← Back to the rankingEuropean School The Hague
The Hague, Netherlands · est. 2012 · State
Illustration · The Hague
European School The Hague (ESH) opened in 2012 for children of employees of European Union institutions in The Hague, and that same year became an Accredited European School (type II): a Dutch state-funded school that follows the European Schools curriculum and is subject to their pedagogical inspections, with the same European Baccalaureate examinations as the classic European Schools. There are two sites in The Hague: Early Years and the primary school on Houtrustweg, attended by over 800 children of more than 57 nationalities, and the secondary school in the historic Aloysius College building on Oostduinlaan. Teaching is organised in language sections: in primary English, French, Dutch, German and Spanish (Spanish is being phased out by 2028-2029), in secondary English, Dutch, French and German. Children take most subjects in their section language; a second language (English, French or German) and a third language are compulsory, and from mid-secondary humanities subjects are taught in the second language. There is mother tongue tuition for students without their own section. Graduates take the European Baccalaureate, recognised in the Netherlands on par with the VWO diploma; the class of 2026 was accepted at universities in the Netherlands, the UK, France, Italy, Switzerland, Canada and the US.
Key facts
Tuition
≈ $10 665–14 545 a year
9 440–12 875 EUR
Programmes
European Baccalaureate
Admits from
4 years · Pre-School
Languages of instruction
English, French, Dutch, German, Spanish
Languages taught
Italian, Greek, Latin
Registration fee
≈ $339
300 EUR
About the fees Fees for the 2026-2027 school year, per pupil for a full year: Early Years and primary 8585 EUR for Category I and III pupils, 9440 EUR for new Category III pupils; secondary 12875 EUR for Category I and III students. Lunch time supervision in primary is 315 EUR per year. Fees are reduced for starts during the year: 90% from October, 80% from November and so on down to 10% in June and July. Charged separately: laptop, residential trips, hot lunches (4,95 EUR per day in Early Years, 5,25 EUR in primary, 5,95 EUR in secondary) and bus transport.
Admissions Priority goes to children of employees of European institutions and agencies - Europol, Eurojust, the European Patent Office, ESA-ESTEC, the European Medicines Agency, the European Commission, the European Parliament, the ECB, the EIB, EUSPA, Frontex and others: they have a reserved place (Category I). All others are Category III and are admitted subject to available places and eligibility under Dutch international education rules: a child of non-Dutch nationality whose parents work in the Netherlands or the border area on a temporary basis; a Dutch child educated abroad for at least two years because a parent worked abroad; a Dutch child whose parent, as confirmed in writing by the employer, will work abroad for at least two years within two years of admission. Applications go through OpenApply with a passport, two years of school reports and a form from the current school; Category III pays a non-refundable 300 EUR registration fee and usually provides proof of eligibility for international education. Secondary applicants not transferring from another European School are usually tested in language and mathematics. Applications for the start of the school year should be submitted by 1 April; Early Years applications are accepted from age 2, and children join at age 4. Category III applicants may be placed on a waiting list when places are short.
Stages and year groups Grades Early Years 1-2, Primary 1-5, Secondary 1-7. The European Schools curriculum: a two-year Early Years cycle under the European Schools Early Education Curriculum (mixed-age groups of 4-6 year olds, 2,5 hours a week of mother tongue tuition, Dutch as an Additional Language), a five-year primary school (P1-P5) and a seven-year secondary school: the Observation Cycle (S1-S3, common curriculum, most subjects in the mother tongue), the Pre-Orientation Cycle (S4-S5, more specialist subjects, an optional fourth language from S4) and the Orientation Cycle (S6-S7), ending with the European Baccalaureate examinations: at least 10 subjects in two languages, a compulsory core of Language 1 and 2, Mathematics, History, Geography, Philosophy, Ethics and PE, plus two to four elective subjects. Language sections: English, French, Dutch, German, and in primary also Spanish (being phased out).
Accreditations and programmes verified against official registries
European Schools · authorised programmePASCH · takes part in the programmeThe European Schools system lists it as an Accredited European School; graduates sit the European Baccalaureate. The school is part of the PASCH network.
