Amsterdam · name the Tuesday
Amsterdam is not one international campus. It is a private IB, a subsidised IB, a Dutch Dalton secondary you reach through the city’s matching, and a French AEFE primary on Rustenburgerstraat. Name which Tuesday you are buying.
Amsterdam is not “the international school.” It is a Dutch city with four climates posting families name in the first week, and a much older set of bijzondere neighbourhood doors that stay families name in the second.
The portraits we have are the International School of Amsterdam in Amstelveen, Amsterdam International Community School — Esprit, South and Sandcastle — Het Dalton Spinoza Lyceum on Peter van Anrooystraat, and Lycée français Vincent van Gogh on Rustenburgerstraat. Use them for euro tables, ouderbijdrage, and which door is actually funded. The lycée’s Amsterdam site is maternelle and élémentaire only; collège and lycée sit in The Hague. This note is the city between them. The Netherlands country page is the wider map.
ISA sits in Amstelveen. Private IB. A different municipality, a different invoice. If someone says “the international in Amsterdam,” they may mean this campus and be wrong about the postcode.
AICS sits in the city — South and Sandcastle. Subsidised IB in the Esprit group. The funding story is not ISA’s. Ask who pays, then which site this child would stand in.
Dalton Spinoza is a funded Dutch Dalton lyceum. You do not buy a place on OpenApply. You go through the city’s VO matching. English in the portrait is orientation; the week is Dutch. If you might stay, this is often the honest third tour.
LvvG Amsterdam sits on Rustenburgerstraat 246. French maternelle and élémentaire. The Bac years are in The Hague. Add the first-registration fee. Time De Pijp. It is not Amstelveen.
They share a city and almost no Monday. Walk at least two, then a neighbourhood basisschool on Schoolwijzer if the child is still primary.
If you might stay, an English-medium diploma is not automatically the kindest paper. A bijzondere primary that charges nothing at the door, a gymnasium that still takes Latin seriously, a Dalton yard — those are official mornings. The matching form is part of the childhood.
The language of the yard is the test. A child can thrive in English at 9 a.m. and still be lonely at 11 if the park is speaking Dutch — or the other way around.
The Hague is a second climate, not a suburb. ISH and ASH are a different commute. Do not paste an Amstelveen open day onto Wassenaar.
Ask whether this child is a private invoice, a subsidised IB, or a Dutch matching form. Ask how much Dutch a new eleven-year-old really meets after lunch. Ask what happens in the second week of October, when the novelty of the new country has worn off.
Time the fiets or the Zuid bus on an ordinary Tuesday, not only in May light.
The city hub is the short map. The four portraits are the long ones.
Friendly orientation, not formal admissions advice. Always confirm dates with the school.
This is not ISA in Amstelveen. AICS is a Dutch subsidised international in the Esprit group — South and Sandcastle. Fees are a fraction of a private IB invoice. Dutch-passport-only families must meet the government’s two-of-three-years-abroad rule, or a written plan to leave within two years.
AmsterdamThis is not International School of Amsterdam and not AICS. It is a Dutch Dalton lyceum on Peter van Anrooystraat. You apply through Amsterdam’s central VO matching. There is no international tuition table. Read schoolkeuze020.nl before you treat Dalton as a boutique.
AmstelveenThe campus is in Amstelveen, not Amsterdam proper. It is a not-for-profit IB day school. Fees and language rules are on isa.nl. That is enough to start a serious conversation, and not enough to skip the schedule-of-fees PDF.
The HagueAn AEFE lycée on two Dutch sites, not a Kijkduin IB and not a Wassenaar American Tuesday. The Hague holds collège and lycée. Amsterdam holds maternelle and élémentaire. The 2026–27 page prints euros.
The letters on the leaver’s certificate matter. They are not the whole child. Here is how to tell them apart without a headache, and without pretending every door stays open.
16 minYou do not need a perfect algorithm. You need a few true things about your child, a boring list on the fridge, and the courage to ignore a beautiful campus that does not fit.
15 minTuition is the number on the homepage. The PDF is the number that arrives in March. Here is how to read the second one, without inventing a euro, a krona, or a deadline.
12 minSkip the question about last year’s average. Ask the ones that make a teacher’s face change. Then look at the corridor while they answer.