality inspection: a network is something a school joins, while an accreditation is something a school goes through. The entry is confirmed in the organisation's open directory.
Register to check for yourself, and the full guide →Exams and destinations from the school's official website
Exam results School profile 2025-2026: GCSE - grades 9-7 in 53% of results in 2024 and 56% in 2025, grades 9-4 in 95% in both years; A Level - grades A and A* in 50% in 2024 and 41% in 2025, A*-C in 97% and 90%. On its page for international families the school cites a consistent 100% pass rate at A Level and GCSE and 76% of A Level grades at A*, A or B. Admission is non-selective.
Facilities from the school's official website
·Swimming poolnot stated on the website
✓Sports hall
✓Laboratories
✓Theatre or assembly hall
·Librarynot stated on the website
✓Catering
·School transportnot stated on the website
·Boardingnot stated on the website
Also on site: Art studio
Clubs and activities: Football · Basketball · Cricket · Badminton · Table tennis · Netball · Volleyball · Coding · Cooking club · Yoga · Irish dancing · Model United Nations · Duke of Edinburgh's Award
Teaching staff from the school's official website
·Teachers listed by namenot published
·Teacher qualificationsnot stated
·Number of teachersthe school does not say
✓Students per teacher or class sizein the key facts above
The school describes its subject specialist teachers as highly qualified; staff come from 24 nationalities. Recruitment includes references, proof of qualifications, identity checks and police checks, including overseas. Private music lessons are given by 14 peripatetic teachers.
Safety and wellbeing from the school's official website
·CCTVnot stated on the website
·Security staffnot stated on the website
·Access controlnot stated on the website
✓Nurse or medical room
✓Counsellor
✓Child protection policy
·Staff trainingnot stated on the website
✓Anti-bullying policy
The school has a safeguarding team working with the pastoral team, a child protection and safeguarding policy and an anti-bullying policy. There is a school nurse and a team of trained counsellors, a PSHE programme, wellbeing weeks and parent workshops. All staff and contractors are checked before working with children.
Reviews
No reviews yet. The community rating counts towards the score once a school has five verified reviews - until then we do not show a zero, so as not to mislead.
Criteria breakdown criterion weight in brackets
Academics and programmes (16%)85 Community rating (16%)no dataparent reviews are needed: the criterion switches on at the fifth verified one Exams and destinations (12%) scored on disclosed data80 Safety and wellbeing (12%) scored on disclosed data75 Accreditation and verifiability (10%)95 Teaching staff (10%) scored on disclosed data55 Facilities (10%) scored on disclosed data75 Clubs and activities (8%) scored on disclosed data78 "Scored on disclosed data" stands where we count only what the school has written about itself on its own site: exams and destinations, safety and wellbeing, teaching staff, facilities, clubs and activities. A low score here means the school does not write about this, not that the school does not have it: a school with good security and a sparse site will score low. A school can fill in its profile, and the score will be counted again.
The score is counted from 8 of the 9 criteria.Only those with checkable data count: programmes and accreditations from official registers, the fee from a published price list. Where it says "scored on the median", the school has no data and the middle of the list is put in its place, so that a gap gives no advantage. Admissions, teaching staff and reviews come in as their data arrives.
The full methodology → Similar schools in the country