Netherlands · Bergen NH
This is a Type 1 European School in Bergen, Noord-Holland, not the Accredited European School in The Hague and not an IB campus in Amsterdam. The leaving diploma is the European Baccalaureate. Category I staff children are fee-exempt. The school prints a 2026/27 table. The Board prints another.
Curriculum as published:European Schools curriculum · European Baccalaureate
Languages of instruction:Section language as first language (L1) — English, Dutch or French — plus L2 and further languages as the European Schools prescribe
European School Bergen is a Type 1 European School, not a private IB campus and not European School The Hague. Official site esbergen.eu. Address the EURSC location page prints: Molenweidtje 5, NL-1862 BC Bergen N.H. Postal: Postbus 99, NL-1860 AB Bergen N.H. Phone +31 (0)72 589 01 09. Parents’ association: europeanschool-parents.nl.
It is a day school. There is no boarding house. If the posting has not found a flat, this school will not absorb the child.
Director on the EURSC page: Peter Garry. Nursery and primary deputy: Marinela Dinuta. Assistant: Déaglán Ó Donnchú. Secondary deputy: Ilona Cytarzynska. Assistant: Jean-Philippe Ferrant. Finance: Nicolas Gerard.
The home page ties the sciences and mathematics to the school’s relationship with the Joint Research Centre in Petten. The “very special” page: Alkmaar 5 km, Amsterdam 40 km, bus to Alkmaar Centraal. Time Molenweidtje at the hour you would actually travel. This is not Norwegian Bergen, and it is not a Kijkduin Tuesday.
The useful questions are: Are you Category I, II, or III? Which language section is this child’s dominant language — English, Dutch or French — not the language you wish they had? And do you understand that the leaving paper is the European Baccalaureate, not the IB?
The European Schools were set up, the school’s own FAQ says, for children of people who work for a European Union institution. Everyone else applies into remaining places.
Category I — children who have to be admitted because a parent works for an EU institution. Fee-exempt on both the school page and the Board table. Confirm the employer letter.
Category II — individual agreements. The 2026/27 Board table prints a new-contract Bergen line of €18,458.75. The current-contract cell is still tba. The school’s own admissions page also prints a special contract for businesses that lets the child take an official EU mother tongue as L1. That line is dated 2025/26 at €17,226.24. We will not reprint it as 2026/27. Ask which contract this employer actually has, and which year the invoice will use.
Category III — other families, if places remain. The FAQ: ordinary school fees fixed by the Board of Governors. The admissions page then prints the school’s own 2026/27 table, which is not the same euro line as the Board’s “new from 2013/14” Category III table. Open both. Ask which sheet Bergen will invoice from.
Dutch-passport children have an extra door. The admissions page: all applications from Dutch pupils must be approved by inspectors from the Ministry of Education. The “very special” page: Dutch-passport pupils apply through the Application Committee. Ask at the enquiry stage, before you resign a flat in Alkmaar.
It will not suit a family who only want English IB in Amsterdam, or the Accredited European School in The Hague because the commute looked shorter on a June map. Walk those if that is the climate. They share a country and almost no Monday.
One Noord-Holland address, near the North Sea coast, not a Randstad campus and not Petten itself. Nursery from the calendar year the child turns 4. A crèche for ages 2–3 sits with Little Europe — write littleeurope@esbergen.eu. We will not invent that fee.
The home page: ages 4–18, a multilingual house, human sciences in the second language, creative arts as daily weather. The “very special” page: more than 20 nationalities. Screening tests for all applicants, the admissions page says, by age and level. A trial day is encouraged in nursery, primary and secondary. Mid-year entry is possible; the FAQ says the school will try, because many families move.
It is a day school. There is no boarding house.
Three sections, as the FAQ prints them: English, Dutch, French. Most of the work lives in the section. For most children the section language becomes L1. A child whose mother tongue is not a section language — the FAQ’s example is L1 Polish with L2 English in the English section — keeps that L1 under the European Schools rules. Place the child in the language they actually live in. A wish is not a section.
