The conditions of entry to the Primary Years Programme (PYP) are governed by the availability of space at the appropriate grade level, the school’s ability to meet each student’s needs and the student’s ability to fulfil the programme requirements. The school is also bound by the conditions laid down by and the agreements made with the Dutch Ministry of Education
Access to international primary education is permitted for:
- Students with a non-Dutch passport where one or both of the parents/legal guardians are temporarily employed in The Netherlands;
- Students of Dutch nationality who have been educated (in English) outside the Netherlands for a period of two years or more;
- Students whose parents/legal guardians are intending to move abroad within the coming two years and who can therefore demonstrate a particular need for international education;
- In addition, where spaces are limited, we will give priority to students who have no viable alternative upon arrival in the country. Hence students arriving from abroad are prioritised over students who are already at school or have access to Dutch education.
All PYP students are re-assessed for a second time as to their eligibility to continue on into secondary international education.
Parents/legal guardians must be aware that the application procedure is often a complex affair, where applications are held up for any number of reasons and other applications move in front of them. For this reason, we cannot guarantee that we will be able to deal with all applications in strict chronological order. Although we do try to be as fair as we can, the ISHilversum does reserve the right to make its own choices on applications and may choose to fast track certain applications at its own discretion.
Prioritisation
When carrying out the admissions process, we try to be fair to all parties. However, as an international school, we must give priority to certain categories of students. As a guideline we set ourselves the following list of priorities:
- Emergency cases, where a family may be forced out of a country through civil conflict or natural disaster;
- International students that need to find a school in the Netherlands and are unable to access the national system;
- Qualifying siblings of students currently in the school and children of staff;
- Students transferring from another international school in the Netherlands who have moved into the region and/or have other extenuating circumstances (only in consultation with the student’s current school);
- All other qualifying applicants.
Age requirements
Amongst other things, students are placed according to their age. Exceptions to this rule are rarely made and only upon careful evaluation of the applicant by the admissions team.
In the primary school, students must be between the ages of 4 and 11. When starting Grade 1, students must be 6 by October 1st of the year of admission.
How to Apply
The enrolment procedure for parents/legal guardians of primary students is as follows:
- All applications are made online through “Open Apply”. The primary school Administrator has a meeting with parents/legal guardians and the potential student;
- Initial enrolment is by means of an interest only form on “Open Apply” and does not guarantee a place at ISHilversum;
- Parents/legal guardians need to upload a copy of transcripts and report cards from the previous two years, together with a valid copy of the applicant’s passport or ID card. For students under 4, who do not yet have report cards, parents/legal guardians can override the system report request in Open Apply by uploading a blank document. As part of the process, parents/guardians are asked to upload any inclusion support plan that is running at the student's current school, so that we have the option of assessing how we may take this over. Additionally, the current school of the student is asked to complete a questionnaire, which must be completed before placement can be confirmed. Other relevant documents concerning special needs should also be uploaded at this stage;
- There is an administration fee, which will be charged upon definite entry to the school;
- After acceptance, parents/legal guardians will receive an invoice for payment of tuition according to the current fee structure.
- Parents/legal guardians will be requested to fill out an introduction form, which allows the applicable Classroom Teacher to gain more information about the student upon entry to the school.