Sondervick College is a large secondary school in Veldhoven near Eindhoven (1221 students in the 2025-2026 school year), in the Brainport region, with a full range of tracks: vmbo basis/kader, mavo, havo, atheneum and gymnasium with the national exams. The main school teaches in Dutch; on havo and vwo (including gymnasium) students can choose tweetalig onderwijs: for the first three years more than half of subjects are taught in English, plus the subject English Language and Culture with a native speaker; after TTO students prepare for Cambridge English certificates. The school also runs an international department, Sondervick International School: the IB Middle Years Programme in English with six hours of Dutch per week, currently with MYP 2-4 classes open; the school is a candidate for the IB Diploma Programme and the IB Career-related Programme. The international department is designed to help children of incoming families integrate into Dutch society, so students mix with Dutch peers in a shared building. There is also a sports class, technical education programmes with local companies, and a jobs fair with 30 companies.
Key facts
Tuition
≈ $2 259 a year
2 000 EUR
Programmes
IB · MYP · National programme
Languages of instruction
Dutch, English
Languages taught
French, German, Latin, Greek
About the fees The international department (Sondervick International School) costs 2000 EUR per year for MYP 2-4 in 2026-2027; MYP 5 is also 2000 EUR, including exams. The fee covers compulsory excursions and trips, learning materials, small classes and support. The Dutch part of the school is free: the school asks for a voluntary parental contribution for 2026-2027 - a general contribution of 35 EUR plus excursions by year; the sports class costs 150 EUR, TTO multi-day trips 500 EUR per year and 55 EUR for TTO activities.
Admissions For the Dutch part of the school, students register during the regional registration week from 25 to 31 March 2026 with a primary school recommendation; from Eindhoven Kempenland online, from other regions in person; two types of first-year class within the recommendation can be listed, and all who choose the school first get a place, the school says; first-year vmbo basis-kader for 2026-2027 is full. TTO requires good Dutch, but no English on entry. Transfers into higher years go through the central registration week from 18 to 24 May. The international department admits children aged 11.5-17 with at least one parent with an international background and a family intending to live in the Netherlands temporarily. English at least A2 and an academic level of vmbo-gt, havo or vwo are required; for years 3-4 also Dutch at least A1. Steps: email to the school, initial check, screening of English, Dutch and cognitive ability on set dates, decision. For 2026-2027 MYP 3 and MYP 4 are full (waiting list) and MYP 5 is closed.
Stages and year groups Dutch school: vmbo basis/kader (profiles building and interiors, production and energy, care and welfare), mavo (theoretical and mixed tracks), havo, atheneum and gymnasium with Greek and Latin from year 2, national eindexamen; a two-year bridge period. TTO on havo and vwo: the first three years, a Junior Certificate (B2 for vwo, B1 for havo), then preparation for Cambridge English (Advanced, Proficiency). Sondervick International School: the IB Middle Years Programme in English (MYP 2 corresponds to the first year of secondary school), with MYP 2-3 open and MYP 4 added from 2026-2027; Dutch as a second language (NT2) and English support (ESOL); the school is an IB candidate for the Diploma Programme and the Career-related Programme, which are not yet offered. Final exams of the international department are in English.
Address Knegselseweg 30, 5504 NC Veldhoven
Accreditations and programmes verified against official registries
IB · MYP · authorised programmeThe school is listed in the IB register and runs the Middle Years Programme.
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
Exam results Exam pass rates in the 2025-2026 school year: vmbo basis 100%, vmbo kader 98%, mavo 91%, havo 91%, atheneum 100%, gymnasium 100%. In 2024-2025, 209 of 229 candidates gained their diploma (91%).
Facilities from the school's official website
·Swimming poolnot stated on the website
✓Sports hall
✓Laboratories
·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: Makerspace
Clubs and activities: Sportklas (sports class) · Sondervick On Stage · Elevator pitch competitie (elevator pitch competition) · Halloween march · Spring ball
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 school has 185 staff. In the international department teachers come from diverse cultural backgrounds, and some once came to the Netherlands themselves; each day starts with the student's mentor. In TTO the subject English Language and Culture is taught by a native English speaker. The school does not publish teacher qualifications or class sizes.
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
There are certified anti-bullying coordinators and an anti-bullying protocol, confidential advisers, a safety coordinator and a safety covenant with the municipality of Veldhoven and the police. Every student has a mentor; the support team includes a student coordinator, internal counsellors, a remedial educationalist and a support coordinator; there is resilience training, anxiety reduction, dyslexia support and the STORM mental health programme.
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 data73 "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
Veldhoven, Netherlands · State