← Back to the rankingDENISE - De Nieuwe Internationale School Esprit
Amsterdam, Netherlands · est. 2014 · State
Illustration · Amsterdam
DENISE (De Nieuwe Internationale School van Esprit) is a Dutch public bilingual school in Amsterdam for children aged 4 to 18 with an international focus. It opened in 2014 to offer high-quality Dutch and international education to children newly arrived in the country and children with an international background; since 2018 it has been an IB World School. Primary teaching follows the International Primary Curriculum in two languages: three days a week in Dutch and two in English. Secondary school begins with a three-year mixed-ability bilingual IMYC, after which students move to the Dutch VMBO-TL and HAVO programmes or the fully English IB Diploma Programme, which the school offers instead of vwo. Teenagers without Dutch start in a newcomers group and language classes. More than 1000 students attend, and the school has about 130 staff from around 80 countries. The school belongs to Esprit Scholen and is state-funded.
Key facts
Programmes
IB · DP · IPC · IMYC · National programme
Languages of instruction
Dutch, English
Class size
Up to 24 students in regular secondary groups.
About the fees Education is free; this is a Dutch public school. The voluntary parental contribution is 225 EUR a year per child; for IB students a contribution of 425 EUR is added, which the school states twice (for the two years of the programme). Not paying the voluntary contribution does not exclude a child from activities; the school accepts no sponsorship.
Admissions The school admits students of all nationalities who support its aims and focuses primarily on children newly arrived in the Netherlands or with an international educational background; priority in secondary school goes to those who do not yet speak Dutch. Children under 4 register through the Amsterdam city admission system with a lottery and priority rules; children aged 4-12 are registered by email to the school, ideally speaking one of the two languages. Newcomers aged 12-17 start in a newcomers group run with Mundus College and, once their level is assessed, move to a DENISE language class (from VMBO-TL to IB level) and learn Dutch to B1. After groep 8 admission is through the central Amsterdam lottery. Places for transfers from other schools are limited as groups are usually full (up to 24 students); the school places students based on previous records and tests. Dutch is compulsory in all programmes, including the IB. Enquiries are handled only by email, and visits are by appointment.
Stages and year groups Five programmes: primary (groep 1-8, ages 4-12) - the International Early Years Curriculum in groep 1-2 and the International Primary Curriculum in groep 3-8 together with the Dutch curriculum, in two languages; secondary - the three-year International Middle Years Curriculum (groep 9-11, ages 12-14), mixed-ability classes, in Dutch and English, without numerical grades; the newcomers group and language classes T0-T11 (ages 12-18); preparatory programmes groep 15-17 for students over 15 with interrupted schooling; diploma programmes - VMBO-TL (one year, groep 14m) and HAVO (two years) in Dutch with the national exam, and the three-year IB Diploma Programme in English (a pre-IB year in groep 12, then DP1 and DP2) instead of vwo. In the IB: English A Language and Literature, Dutch A or Dutch B, History, Geography, Environmental Systems and Societies, Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Mathematics AA and AI, Visual Arts, plus TOK, EE and CAS.
Accreditations and programmes verified against official registries
IB · DP · authorised programmeThe school is listed in the IB register and runs the Diploma Programme. The primary school follows the IPC, the secondary school the IMYC and the Dutch curriculum.
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
IBInternational Baccalaureate
A Swiss non-profit, working since 1968. Its programmes are among the most widely recognised school programmes in the world. Authorisation is granted stage by stage, so a school with the final stage does not necessarily run the younger ones; which stages this school holds is set out in the line below.
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: DP (ages 16-19). DP is the final stage, ages 16 to 19: six subjects plus a compulsory core of theory of knowledge, an extended essay and CAS. The diploma is accepted by universities all over the world, and in a number of countries it counts for admission on the same footing as the local leaving certificate.
Register to check for yourself, and the full guide →IPC
International Primary Curriculum: a British primary school programme for children aged 5 to 11. It teaches through themes that draw subjects together rather than through separate subjects; it is published by the International Curriculum Association, formerly Fieldwork Education.
What this means for this school. This is a programme for the primary stage, not an accreditation of the school: the organisation sells it to schools and trains their teachers, but it does not check the quality of teaching at a particular school and keeps no public register of the schools working to it. There is no outside register to check it against, so the entry comes from the school's own words or from the record of its accrediting organisation. The programme has no leaving certificate: at the end of primary school a child moves on to the middle stage, and it is that stage which decides what they finish with.
IMYC
International Middle Years Curriculum: the continuation of IPC for the middle school, ages 11 to 14. The same organisation and the same thematic frame, only for teenagers.
What this means for this school. As with IPC, this is a programme for one stage rather than an accreditation of the school, and the organisation keeps no public register of the schools working to it. The entry comes from the school's own words or from the record of its accrediting organisation. The programme has no leaving certificate of its own: after it the school takes a pupil on to a final stage - IGCSE, A-Level, IB or a national programme - and that is what to look at.
National programme
The state school programme of the country the school stands in: it is set by that country's ministry of education, which also licenses the school and awards the leaving certificate. That certificate is used for entry to local universities, and abroad it is matched to the local one.
What this means for this school. This entry does not count towards the score, and that is deliberate. Every lawful school in a country works to the national programme, so on its own it tells one school apart from no other - unlike the French, German or Russian programmes, which are carried abroad and confirmed by the register of their organisation. We show it because a parent needs to know what programme their child is taught and what certificate the child will get. Counting it would lift the whole ranking at once and still tell nobody apart.
Exams and destinations from the school's official website
The school publishes nothing about where its leavers go: no share going on to university, no exam results, no list of universities.
Facilities from the school's official website
·Swimming poolnot stated on the website
·Sports hallnot stated on the website
·Laboratoriesnot stated on the website
·Theatre or assembly hallnot stated on the website
·Librarynot stated on the website
·Cateringnot stated on the website
·School transportnot stated on the website
·Boardingnot stated on the website
Also on site: Sports ground or field · Playground
Clubs and activities: Student Council
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 has more than 100 staff (about 130 according to the guide) from many countries, all with an international mindset. The support team includes student support coordinators, a safety coordinator, an internal supervisor, an anti-bullying coordinator, a careers dean and an attendance officer, as well as an inclusive education specialist from the organisation Altra.
Safety and wellbeing from the school's official website
✓CCTV
·Security staffnot stated on the website
·Access controlnot stated on the website
·Nurse or medical roomnot stated on the website
·Counsellornot stated on the website
✓Child protection policy
·Staff trainingnot stated on the website
✓Anti-bullying policy
The school has two internal confidential advisers for students and parents, an anti-bullying coordinator and a safety coordinator; a school safety plan, an anti-bullying protocol, a CCTV protocol and a code on domestic violence apply. All parents, students and staff must report when safety is at risk; the school strictly enforces ten rules of conduct and has zero tolerance for violence, theft, weapons and drugs. The school works with the child and family adviser, the school doctor and the attendance officer of the municipality of Amsterdam.
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%)82 Community rating (16%)no dataparent reviews are needed: the criterion switches on at the fifth verified one Exams and destinations (12%) scored on disclosed data55 Safety and wellbeing (12%) scored on disclosed data75 Accreditation and verifiability (10%)85 Teaching staff (10%) scored on disclosed data55 Facilities (10%) scored on disclosed data55 Clubs and activities (8%) scored on disclosed data61 "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