The Jac. P. Thijsse College is a Dutch secondary school in Castricum offering mavo, havo and vwo with a strong international profile; the school reports about 1700 students. Regular teaching is in Dutch. At havo and vwo students can follow tweetalig onderwijs (TTO): in the lower years about half of lessons are in English, and the school is accredited by Nuffic as a senior TTO school; in the upper TTO years students can take English B (havo) or English A Language & Literature (vwo) with the prospect of an IB certificate. Through its branch Supreme College Nederland, set up together with the neighbouring Bonhoeffercollege, the school runs the IB Middle Years Programme: four years of MYP, the first years in English, with Dutch support for English-speaking students, followed by the final two years of Dutch vwo with the national exam. The school teaches German, French, Spanish and Chinese and runs exchanges and international traineeships.
Key facts
Programmes
IB · MYP · National programme
Languages of instruction
Dutch, English
Languages taught
German, French, Spanish, Chinese
About the fees Education at the Jac. P. Thijsse College is free; the school asks for a voluntary contribution, which in the 2025-2026 list is 65 to 73.85 EUR per year in regular classes and 70 to 138.85 EUR in TTO classes (including TTO and IB activities), plus a voluntary 20 EUR for the parents' council. The Supreme College Nederland branch gives an annual school fee of 495 EUR without naming the school year; it covers regular expenses except field trips and trips abroad, and books are provided by the school.
Admissions Students enter the first year of the Jac. P. Thijsse College after Dutch primary school during the central application week (for 2027-2028: 25-31 March 2027), with decisions from 12 May; the primary school recommendation is decisive, and at least a vmbo-tl (mavo) recommendation is required. A motivation letter is needed for a tweetalig onderwijs class (havo or vwo). Entry into year 2 or higher is arranged with the school. For Supreme College Nederland, students who think they meet the admission criteria send an application form and a reference from their current school, have a personal intake interview and submit their latest report. The branch is bilingual: English-speaking students who do not master Dutch study there and get a weekly Dutch as a second language (NT2) class; the branch calls itself an alternative to European and international schools.
Stages and year groups Dutch secondary school: mavo (4 years), havo (5 years), vwo (6 years), ending in the eindexamen. At havo and vwo optional tweetalig onderwijs (TTO, about 50% of lower-year lessons in English); in the upper TTO years English B at havo and English A Language & Literature at vwo with the prospect of an IB certificate. Supreme College Nederland branch: the IB Middle Years Programme (1vmyp-4vmyp on the school site, MYP 1-5 on the branch site, with MYP 5 equal to 4 vwo) across seven subject groups (Dutch and English language and literature, German and Spanish, mathematics, sciences, individuals and societies, arts, physical and health education), with MYP exams in history and biology, then 5-6 vwo with the Dutch national exam. There is no Diploma Programme. The school does not mention Cambridge International courses.
Accreditations and programmes verified against official registries
IB · MYP · authorised programmeThe school is listed in the IB register and runs the Middle Years Programme. The Middle Years Programme is run by the school's Supreme College Nederland department; the main curriculum is Dutch.
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: MYP (ages 11-16). MYP is the middle stage, ages 11 to 16. There are no exams here either; at the end an optional electronic assessment of pupils' work is possible.
Register to check for yourself, and the full guide →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 hall
·Librarynot stated on the website
✓Catering
·School transportnot stated on the website
·Boardingnot stated on the website
Campus: The school occupies buildings A and B in Castricum, near the coast and close to Amsterdam, Alkmaar and Haarlem. The aula becomes the JPTheater for school musicals; the school canteen follows the healthy canteen guidelines of the national Voedingscentrum, and there are water taps in the halls of both buildings. Students work on their own devices. Since July 2025 the Supreme College Nederland branch has been temporarily housed in the Jac. P. Thijsse College building; lessons there are taught in half-day blocks and books are provided by the school. There is no boarding.
Clubs and activities: JPTeens on Stage
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
·Counsellornot stated on the website
·Child protection policynot stated on the website
·Staff trainingnot stated on the website
✓Anti-bullying policy
The school has two internal contact persons whom students can talk to in confidence about unwanted behaviour by others; in case of criminal offences the contact person must report to the school board, which goes to the police. There is a school counsellor for study and personal wellbeing, a support coordinator and an anti-bullying coordinator, and the national inspectorate confidential line is available.
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 data55 Safety and wellbeing (12%) scored on disclosed data60 Accreditation and verifiability (10%)85 Teaching staff (10%) scored on disclosed data55 Facilities (10%) scored on disclosed data70 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
Castricum, Netherlands · State