Amstelland International School

In Brief

AIS is the most affordable international primary in the Amstelveen area and the right fit for families with younger children who want strong English-medium education without the fees of the private schools - but it stops at age 11 (expanding to MYP 1-3 from August 2026), so have a secondary plan ready.

Amstelland International School opened in 2019 in Westwijk, a neighbourhood in Amstelveen with a high concentration of international families. It runs primary education from Group 0 through to Group 7 - ages 4 to 11 - using the International Primary Curriculum (IPC) alongside Cambridge Early Years and Primary English. Government subsidy brings annual fees to EUR 5,406, the lowest of any international school in the Amsterdam area, with no capital levy.

At around 200 students and 82 nationalities, it has a genuinely small-school feel; families are visible in classroom life and the director, Jacquelene Da Silva, is reachable directly. The no-homework policy and action-based research projects are deliberate curriculum choices rather than default practice, and the school is working toward Dutch Ministry of Education inspection and International School Recognition in 2025-26. Cambridge accreditation for Early Years and Primary English was confirmed in July 2023. Part of Onderwijsgroep Amstelland, a group of twelve Dutch schools.

The structural limitation is age: AIS is a primary-only school at the moment. From August 2026, it will offer MYP 1-3 in partnership with Hermann Wesselink College, but full secondary provision is not yet in place. Families with children approaching secondary need to plan the transition explicitly - the most common route is into AICS or one of the Dutch mainstream secondary schools. Ask AIS for guidance on where their Year 7 leavers typically go.