Enquiry form on the admissions page. The school writes back. Dutch-passport files go through the inspectors / Application Committee. Category I still needs the institution letter.
The admissions FAQ we opened says there are places in all sections and levels, and currently no waiting lists. Treat that as the page’s own sentence on the day we read it. Confirm live. We will not invent a waitlist, and we will not invent a registration-fee figure the public admissions page does not print.
French-section families: the same fees page prints an AEFE bourses scolaires paragraph. That text is about children in AEFE establishments. It is not a Category I exemption and not a Bergen tuition line. Ask the French consular services if it applies to this household.
Category I pays no Board tuition, the school page says, when the parent is entitled at an EU agency or institution.
The school’s own admissions table prints 2026/2027 beside 2025/2026. All figures euros. First-child lines:
| Cycle | 2025/2026 | 2026/2027 |
|---|---|---|
| Nursery (4–5) | 4,195.57 | 4,300.46 |
| Primary (6–10) | 5,768.99 | 5,913.21 |
| Secondary (11–18) | 7,866.78 | 8,063.45 |
Second child: 80%. Third child and after: 60%. The 2026/27 reduced lines the same table prints:
| Cycle | 2nd child | 3rd+ |
|---|---|---|
| Nursery | 3,440.37 | 2,580.27 |
| Primary | 4,730.57 | 3,547.93 |
| Secondary | 6,450.76 | 4,838.07 |
If a sibling was enrolled before September 2013, the page says, write and check the fee. Do not assume the table.
The official Board table for 2026/27 lives at eursc.eu/en/european-schools/enrolments/school-fees. The Secretary-General marks the figures for guidance only.
Category II, Bergen, 2026/27 (Board)
| Contract | EUR |
|---|---|
| Current contract | tba |
| New contract | 18,458.75 |
Category III, all Type 1 schools, 2026/27 (Board, newly enrolled from 2013/14)
| Cycle | EUR |
|---|---|
| Nursery | 4,457.80 |
| Primary | 6,129.55 |
| Secondary | 8,358.46 |
Those Board Category III lines are higher than Bergen’s own 2026/27 first-child table. The school’s FAQ still says Category III pays the Board’s ordinary fees. Ask which document will be on the first invoice. We will not pick a winner.
The digital-documents page lists a Financial information 2026/27 file. Open it. We will not invent lunch, bus, or trip euros the public admissions table does not print.
The business special-contract line on the admissions page is still 2025/26 at €17,226.24. Ask for this year’s figure.
The European Baccalaureate. This is not the IB. The “very special” page says universities treat it as comparable. Ask with this child’s subjects and section.
Ask the category in the week the posting is real. Ask which section is the child’s dominant language. Ask whether a Dutch passport still needs the Application Committee this year. Ask which fee document — the school’s 2026/27 table or the Board table — will be on the first invoice. Ask whether the “no waiting lists” sentence is still true in this year group. Ask what Little Europe costs if you need the years before four.
We are not ranking Bergen against The Hague or Amsterdam. We are not guessing a waitlist. We are not calling this Norwegian Bergen.
Read the live admissions page and the Board fees page before you resign a flat. This is a map. The school still has to be the right Tuesday.
Official pages and documents we read. If a figure matters to your budget or your application, open the link and confirm it is still current.
Friendly orientation, not an application. Dates, fees, and programme details move. Confirm everything with the school.
The name says The Hague. The campus is in Wassenaar. Fees for 2026–27 are on the official tuition page, including the Grade 9–12 band. Read that page before you budget.
AmsterdamThis 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.
The HagueAn Accredited European School on two Hague campuses, not a Kijkduin IB and not a Wassenaar American Tuesday. Category I has a reserved place. Category III has eligibility sentences. The 2026–27 fees page prints euros.
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.
They both have children from many countries and a leaving certificate that travels. That is where the resemblance ends. One is a public system built for EU-institution families. The other is a marketplace you pay to enter.
15 minThe 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.