Good to know
Good to Know
- Rotterdam's cheapest route to English-medium education is the publicly funded TTO bilingual stream or a Dutch International Education School (DIES) like RISS/HIPS — both cost a fraction of a fully private school like NAISR.
- If you expect to stay in Rotterdam less than roughly three years, an English-medium track (NAISR or RISS) is usually a smoother fit than the Dutch-exam-based TTO track, since TTO final exams are in Dutch.
- Demand for bridging (schakelklas) places for non-Dutch-speaking children has tightened in Rotterdam — it's worth registering interest as soon as a move is confirmed.
- School fees change annually and some schools (e.g. De Blijberg International, The Japanese School of Rotterdam) don't publish current tuition online — always confirm the latest figure directly with the school before budgeting.
- Kralingen, Hillegersberg and Blijdorp are the neighbourhoods that cluster most of Rotterdam's international and TTO school options.
- Apply to Rotterdam's recognized international schools (RISS, NAISR) as early as possible once a move is confirmed — rolling admissions mean earlier applicants have a real edge, and popular grades can fill before the school year starts.
- Check eligibility before you apply: Dutch-government-recognized international schools like RISS and NAISR are legally restricted to students with a temporarily-employed non-Dutch parent, or Dutch nationals with genuine international-assignment history — they are not open to any paying family.
- If you're chasing a public bilingual (TTO) school place, get your municipal residence registration (BSN) sorted first — it's typically required before TTO enrollment.
- Homeschooling is essentially not a viable plan B in the Netherlands: exemptions are narrow, rarely granted to expats, and the legal trend (a 2026 Supreme Court ruling and The Hague scrapping its conscience-based exemption) is toward tightening further, not loosening.
- If your child needs Dutch-language support before joining a mainstream class, ask about Rotterdam's First Intake (primary) or International Transition Class/ISK (secondary) programmes rather than assuming private international school is the only route.
International Schools
Nord Anglia International School Rotterdam (NAISR)
- Ages
- 3 to 18 (Pre-Kindergarten to Grade 12)
- Location
- Verhulstlaan 21, Rotterdam (Hillegersberg area)
- Curriculum
- International Early Years Curriculum (IEYC), International Primary Curriculum (IPC), International Middle Years Curriculum (IMYC), a British-framework structure, Cambridge IGCSE, IB Diploma Programme (IBDP) and IB Career-related Programme (IBCP), plus a bespoke NAISR High School Diploma with vocational pathways
- Ownership Type
- Fully private, part of the Nord Anglia Education network
- Formerly Known As
- American International School of Rotterdam (AISR), renamed 2019
Tuition Annual
- Range Low
- €15,200
- Range High
- €28,000
- Note
- Sources disagree somewhat on the current range — figures below span both cited estimates
Additional Mandatory Fees
- Annual Registration Fee
- €1,600
- One Time Capital Development Fee
- €3,000
- Notes
- IB Diploma exam fees are billed separately per exam for Year 13 students; learning-support/EAL fees are calculated case-by-case.
Rotterdam International Secondary School (RISS)
- Ages
- 11 to 19 (Year 7 to Year 13)
- Location
- Bentincklaan (Junior Campus) and Schimmelpenninckstraat (Senior Campus), Rotterdam
- Curriculum
- Cambridge IGCSE followed by the IB Diploma Programme
- Ownership Type
- Dutch International Education School (DIES) — government-subsidised, affiliated with the Wolfert van Borselen School Group
Tuition Annual
- Typical Range
- €5,500
- Typical Range High
- €9,500
- First Year 2025 2026 Reported
- €9,640
- Notes
- First year is higher due to one-time registration/deposit fees; historical (2015-16) tuition was quoted at €6,800–€7,420 before other fees, so costs have risen over time.
Harbour International Primary School (HIPS)
- Ages
- 4 to 11
- Location
- Graaf Florisstraat 56, Rotterdam city centre
- Curriculum
- International Primary Curriculum (IPC), taught in English; feeds directly into RISS for secondary
- Ownership Type
- State-funded Dutch primary school with an English-medium international department (DIES-type)
Tuition Annual
- Typical Range Low
- €5,500
- Typical Range High
- €9,500
- Notes
- Falls in the same government-supported DIES fee band as RISS; a school-specific published figure was not found.
