Lighthouse Special Education

The school is unique in The Netherlands as the only international Special Primary School in The Netherlands offering education in English.

We offer individualised education to children aged 3-13 who are unable to cope in mainstream international education. There are currently two classes: the younger class is for children aged 5 to 8 years old and the older class is for children aged 8 to 13 years old. Each class has a maximum of 8 children in it and is staffed by a teacher and a teaching assistant.

In addition to the school classes, there is an inclusive preschool class called Three Little Ships which offers an early intervention programme for children aged 2.5 to 5 years old.

The children come from international families that are temporarily based in The Netherlands, generally due to the parents’ employment. The children have a range of different mother tongue languages but everyone learns to speak English at school.

The staff of the Lighthouse school all have extensive experience of working with children with complex learning challenges and most also have specialist qualifications. In addition to the classroom staff, there are also support staff – a secretary and concierge – and a group of volunteers who support the children at lunchtime.

Many of the children require additional therapies from other experts and currently speech and language therapy, physiotherapy, sensory integration therapy and occupational therapy are given to students during the school day by English-speaking internationally qualified therapists.