OBS Het Galjoen is a state (openbare) Dutch primary school in the Groente- en Fruitmarkt/Transvaal neighbourhood in central The Hague. About 230 children attend in 13 groups, two of them language classes for newly arrived children who do not yet speak Dutch. The school works with the IB Primary Years Programme: all subjects are organised in six units of inquiry a year (four for the youngest), based on the IB learner profile. In its 2026-2027 school guide the school writes that after a verification visit in May 2026 it became an authorised IB PYP school. Teaching is in Dutch: it is a regular basisschool with groups 1-8, the final doorstroomtoets and a secondary school recommendation; English is taught as a subject from group 4. Most pupils come from multilingual families: about 81% do not speak Dutch at home. The school's motto is learning by doing; the youngest groups use the Speelplezier method, and the school applies the certified M5 method for social safety.
Key facts
Programmes
IB · PYP · National programme
Admits from
4 years · Pre-School
Languages of instruction
Dutch
About the fees The school is state-funded and free: there is no voluntary parental contribution (ouderbijdrage). Families may pay separately for the group 8 work week, but all pupils may go regardless of payment. Lunch supervision is free; after school care is provided by external organisations at a cost.
Admissions Children start school at age 4. For group 1 the school follows the Hague municipal enrolment procedure: at age three the family receives an enrolment form from the municipality and submits it to the school office; within six weeks the school says whether it can enrol the child, and longer if extra support is needed. After enrolment the child has six half-days to settle in. Older children are enrolled by appointment with the office. For newly arrived children who do not yet speak Dutch and have often missed schooling in their home country, such as refugees or children not subject to compulsory education, the school has two separate language classes; they play and join social activities with everyone else. The school names no tuition or nationality requirements.
Stages and year groups Grades groep 1-8, 13 classes. A Dutch primary school (basisschool, groep 1-8, ages 4-12) within the IB Primary Years Programme framework: six units of inquiry a year, four in groups 1-2, learning through play with the Speelplezier method. Subjects: Dutch language and reading, mathematics, world orientation, English from group 4, PE, theatre, music, podcasts, technology and art. Plus two language classes for newcomers (they do not take English and first learn Dutch). In group 8 pupils receive a secondary school recommendation and take the compulsory doorstroomtoets; some graduates move on to the IB MYP at the Johan de Witt college. Teaching is in Dutch.
Accreditations and programmes verified against official registries
IB · PYP · authorised programmeThe school is listed in the IB register and runs the Primary Years Programme. It is a Dutch state primary school.
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: PYP (ages 3-12). PYP is the primary stage, ages 3 to 12. It is not a set of subjects but a frame for the whole school: learning is built around lines of inquiry, and there are no exams at the end.
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
Exam results Final doorstroomtoets in group 8: in Dutch and mathematics the share of pupils reaching the fundamental and target levels over three years is above the inspectorate thresholds (85,0% and 29,3%); the school says its results are above the national average. Secondary school recommendations for 2023-2026: praktijkonderwijs 9,3%, vmbo-b 3,5%, vmbo-b/k 10,5%, vmbo-k 3,5%, vmbo-k/(g)t 15,1%, vmbo-(g)t 8,1%, vmbo-(g)t/havo 15,1%, havo 4,7%, havo/vwo 8,1%, vwo 5,8%, level not specified (MYP at the Johan de Witt college, international bridging class, Kopklas) 16,3%. The Education Inspectorate rated the school positively on all standards.
Facilities from the school's official website
·Swimming poolnot stated on the website
✓Sports hall
·Laboratoriesnot stated on the website
·Theatre or assembly hallnot stated on the website
✓Library
·Cateringnot stated on the website
·School transportnot stated on the website
·Boardingnot stated on the website
Also on site: Playground · Makerspace
Clubs and activities: Sport en spel (sport and games) · Huiswerkondersteuning (homework support) · Wijktijgers (neighbourhood programme for children) · Podcastclub (podcast club) · Muziekles met de Residents (music lessons with the Residentie Orkest) · Culturele workshops (cultural workshops)
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 sizenot stated
The team includes qualified teachers, career changers trained at the school, teaching assistants, classroom assistants and trainees from teacher training colleges; all work in learning teams and plan lessons together. There are specialist teachers of drama, English, music, PE and science and technology, an IB PYP coordinator, behaviour and pupil support specialists and a school social worker.
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 policy
✓Staff training
✓Anti-bullying policy
The school is certified as socially safe under the M5 method: anyone can report bullying anonymously via a button on the website, and the school tracks cases and intervenes to stop rather than punish. Twice a year teachers complete the SCOL social competence and safety questionnaire, and pupils in the two oldest groups complete their own version. The school has an integral safety plan, a time-out protocol, a confidential adviser and anti-bullying coordinator, and staff trained in first aid and emergency response.
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 data80 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 data65 Clubs and activities (8%) scored on disclosed data76 "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
The Hague, Netherlands · State