5 years of fun and inspiring education

In the two years leading up to the opening, we worked hard with dedicated internationals and local experts to realise the goal of having an international school in Haarlemmermeer.

International educational for families in Haarlemmermeer

More and more international families had arrived in Hoofddorp and even though there were international schools opening up in Haarlem and Amsterdam, with waiting lists from day one, there was nothing in the area of Haarlemmermeer.

So on 8 January 2018 it happened, 25 families joined Optimist International School within the Dutch Optimist school building. We started with 3 classes and soon more classes were added and more international teachers were being hired.

Within 1,5 years we outgrew our space, but lucky for us, we were given another location at the Waddenweg 87, just 1 kilometre further up the road – our ‘own’ building. For the first year we shared the space with the Braambos school and a specialist school, but as we continued to grow, we soon took over the whole building and this is where we are today. 265+ children and a team of over 40 international educators, and office staff.

Can we eat the logo?

On Wednesday 10 January we held a small celebration! Our director, Anne Marie, handed out macarons in our OIS colours; yellow, green, orange and blue. Each had the 5 year logo on top. The children were so excited. Hard decisions had to be made on what colour would taste better. Lots of curious faces when we told them that they indeed could eat the logo!

Let's continue the celebrations

But our celebrations don’t stop here, on 2^nd June, we would like to celebrate our anniversary properly with all of you, as this is what makes our school so great – our OIS community.

We will combine our international cultural day with our 5 year celebration to make it a great party for all!  More on this soon…

For now, happy anniversary OIS – what a great journey it has been so far!