De Blijberg International (International Department of Blijberg Primary School)
- Ages
- 4 to 12 (Group 1 through Group 8, Dutch system)
- Location
- Gordelweg, Rotterdam city centre
- Curriculum
- Dutch national curriculum with a bilingual Dutch/English, internationally-oriented approach
- Ownership Type
- Public/subsidised primary school with an international department
Tuition Annual
- Historical Figure
- €3,300
- Notes
- This figure dates to the 2015-16 academic year; no more recent published figure was found, so treat as indicative only and confirm directly with the school.
The Japanese School of Rotterdam
- Ages
- Kindergarten through Grade 9
- Location
- Verhulstlaan 19, Rotterdam (adjacent to NAISR)
- Curriculum
- Japanese national curriculum, serving primarily Japanese expatriate families
- Ownership Type
- Private, community-run
Tuition Annual
- Notes
- No public tuition figures were found for this school; fees are typically arranged directly with the Japanese community association that runs it.
Bilingual Dutch State Track
- Name
- TTO (Tweetalig Onderwijs) bilingual streams
- Curriculum
- Standard Dutch national curriculum (leading to VMBO/HAVO/VWO and Dutch national exams), enriched with English-medium teaching; some TTO secondary schools add an IB English A2 or Cambridge certificate; only some TTO secondary tracks lead to the full IB Diploma — this varies by school.
- Description
- Rotterdam's regular, government-funded Dutch public primary and secondary schools include formally recognised bilingual (TTO) streams, where roughly half of subjects (e.g. maths, geography, history, science) are taught in English and the rest in Dutch by Dutch teachers who are language-certified for English instruction.
- Eligibility Note
- Public-funded TTO schools generally require the child to be registered as a resident with a BSN before enrolment; children without Dutch typically start in a one-year bridging class (schakelklas) before joining the mainstream bilingual stream.
Fees
- Secondary Tto Levy Low
- €450
- Secondary Tto Levy High
- €700
- Primary Voluntary Contribution
- €100
- Primary Tto Language Levy Approx
- €450
- Primary Voluntary Contribution High
- €500
- Notes
- These are low, government-subsidised voluntary contributions and levies, not full private tuition — the whole track is far cheaper than private international schooling.
Homeschooling
- Legal Status Summary
- Homeschooling is not a recognized general option in the Netherlands. Dutch compulsory education law (Leerplichtwet) requires every child aged 5 to 16 living in the country to attend a registered school, regardless of nationality or immigration status, and parents can be fined for non-compliance.
- Local Community Or Coop
- No documented Rotterdam-specific homeschool co-op or in-person meetup group was found. There is a national Dutch home-education advocacy body (the Nederlandse Vereniging voor Thuisonderwijs, NVvTO) and a separate national Christian homeschool network that runs an explicit outreach page aiming to connect expat homeschoolers in the Netherlands with each other and with Dutch homeschooling families, but neither is documented as having a dedicated Rotterdam chapter or local co-op; treat any claim of a Rotterdam-based homeschool community as unconfirmed rather than established fact.
- Recent Tightening Trend
- The exemption landscape has been narrowing rather than loosening. The Dutch Supreme Court ruled that parents can only claim the conscience-based exemption if there is no suitable school within 6km of home for primary level or 20km for secondary level, and The Hague became the first Dutch city council to scrap the conscience-based exemption entirely, with other municipalities expected to follow. Nationally, the number of children registered as not attending school rose from 705 to 2,860 over a 10-year period.
- Practical Reality For Expat Families
- For the vast majority of foreign families moving to Rotterdam, homeschooling is not a realistic or legally straightforward alternative to enrolling in a Dutch public, private, bilingual, or international school. Truancy officers (leerplichtambtenaren) actively monitor school attendance, and attempting to homeschool without an approved exemption can lead to fines or legal action.
