International School Laren

A young IB World School in 't Gooi, part of Alberdingk Thijm Scholen and sharing the Laar & Berg campus, aimed at expat families settled around Hilversum.

ISL opened in 2018 as the secondary partner to IPS Hilversum and IS Hilversum, all under the Alberdingk Thijm group. Fees sit at the Dutch state-subsidised end, roughly EUR 5,400 to EUR 6,200, well below private competitors. The school runs IB MYP and is building toward Diploma, sharing two gyms, science labs, art and music spaces with Laar & Berg next door.

The catchment is the Hilversum media and corporate community rather than Amsterdam centre. Many families pick ISL because it is the only English-medium secondary option in 't Gooi without a long commute to Amstelveen or Utrecht. Teachers are accessible, year groups are small, and the progression up from IPS Hilversum is the usual route. The trade-off is a programme still maturing and a smaller cohort than the established Amsterdam schools.

• ISL Laren is a small IB MYP school that opened in 2018 as the international stream alongside Laar & Berg, in the Gooi area near Hilversum. The international and Dutch streams share campus facilities including gyms, sports fields, art and music spaces and five science labs.
• Independent review pool is genuinely thin. International Schools Database sits at 5.0 across only two parent reviews; one wrote "the best international school in the area" and another said "there is no stress, the teachers are teaching and treating us very well."
• Reddit references treat ISL as part of the Gooi expat shortlist alongside Hilversum's older international school, but no substantive parent or alumni discussion surfaces.
• The school's identity is the IB MYP programme paired with the campus-share model. There is no public DP cohort yet to validate, and no Glassdoor or expat-forum thread of any depth.
• Public signal is too thin for confident generalisation. Families should triangulate with currently enrolled parents rather than rely on the visible review pool.