The European Schools were established in 1957 to educate the children of employees of European Union institutions. Children of these employees are entitled to a place in a European School where they are provided with a multilingual and multicultural education at Early Years, Primary and Secondary levels.
ESH was founded to meet the educational needs of children of employees of Eurojust, Europol, EPO and ESA-ESTEC and the European Commission. These children have a reserved place in ESH and are referred to as Category I pupils. All other pupils are referred to as Category III pupils and can be placed upon availability.

In a quiet green suburb of the university city of Leiden the International School ‘Het Rijnlands Lyceum’ Oegstgeest offers quality education in a unique setting,
serving Leiden and the region between Amsterdam and The Hague. This IB World school is unique in the sense that it is part of Het Rijnlands Lyceum Oegstgeest (established in 1955), a Dutch secondary school offering the upper range of the national secondary education programmes. The Dutch School offers both Dutch and Bilingual (English and Dutch) national education. The International School offers students aged from 11 to 18 the International Baccalaureate Middle
Years Programme, followed by the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme with English as the working language. Although the educational programmes of the International School are independent of those at the Dutch School, a conscious decision has been made to have an international and a national school within the same building, aiming to create a unique meeting
place of cultures. All students and teachers share the same facilities. Integration with the Dutch and Bilingual department is encouraged whenever possible, be it in the form of theatre productions, sports activities, Model United Nations or other projects.