Narrow Statutory Exemptions
- Philosophical or religious objection (richtingbezwaar): granted only if no nearby school aligns with the family's beliefs and there aren't enough like-minded local families to justify starting a new school; requires a formal declaration to the municipality and is described by official and legal sources as rarely granted, especially for expats.
- Medical/psychological grounds: exceptional cases where a child is physically or psychologically unable to attend school.
- Migratory/itinerant profession: a narrow exemption for families with a genuinely travelling occupation.
- Child registered in the Netherlands but attending school abroad: a separate declared exemption category.
International Bilingual Enrollment
- Waitlist Realities
- Admission is generally rolling and processed as applications arrive rather than by a single hard deadline, which means a grade level can fill and go to a waitlist well before the school year starts. Some international schools historically have had more applications than available spaces in the Rotterdam/wider Randstad area, so families should not assume a same-year vacancy is guaranteed, especially for popular grades or a mid-year arrival. Once offered a place, families are typically given a limited window (commonly around two weeks) to confirm and may need to pay a deposit to secure it.
- How Far In Advance To Apply
- Start the application process before you land in the Netherlands, ideally as soon as a move to Rotterdam is confirmed. Recognized international schools (RISS, NAISR/Nord Anglia, International School Leiden which some Rotterdam-area families use) run rolling admissions year-round, but popular grade levels fill up, so families applying in spring/early summer for the following school year have noticeably better odds than families applying in August. For the state-funded bridging classes (schakelklas) that feed into bilingual TTO secondary streams, local advice is to register the moment your move date is confirmed, since demand for these spots has tightened in Rotterdam.
- Public Funded Bilingual Tto Route
- Alongside fully private international schools, Rotterdam has publicly funded bilingual primary and secondary streams (tweetalig onderwijs, TTO), which teach roughly half the curriculum in English and half in Dutch. These require the family to be registered as residents with a BSN before enrollment, so getting municipal residence registration sorted early is a practical prerequisite, not just a formality.
- Route For Newly Arrived Non International School Families
- Rotterdam also runs a public-school route via 'Internationale Schakelklassen' (ISK) in secondary education and 'Eerste Opvang' (First Intake) classes in primary education, intended for newly arrived children who need intensive Dutch-language support before joining a regular Dutch-medium class. There are 13 primary schools in Rotterdam offering a First Intake class; families register with the school nearest them and are told whether there is an opening. For secondary-age newcomers, children are tested (an ability/match test administered in cooperation with Koers-VO) and referred to one of five schools with an International Transition Class.
- Eligibility Gatekeeper For Recognized International Schools
- Rotterdam's Dutch-government-recognized international schools (RISS, NAISR, and similar members of the Dutch International Schools / DISS network) are legally restricted to specific eligibility categories, not open enrollment: a student with non-Dutch nationality whose parent/guardian is temporarily employed in the Netherlands (or a Dutch border region); a Dutch-national student who has already had at least two years of schooling abroad due to a parent's overseas posting; or a Dutch-national student whose parent/guardian will be posted abroad within two years for at least two years. Families who don't meet one of these criteria generally cannot enrol in these specific recognized international schools.
Typical Fee Context
Public Tto Voluntary Contribution Per Year
- Max
- €500
- Min
- €100
Fully Private International School Tuition Per Year
- Max
- €28,000
- Min
- €18,000
Dutch International Education School Tuition Per Year
- Max
- €9,500
- Min
- €5,500
Application Process Steps
- Submit an online application (most recognized international schools use the OpenApply portal).
- Provide required documents: proof of birth/birth certificate, most recent school records (typically the last 2 years of records, 3 years if applying to the final secondary grade), and proof of the parent's employment/assignment in the Netherlands.
- Attend an admissions meeting or interview with the Head of Section (can be done online before arrival, or in person once in the Netherlands); a campus visit is arranged for families already in the country.
- Wait for an admissions decision; a place is typically only confirmed once all steps (application, documents, meeting/interview) are complete.
AI-generated estimateData refreshed July 2026
This section has no cited sources.
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Data last updated July 2026 · Verify anything important.