Parent Community - European School of The Hague

Like all successful schools, we are dependent on the contribution of parents. It is well known that parent involvement helps increase student achievement, and enhance a sense of community within a school.

Through the Participation Councils, parents may engage in decisions relating to the organisation of the school, learning and other activities.

Volunteering to become a Parent Representative allows parents to play an active role in their child's class activities, and/or through the PTA, parents can help with events, fund-raising and facilitate an active social environment.

Participation Councils (PC)

By law, every school in the Netherlands is linked with a medezeggenschrapsraad (MR). This, translated to English, is a participation council (PC), where elected teacher and parent (and in Secondary also student) representatives are consulted by the school management on various matters concerning the management of the school. As prescribed by law, there are separate PCs for the Primary and Secondary schools and separate general participation councils (GMR) which deal with the Stichting’s (Rijnland Lyceum Foundation) issues.

The meeting minutes and dates of upcoming meetings are published on the PC pages in the Community Portal.

Contact the Primary PC

Contact the Secondary PC

Parent Teacher Association (PTA)

The aim of the PTA is to first and foremost benefit the school community. Through the PTA, parents can have their voices heard, make contributions to the school, and organise various activities for children and families to build our community, fundraise, or just have fun.

Primary PTA
Secondary PTA

Primary PTA

Every parent who has a child at ESH is automatically a member of the PTA with full voting privileges, as is every teacher working at ESH. Every other year, a new PTA board will be elected from those who volunteer.

Usually, the PTA meets (bi)monthly to organise fun and social events like European coffee mornings, the Summer Fair, or to fundraise with cake and book sales, and to help organise certain school events, such as Sinterklaas, Christmas, etc.

Secondary PTA

The Secondary PTA Board is comprised of parents, staff, and a student representative - and they are always looking for more parents to join!

The Secondary PTA is an active association in the school. They work closely with the Secondary staff to explore how the Secondary PTA could further assist with the organisation of future events, bake sales, and much more! The Secondary PTA Board is always happy to welcome new parents who would like to join the Board or would like to help out in any form - structurally or occasionally.

Contact the Primary PTA

Contact the Secondary PTA

Parent Class Representatives

Every class has a Class Representative. This is a parent (or parents) who volunteers to support the class teacher by helping to organise class activities. The Class Representative can also act as the contact person for new parents, responding to general questions about the school.

Primary Class Reps
Secondary Class Reps

Primary Class Reps

At Primary, some of the key tasks for Class Reps including welcoming new and existing parents, coordinate parent help for events within the class or school, and liasing regularly with the PTA and PC. Optionally, parents are also welcome to:

Organise social events like coffee mornings, drinks evenings and/or weekend events which may include partners and children;
Organise seasonal parties and events for the children outside of school;
Give new parents a guided tour of local shops and amenities.

Secondary Class Reps

In a multiculturally diverse school like ESH, forming a strong and active community is critical to our success in providing a well-rounded education to our students. The role of the Parent Representative helps us achieve this, as the Parent Representatives act as a community link between the Mentor teacher, the Parent Teacher Association (PTA), and other parents in the class.

Parent Representatives liaise with the Mentor teacher to help arrange activities for the mentor class. For example, if a Mentor wants to arrange a class party, they can ask the Parent Representative to assist. Parent Representatives can also support students in arranging gifts, such as sending flowers to those in the class who have experienced a loss, or those who leave the school.