If you move to Leiden with children, one thing shapes the choice more than any other. The two international schools in the city itself are both primary schools, and they sit about 600 metres apart. The international secondary schools are in Oegstgeest and Voorschoten, and the neighbourhoods with the most families are in the towns around Leiden rather than in the city.
Five international schools in and around Leiden
The schools come from the map of Dutch International Schools, the network of partly state-funded international schools, plus TISA, a private school that opened in 2022. Each address and description was checked on the school's own website in October 2026. For every school we took the neighbourhoods whose centre lies within 2 km in a straight line and added up their official open data for 2025.
| School | Municipality | Residents within 2 km | Households with children | Single-family houses | Average home value |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| International School Leiden | Leiden | 74,300 | 19% | 40% | €433k |
| TISA | Leiden | 86,300 | 17% | 35% | €410k |
| Elckerlyc International School | Leiderdorp | 31,000 | 33% | 56% | €452k |
| International School Rijnlands Lyceum Oegstgeest | Oegstgeest | 29,500 | 29% | 53% | €538k |
| British School, Senior School Voorschoten | Voorschoten | 15,000 | 35% | 68% | €525k |
International School Leiden offers international primary education, TISA the IB Primary Years Programme for ages 3 to 12, and Elckerlyc International School in Leiderdorp international primary education with the International Primary Curriculum. For secondary school there is the international department of the Rijnlands Lyceum in Oegstgeest, with the IB Middle Years Programme from age 11 and the IB Diploma, and the British School's senior school in Voorschoten, with British and IB education for ages 11 to 18. Admission rules, waiting lists and fees differ, so check them with the school before you shortlist a neighbourhood.
The two city schools sit in a student town
International School Leiden and TISA are both in the Roodenburgerdistrict, around the Professorenwijk and Burgemeesterswijk. Within 2 km live about 74,000 people, but only 19 percent of households have children, about the same as in Leiden as a whole (20 percent) and far below neighbouring Oegstgeest (37). Most homes in that circle are flats; 40 percent are houses.
Closest to the two schools, Burgemeesterswijk is the exception, with 38 percent families and homes averaging about €761k, and Roomburg, also within 2 km of both schools, reaches 42 percent at about €614k.
Leiderdorp has two primary schools within reach
Elckerlyc International School is in Leiderdorp, about 3 km from International School Leiden. Kerkwijk and Oranjewijk in Leiderdorp lie within 2 km of both, and 46 and 45 percent of their households have children.
Around Elckerlyc as a whole, 33 percent of households have children and 56 percent of homes are houses, at an average of about €452k, close to the Leiden average but with far more houses and families.
For secondary school, look at Oegstgeest and Voorschoten
The Rijnlands Lyceum's international school is in Oegstgeest, about 5 km from the city schools. Around it 29 percent of households have children, and Nieuw-Rhijngeest reaches 57 percent. Homes there average about €538k, the most expensive circle of the five.
The British School's senior school in Voorschoten has the quietest surroundings: about 15,000 residents within 2 km, 35 percent families and 68 percent houses. Nassauwijk and Bloemenwijk, close to the school, are the neighbourhoods with the most families.
What a distance on the map does and does not tell you
All distances are in a straight line from the school to the centre of each neighbourhood, and the route by bike can be longer. The neighbourhood figures come from Statistics Netherlands' 2025 key figures and describe everyone who lives there, students included, not only international families.
Use the schools to draw the circle and the neighbourhood figures to choose inside it. You can compare every Leiden neighbourhood in the explorer, open the Leiden page, browse other cities, read our stories on Amsterdam and Eindhoven, or see how the figures are built on our data sources page.