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
European SchoolsThe European Union's European Schools (Schola Europaea)
An intergovernmental system of European Union schools with its own curriculum and its own certificate, the European Baccalaureate. It runs thirteen schools of its own, and national schools gain the status of Accredited European School after an audit with a visit by inspectors. The certificate is recognised for university entry in every EU country.
What the badge means for this school. The school runs the European Schools curriculum, and this can be checked in the system's lists at eursc.eu. The system's own schools are checked by inspectors from EU countries, accredited schools pass an in-school audit, and accreditation is renewed every three years. Whether the school awards the European Baccalaureate, and whom it admits, is stated on its own page. The entry stands in the organisation's public register - anyone can check it.
Register to check for yourself, and the full guide →PASCHSchools: Partners for the Future, an initiative of the German foreign ministry
More than two thousand schools in about 120 countries. A school cannot apply for itself: participants are chosen by German agencies in agreement with the embassy. Very different schools sit under one mark - full German schools abroad, and ordinary national schools that simply teach German well.
What the badge means for this school. The school belongs to a German support programme. By itself the mark means neither a German curriculum nor the right to award a German certificate: of the two thousand PASCH schools, about seventeen hundred hold no such right. Look for a ZfA status next to it - that is the one that is about this. The entry is confirmed in the organisation's open directory.
Register to check for yourself, and the full guide →European Baccalaureate
The European Union's European Schools curriculum from nursery to the final year, with the European Baccalaureate as the leaving certificate. Teaching is in language sections, and a second language is compulsory from primary school.
What this means for this school. The curriculum and the certificate are set by the European Schools system, whose Board of Governors is made up of the education ministers of the EU countries. European Baccalaureate papers are marked by the teacher and an external examiner, and the certificate is recognised for university entry in every EU country and in several others. A school may award it only if it is one of the system's own schools or is accredited for the senior years.
Exams and destinations from the school's official website
Where leavers go: McGill University · Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne University · Sciences Po (Sciences Po) · CentraleSupélec (CentraleSupélec Engineering School) · University of Lille · Bocconi University · EHL Hospitality Business School · Leiden University · Erasmus University Rotterdam · Maastricht University · Delft University of Technology · Eindhoven University of Technology
and others, 24 universities in the school's list in allThe school publishes the university acceptances of the class of 2026: Canada, France, Italy, Switzerland, the Netherlands, the UK, the US and global dual programmes. Careers guidance is provided by a Careers Counsellor and six Careers Advisors for the most popular destinations: two each for the Netherlands and France, one each for Germany and the UK.
Facilities from the school's official website
·Swimming poolnot stated on the website
✓Sports hall
✓Laboratories
✓Theatre or assembly hall
✓Library
✓Catering
✓School transport
·Boardingnot stated on the website
Also on site: Sports ground or field · Art studio · Playground
Clubs and activities: Filming Europe · Art Club · World Builders League · Writing Club · Cinema Club · Sociology Club · Yarn Crafts Club · ESH Opera and Ballet Club · Drama Club · Magic Club · Indian Dance Club · Hip-Hop · Spanish Book Club · English Book Clubs · Jazz Band · Sing and Chill Club · Music Production · Chess Tournament · Debate Club · Student Newspaper The Nest · ESH Green Club · Ctrl+ Build
Teaching staff
The school publishes neither the number of its teachers nor their qualifications.
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 roomnot stated on the website
✓Counsellor
✓Child protection policy
·Staff trainingnot stated on the website
✓Anti-bullying policy
In secondary a Student Well-being Counsellor, a School Psychologist and a School Social Worker support students; there are social skills and fear of failure courses and support in multiple languages. The school has a Safeguarding Protocol and Safeguarding Policy and an Anti-bullying Policy with a zero tolerance approach to bullying. Support for children with special needs follows the Dutch Passend Onderwijs framework.
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%)72 Community rating (16%)no dataparent reviews are needed: the criterion switches on at the fifth verified one Exams and destinations (12%) scored on disclosed data70 Safety and wellbeing (12%) scored on disclosed data70 Accreditation and verifiability (10%)85 Teaching staff (10%) scored on disclosed data55 Facilities (10%) scored on disclosed data85 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