FAQ

Children in the Netherlands generally attend primary school from age 4 to 12. The first school day is normally the day your child turns 4. Leading up to that moment most schools give your child the opportunity to get used to coming to school by inviting him/her for just a few hours. From the age of 5, compulsory education applies.

The city of Amsterdam introduced a centralised application form and procedure for the admission of first-year pupils aged 4. If you live in Amsterdam when your child turns 3, you will automatically receive this form directly from the municipality of Amsterdam by post. 

If you recently moved to Amsterdam or your child was already 3 years old when you did, you can use a blank version of the form (available as download below).

You need a citizen service number (BSN) to complete the form. This is a unique personal number allocated to everyone registered in the Personal Records Database (BRP). Everyone who registers with the BRP is automatically given a BSN.

If your adress is not pre-printed on the blank form, please also add proof of your (future) address in Amsterdam. For example a copy of your BRP registration or a rental contract. Your adress will give you priority in nearby schools during a so called 'lottery'. The 'lottery' only takes place when a school has more applications than capacity (find more information on this procedure here).

Finally please also consider the enrolment deadline linked to the date of birth of your child. The first upcoming deadline is: 
- 4 March 2020, for children born between 1 september en 31 december 2016 (find all deadlines here)

Registration Form 2020-21

The first upcoming enrolment deadline for children turning 4 this schoolyear: 

• 4 march 2020 for kids born between 1 september en 31 december 2016 

Other enrolment deadlines for children turning 4 this schoolyear:

• 3 june 2020 for kids born between 1 januari en 30 april 2017 
• 4 november 2020 for kids born between 1 mei en 31 augustus 2017

If you want to register a child that is 6 years or older, most schools will refer you to a newcomer class first. These are special language classes available at 21 primary schools spread across the city where your child will receive several months (usually 10 to 12) of additional language training to learn Dutch.

You can't sign up for these newcomer classes yourself. The procedure requires that you first choose the school where you want your child to go to after the newcomer class. This will be the so called 'stamschool' (parentage school) to your child. The 'stamschool' will register your child in a newcomer class via a city-wide database.

As newcomer classes regularly run out of places this may not always result in a class close to the school of your choice unfortunately. That is one of the reasons some schools now offer special Dutch language classes themselves. Within our schoolboard you'll find such solutions at Kindercampus Zuidas and Merkelbachschool. Both located near the Zuidas business district. 
However, a newcomer class pupil will attend its future school for one day a week after only a few months already. So your child will quicly be able to meet his or her definitive classmates and make friends among them.

From the age of 12 it will be not be possible to have your child enroled in a newcomer class. Children of this age are routed directly to secondary education that starts on average at the age of 12 in the Dutch education system.

In 2015 almost all* primary schools in Amsterdam switched to an identical and transparent admission policy for first-year pupils. This new procedure has brought an end to the different rules per district or schoolboard and applies to the enrolment of 4 year olds only. The enrolment is now done simultaneously, automated and according to identical rules for both schools and parents. 

The so called 'lottery' is only triggered when a school has more applications than capacity on 1 of the 3 enrolment deadlines in March, June and November (find specific dates here).
We subtitled this one minute explanatory video of the City of Amsterdam for you, but you can also download the brand new English brochure by the City of Amsterdam.

*13 of the 212 primary schools in Amsterdam chose not to participate in the centralized enrolment procedure.

 

Primary schools in the Netherlands do not charge tuition fees. However, most schools will ask parents for a voluntary financial contribution ('ouderbijdrage') to help fund extra curricular activities or holiday celebrations e.g. The national average for this contribution is €57,- (source: Schoolcosts Monitor 2019, Ministry of Education).

Most schools also ask additional, non voluntary, contributions for yearly field trips or for lunch supervision when you decide to let your child stay in school during the lunch break ('tussenschoolse opvang'). 

You will find all these costs in each of our school profiles here on Schoolsearch Amsterdam.

Dalton schools use an educational concept originally created by Helen Parkhurst. It is inspired by the intellectual ferment at the turn of the 20th century. Educational thinkers such as Maria Montessori and John Dewey influenced Parkhurst while she created the Dalton Plan. Their aim was to achieve a balance between a child's talent and the needs of the community. 
The Dalton concept is a method of education by which pupils work at their own pace, and receive individual help from the teacher when necessary. There is no formal class instruction. Students draw up time-tables and are responsible for finishing the work on their syllabuses or assignments. Students are also encouraged to help each other with their work. The underlying aim of the Dalton concept is to achieve the highest mental, moral, physical and spiritual development of the pupil.

Developmental Education is an approach to education in school that aims at promoting children’s cultural development and their abilities to participate autonomously and well-informed in the cultural practices of their community.

 

From the point of view of Cultural-historical Activity Theory (CHAT), a play-based curriculum has been developed over the past decades for primary school, which presents activity contexts for pupils in the classroom that create learning and teaching opportunities for helping pupils with appropriating cultural knowledge, skills, and moral understandings in meaningful ways.

 

The approach is implemented in numerous Dutch primary schools classrooms with the explicit intention to support the learning of both pupils and teachers.

 

(source:  Developmental Education for Young Children, Practice and Implementation, Bert van Oers)

'Scholen op de kaart' is a website developed by the National Primary and Secondary Education Council.  
It contains information on the quality of all primary and secondary schools in the Netherlands. All statistical information originates directly from the database of the National Education Inspectorate. This makes 'Scholen op de kaart' an objective source of information on school results.

The interpretation of the graphs might require some understanding of the Dutch language as the website is unfortunately not available in English. We have translated the explanatory notes of the most important graphs for each of our schools here on Schoolsearch Amsterdam. If you need help, please contact our helpdesk.

Monday - Friday 9.00 - 12.00 hrs. Closed during schoolholidays (Autumn, Christmas, Spring, May, Summer). Outside opening hours, if none of our agents is available or if chat is offline, you can always use the chat button to send us an offline message. You'll receive an answer within one workingday.

OOADA is a school board consisting of 22 primary schools in the centre and south district of Amsterdam. We are not just a collection of schools. We are one large, close-knit organisation in which schools work together in all sorts of ways on the basis of a shared vision. Of course there is also room for the individuality of schools within this framework. This is reflected in the diversity of the profiles of our 22 schools. Among them are Montessori and Dalton schools, but also schools with a fine arts profile, newcomerclasses or focused on developmental education.
We offer good quality contemporary education. This was also established in a recent survey by the National Education Inspectorate.

Click on map below.