The school is named after Jan III van Egmond (1438-1516) who gave the right to hold a market in 1484 to Purmerend. Partly because the flourished and prosperity, the school is what it is now. The Jan van Egmond Lyceum stems from the Secondary School and the Rijksscholengemeenschap Purmerend. In 1921 the building of the Jan van Egmond lyceum moved out of the ground and rised into the sky. Since 1996, the Jan van Egmond Lyceum has been part of the PSG. In the autumn of 2011 the JEL was celebrating its 90th anniversary.

In 2008-2009 the Da Vinci college and the Jan van egmond lyceum were moved to another location, the Johan Ninaberstraat.

Together they worked on a project that was called: "HAVO-VWO campus" where you can go if you don't know were to go.

In 2012 the famous bridge between the Da Vinci College and Jan van Egmond lyceum was built. It took very long, but in 2013 the first lessons took place in the bridge. Nowadays, only a couple of classrooms are property of the Jan van Egmond lyceum. The rest is in use by the Da Vinci College.