Beijing · History
Beijing's first British school, now in its third decade
The British School of Beijing, Sanlitun opened in 2004 as the Chinese capital's first British international school. More than twenty years on, it remains downtown Beijing's only British primary campus.
Origins
The school that became BSB Sanlitun was founded in 2003 and opened on 29 March 2004, beating its originally planned September launch by several months. It was the first British school established in Beijing and the founding institution of the British Schools Foundation, a group set up to serve the surge in expatriate demand as China's double-digit economic growth drew diplomats and multinational staff into the capital in large numbers. The Sanlitun campus sat in the heart of the embassy district of Chaoyang, a deliberate choice: it put the school within walking distance of the compounds and apartment blocks where most of its prospective families lived.
The British Ambassador at the time, Christopher Hum, inaugurated the Sanlitun campus, giving the opening an official diplomatic stamp that reflected how closely the school's mission was tied to the expatriate community it served. From the start, the school offered Early Years and Primary education through the English National Curriculum and the Early Years Foundation Stage, with Mandarin Chinese taught as a core part of the timetable.
Expansion and structural change
Within two years of Sanlitun opening, the school had grown sufficiently to justify a second campus. In 2009 it expanded to Shunyi, a family-friendly residential district on the outskirts of Beijing popular with expatriate families. The Shunyi campus was inaugurated by Ambassador William Ehrman. For several years both sites ran as a single institution under the British School of Beijing name. That changed in 2013, when the two campuses were administratively separated into distinct schools, with Shunyi taking on secondary education and eventually the International Baccalaureate Diploma, and Sanlitun retaining its identity as an Early Years and Primary campus for children aged one to eleven.
Nord Anglia Education, which had been involved in operating the school from early in its history, became the formal owner and operator as the British Schools Foundation's schools were absorbed into the group. BSB Sanlitun has operated under the Nord Anglia umbrella since, sitting alongside a growing cluster of Nord Anglia campuses across China, which by 2025 numbered more than a dozen schools in cities from Beijing to Guangzhou and Shanghai.
Curriculum and accreditation
The curriculum at Sanlitun follows the National Curriculum for England across Key Stages 1 and 2, with the Early Years Foundation Stage for children up to age five. A British Schools Overseas inspection in March 2016, conducted by Penta International on behalf of the DfE, rated the school good overall, with outstanding provision in the Early Years. The inspection report noted a broad curriculum, effective English as an Additional Language support, Mandarin Chinese as the main modern foreign language, and an optional German programme for children likely to move to German-speaking countries. The school holds accreditation from COBIS and is a member of FOBISIA.
Nord Anglia's group-level partnerships with MIT, the Juilliard School, and UNICEF run across all its schools, and BSB Sanlitun reflects those collaborations in its facilities and enrichment programmes. The campus includes a dedicated MIT Maker Space, a Juilliard keyboard room, a rooftop playground, a drama studio, a dance studio, and AstroTurf pitches. Every class has both a class teacher and a teaching assistant; the school-wide teacher-to-pupil ratio stands at 1:10.
Present day
BSB Sanlitun sits at 5 Xiliujie, Sanlitun Road, Chaoyang District. According to the Good Schools Guide, the school's current roll is 700 pupils drawn from more than 60 nationalities, with instruction in English and Mandarin Chinese offered from the Early Years upward. An optional German strand runs through Years 1 to 6. Students completing Year 6 move on to secondary education, most commonly to the sister BSB Shunyi campus, where an agreement guarantees a transition from Year 6 into Year 7. The current principal is Joanne Prabhu. The school celebrated its twentieth anniversary in 2023.
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