Beijing BISS International School (BISS) () is an independent co-educational

English-language English is a West Germanic language of the Indo-European language family, with its earliest forms spoken by the inhabitants of early medieval England. It is named after the Angles, one of the ancient Germanic peoples that migrated to the i ...

day school located in Chaoyang District,

Beijing } Beijing ( ; ; ), Chinese postal romanization, alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the Capital city, capital of the China, People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's Li ...

People's Republic of China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, slig ...

. Founded in 1994, educates kindergarten through grade 12 students from Beijing's expatriate community through all three International Baccalaureate (IB) programs: the Primary Years Programme, the Middle Years Programme, and the Diploma Programme. The school has 340 students from 40 different nationalities as of 2012.Luo, Wangshu.
High kindergarten cost credited to good teachers
"
Archive
''

Xinhua Xinhua News Agency (English pronunciation: )J. C. Wells: Longman Pronunciation Dictionary, 3rd ed., for both British and American English, or New China News Agency, is the official state news agency of the People's Republic of China. Xinhua ...

'' at ''

Shanghai Daily ''Shanghai Daily'' (Chinese: 上海日报, Pinyin: Shànghǎi Rìbào) is an English-language newspaper founded in 1999 and owned by the Shanghai United Media Group, a state media company under the Shanghai committee of the Chinese Communist Party. ...

''. March 27, 2012. Retrieved on June 19, 2013.

History

Beijing BISS International School was founded in 1994 by its sister school, the International School Singapore (ISS), as an independent proprietary, co-educational, English-language day school offering an international curriculum to students from Kindergarten to grade 12 from Beijing's expatriate community. BISS was the first International School licensed by The Beijing Educational Commission, and the first school in Beijing to offer all three IB programs. In 2018 the school temporary closed for two days, citing financial issues. In response to ongoing non-payment of staff salaries and entitlements BISS teachers went on strike on September 20, 2018. Some current and former staff were owed as much as 120,000 yuan. Teachers wrote parents a letter stating that "Faculty contracts have not been honored and wages, health insurance. and housing allowances have not been paid".

Program

Curriculum

BISS offers the

Primary Years Programme The International Baccalaureate Primary Years Programme (PYP) is an educational programme managed by the International Baccalaureate (IB) for students in grades Kindergarten to Fifth grade. While the programme prepares students for the IB Middle Y ...

(PYP),

Middle Years Programme The International Baccalaureate Middle Years Programme (MYP) is an educational programme for students between the ages of 11 to 16 around the world as part of the International Baccalaureate (IB) continuum. Middle Year Programme is intended to pr ...

(MYP) and

Diploma Programme The International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme (IBDP) is a two-year educational programme primarily aimed at 16-to-19-year-olds in 140 countries around the world. The programme provides an internationally accepted qualification for entry int ...

(DP) to all students, from kindergarten through grade 12.

Accreditations, Authorizations, Memberships and Licences

*Authorized by the

International Baccalaureate The International Baccalaureate (IB), formerly known as the International Baccalaureate Organization (IBO), is a nonprofit foundation headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, and founded in 1968. It offers four educational programmes: the IB D ...

(IB): BISS was the first school in Beijing and one of the first in China to be authorized to offer all three IB programs *Accredited by the National Centre for School Curriculum and Textbook Development (NCCT) *Licensed by the Beijing Education Commission *Member of the Association of China and Mongolia International Schools *Member of the East Asia Regional Council of Schools

Students

BISS provides instruction for kindergarten to grade 12 students from the expatriate community of Beijing. As of 2012, 340 students from 40 different nationalities attend the school.

Class sizes

BISS maintains a relatively low student to teacher class ratios, with classes typically having 15 students or less to 1 teacher. Luo Wangshu of the Shanghai Daily reported that "BISS believes that smaller class sizes make for better academic performance and communication."

Faculty

BISS faculty members hail from the United States, Canada, Australia, Korea, New Zealand, Singapore, China, Japan, the Philippines, Portugal, and the U.K. In 2017, Search Associates, the most reputable international schools' recruitment agency disassociated itself from BISS because of unpaid fees. As a result, BISS now recruits most of its faculty through its website.

Tuition

As of 2009 the school tuition ranges from lower for kindergarteners to higher for older students. Kindergarteners each had a tuition of 96,000 yuan (49,217 Malaysian ringgits) while a high school senior had a tuition of 172,000 yuan (RM88,181).Balazovic, Todd.
Expats resort to home schooling
" ''

The Star ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the ...

''. September 13, 2009. Retrieved on June 19, 2013. For kindergarten and first grade classes, as of 2012 the school charged up to 109,800 yuan yearly per pupil. In 2015 the tuition for the year was 300,000

renminbi The renminbi (; symbol: ¥; ISO code: CNY; abbreviation: RMB) is the official currency of the People's Republic of China and one of the world's most traded currencies, ranking as the fifth most traded currency in the world as of April 202 ...

($48,330

U.S. dollars The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...

). ''

China Daily ''China Daily'' () is an English-language daily newspaper owned by the Central Propaganda Department of the Chinese Communist Party. Overview ''China Daily'' has the widest print circulation of any English-language newspaper in China. ...

'' ranked BISS as the most expensive private school in Beijing.

References

External links

Beijing BISS International School
{{International schools in Beijing Schools in Chaoyang District, Beijing International schools in Beijing Educational institutions established in 1994 International Baccalaureate schools in China Association of China and Mongolia International Schools 1994 establishments in China High schools in Beijing