A European School (Latin: Schola Europaea) is a type of international school emphasising a multilingual and multicultural pedagogical approach to the teaching of nursery, primary and secondary students, leading to the European Baccalaureate as their secondary leaving qualification.
Originally, a private initiative of employees of the ECSC, the concept attracted the attention of EU founding father, Jean Monnet as capturing the spirit of the post-war effort to reconcile and integrate Europe.
[5] On 9 July 2021 the decision was made to move the Netherlands-based school from Bergen, to Alkmaar.
[8] As per the multilingual ethos of the Schools, certain subjects are instructed and assessed in each student's respective second language.
[8] Those students undertaking the European Baccalaureate are required to study at least 8 and up to a maximum of 11 academic subjects, in addition to physical education and moral/religion, with different weightings according to the course choices made when commencing the Baccaluareate.
[10] The European Schools also cooperate to take advantage of their unique relationship to EU institutions to provide students on an annual basis with the opportunity to take part in political simulations of EU meetings, held on the premises of the institutions themselves.
The federation of student representatives of the schools, CoSup, organises a "Europarty", held in a different European city each academic year, and open to any student of the European Schools over 16 years of age to attend.