International School Hilversum Alberdingk Thijm (IS Hilversum) Amsterdam
Reviews & Information

Be careful parents! This school follows the Dutch tradition of pigeon-hole’ing students after grade 10 and choosing their tract. Our son wanted studies for engineering, hoping to attend Delft. They said he didn’t have what it took and refused to allow him that DP track. Would only allow him Language and Geography. So we took him back to US for his grade 11 and 12. End result, he scored in the 95th percentile for ACT and SAT. His high school senior year he completed college physics and calculus with A’s and was accepted into Honors engineering program at his first choice university.

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The school is awesome! Been here my whole life and they are coming up with more and more awesome ways to make school better and fun at the same time. They listen to students and make their voices heard. Suggestions given by the students have been used, such as our class going on an ice skating trip, camp, ice cream and water play. Everyone should come to this school. They even considered putting in a pool and expanding the lounge.

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In this school, not only are the kids bullies but so are the teachers. If you have any form of issues they try to kick you out of the school ASAP. During my time there, teachers physically assaulted me and mocked mental illness, made anti-semitic and racist comments, and when reported to the principal or deputy principal nothing happens as it's, quote: "the teacher's word against yours". Similarly, when homophobic remarks are made by other students and it's reported: "that's just their culture and we have to respect that" or some other BS excuse... There were some exceptions to this rule, but for every 1 good teacher there's plenty that just want to watch their pupils fail. All they care about is looking good to the outside world to get more rich parents' money pumped into the school. Do yourself and your kids a favour and go to a different international school.

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ISH is an academically elite school with zero empathy for children with any difficulties including - being victims of bullying and any form of ADD or dyslexia.

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I went to this school from grade 7 until graduating DP2 (Grade 12). I would say I have had my lowest moments in this school due to the excessive bullying, judgement (from the students & teachers) and overall lack of empathy from any staff member of the facility. I did seek help with the student counsellor however they do not care about the problems you are facing, and would rather speak highly about how their lives are or how successful their kids have become. It is. very homophobic, transphobic, racist & an extremely sexist environment with students telling others to even kill themselves. they claim themselves to be diverse however most of the students are white, privileged and think that wearing high end fashion brands makes you cool/or have class. This school is a massive joke. After several years of experience and noticing how much life is better leaving the school, if you are looking at sending your child here, I urge you to pick another place.

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An awful place that doesn't care about students well being what so ever. Everyone in that school is rude, egoistic and very poorly mannered, this school is he closest thing to hell.

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It's a good school with lots of learning

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All in all, the school is a decent place to study for an IB diploma. I've graduated last summer after following their six-year bilingual MYP+DP program. Teachers generally have a nice attitude towards students are competent in their subject, and teach competently with varied materials. Especially the teachers in the higher years were very pleasant to get taught by and were supportive throughout the course. While the workload may be high at some stages, it most certainly helps with dealing with the higher workload that will be experienced in university. Sports facilities aren't great since there are just two indoor gyms in addition to a turf basketball cage outside. Also, a bummer for me was that they don't offer music lessons of any kind, while they do have plenty of equipment to facilitate this. However, the main problems in this school lie with the management. As other reviews suggested, there is indeed a problem with the occasional removal of year 10 students (especially those who are coping with some form of (mental) illness), because according to their own assessment the student in question wouldn't be able to successfully complete the Diploma Program, even though their year 10 grades are more than good enough to qualify for year 11. In turn, the management won't bother assisting the student and parents into exploring possible pathways to continue the student's schooling career. I've seen this happen to a person close to me and heard several similar stories through the grapevine. It's hard and unjust leadership from two or three people in the school's management. Another main problem that I’ve encountered is the lack of diversity within the school. And not only in terms of race or ethnic background, but also diversity in cultural, spiritual or political beliefs. From my assessment, around 70% of students there are white, European, left-leaning and atheist, not at all representative of the “learning through diversity”-motto that the school is aiming to portray. The hardest for me personally was that the school didn’t seem to put any effort into creating an environment in which it is normal for people to respect opinions and beliefs that are tangential to their own. As politically I stand quite far from what was mainstream and ‘accepted’ in the school, I had a very hard time feeling comfortable in expressing those views with my teachers or fellow students. Furthermore, while usually left unnoticed for most people, there does seem to be a small but substantial amount of racism and racial bias within the school. Without going into too much detail, there are some middle-aged people in management or as teachers who still live with some 20th century views on race and ethnic background. Being a white person, most of this I haven’t experienced first handedly, but by others’ accounts this has sometimes been apparent in ways such as the curriculums in Art and History which are almost exclusive to the works and perspectives of white people, asking race-related questions to people of color (e.g. in regards to their view Trump or Zwarte Piet), and even an instance where a student’s predicted grades were purposefully lowered due to reasons associated with their skin color. And if on the school’s website you might get the impression of it being very ethnically diverse; don’t be fooled, since the students in the pictures were reportedly hand-picked based on a preselected mix of ethnic appearances.

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I would be very careful, they don’t tell you, that when your child is in grade 10, they don’t have to disclose how many, children will simply not able to enter the Ib program, they cant or don’t want to deal with children who have issues, such as Add, transgender issues, etc. no matter how well you do academically, they won’t give you entrance. Then there is NO option, unless you speak fluently Dutch and go to a Dutch have or vwo. In the British school system, you can follow different paths. So be careful, because otherwise your child ends up, with nothing at grade 10 and nowhere to go. In hindsight I should have known as a parent not every child can enter VWO. The British school, yes more expensive, but at least your child has several options there to do the equivalent of a Dutch HAVO or VWO. They don’t publish numbers of the number of children that fall off, which they should,. In all I regret I didn’t send my children into the British school or had them enter one of the many espritscholen, to transfer into the Dutch school system. It’s true they simply care about the % of children passing the IB. Mental problems, autism, add, transgender, bullied? You are on your own. They can be this arrogant as at the moment they have more children wanting to enter, then they can accommodate. My child can do according to them VWO, which is equivalent of the IB, yet due to his transgender issues, they are reluctant. I simply do not have the stamina any longer to continue to fight for my child. It’s very concerning, that this is how they treat children. In all it would have saved me money and time, if I had send them to the British school, and Or to the esprit scholen which is free and from there your child can do bilingual mavo, havo or VWO: there is 1 english meao, don’t let them tell you there are only Dutch MEAO’s, and also subsidized by the government. I have met many parents who were given very bad advice, after grade 10 and their child still hasn’t graduated. So be very careful and ask school these questions what if my child runs into issues, ask them how many children will go to IB and how many won’t, and if not what are your options? Only then can you make an education choice. There are many more excellent school systems.

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I love it oh my god all I can say is wow

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