Startpunt International is a small public (openbare) primary school in the Schilderswijk district of Den Haag, with about 200 students in ten groups in 2026-2027, children of 24 nationalities. From 2017 the school worked towards IB authorisation and received it in July 2020, becoming, it says, the first Dutch-language IB World School in the world offering the Primary Years Programme; its first IB evaluation went very well. Teaching is in Dutch, English is taught as a subject, and some lessons are given in English. Since 2009 the school has offered six extra lessons per week (inquiry learning, technology, drama, dance), and it offers the IB programme free of charge for the sake of equal opportunity. In 2022 the school's head was named the most innovative school leader in the country. After school there are activities and free sport in the neighbouring sports complex, and school swimming in groups 3-5.
Key facts
Programmes
IB · PYP · National programme
Languages of instruction
Dutch
About the fees Education is free: the school is government-funded. The parental contribution is 30 EUR per student per year, and parents may give more; the money goes to the students. After-school care and the partner pre-school are paid separately depending on income (the pre-school is free with the municipal Ooievaarspas).
Admissions The school is public and open to all. Registration for group 1 follows the Den Haag procedure: after the child turns three, parents submit the municipal form in the set period and hand it in personally at the school office with the child's ID. The school has a cap on student numbers, so priority rules apply (siblings of students, children from the partner pre-school, children of staff, residents of postcode area 2526) and a lottery. Before admission to higher groups there is a trial day and a final meeting with the family. Children without Dutch can be admitted only up to age 6; the school refers children over 6 without Dutch to schools with newcomer groups.
Stages and year groups Grades groep 1-8. Dutch primary school (basisschool), groep 1-8 (ages 4-12), following the IB Primary Years Programme: six transdisciplinary Units of Inquiry within which children study the world around them, language and reading. Teaching is in Dutch; English is a subject, and some lessons and the design and architecture club for groups 5-8 are taught in English. At the end of group 8 students receive a secondary school recommendation.
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 In the primary school final tests over three years (2025-2026), 92.9% of students reached the basic level 1F (inspectorate threshold 85%) and 44.8% the higher level 1S/2F.
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: Sports ground or field · Playground · Makerspace
Campus: A small school in the Schilderswijk district of Den Haag. There is a library and media centre, in-between learning spaces, a technology room, a gym and a separate gym for the youngest, a play hall, a green schoolyard and a resource room. Behind the school is the Haagse Sporttuin Schilderswijk, a 2000 square metre sports complex rebuilt in 2021-2022; the school's children can play sport there for free after school, at weekends and in the holidays. A pre-school group and after-school care run by partners operate in the building. Children bring lunch from home, with a shared hot lunch on Tuesdays and Thursdays; fruit and vegetables are free three times a week. The school provides iPads and laptops. It is a day school with no boarding.
Clubs and activities: Storytelling · Rekendans (maths through dance) · Kettingreacties (chain reactions) · Kunst (art) · Koken (cooking) · Beebots · Natuur (nature) · Engelse les (English lessons) · Fotografie (photography) · Schaken/spelletjes (chess and games) · Handwerken (handicrafts) · Design and architecture · Haagse Sporttuin Schilderswijk (sport at the Schilderswijk sports garden)
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
Teachers are trained in the PYP, and the partner pre-school staff are also PYP-trained. For after-school activities the school hires specialists, and sport at breaks and in the sports complex is led by coaches. The school does not publish teacher numbers, qualifications or class sizes.
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
✓Counsellor
✓Child protection policy
·Staff trainingnot stated on the website
✓Anti-bullying policy
There is an anti-bullying protocol with a coordinator, school confidential advisers and the school board's central confidential advisers, a time-out and sanctions protocol and attendance rules; camera footage is kept for no more than 4 weeks. There is a speech therapist, a school social worker, a school dentist and a well-organised student support structure.
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 data80 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 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
The Hague, Netherlands · State