Hanoi · History
From BVIS to BIS: how Hanoi's first British school found its form
British International School Hanoi opened in August 2012 as a dual-language venture, converted to a fully international programme within a year, and now enrols 1,100 students on a purpose-built Long Bien campus.
The chain of events that produced BIS Hanoi begins not in the capital but 1,750 kilometres south. The school's own history page traces its roots to Ho Chi Minh City, where the first British international school in Vietnam opened in 1997. That southern foothold gave the group the confidence, a decade and a half later, to push north.
Origins
In August 2011 the founders established the British Vietnamese International School in Ho Chi Minh City, a dual-language institution aimed at Vietnamese families seeking an international education. The Hanoi expansion came twelve months later. In August 2012, with Anthony Rowlands as founding Principal, the British Vietnamese International School Hanoi opened inside the Vinhomes Riverside development in Long Bien District, on the site the school still occupies today.
Rowlands arrived in Hanoi in April 2012, having spent thirteen years in UK education before moving to South-East Asia. He would go on to lead the school through its formative period before moving to become principal of BIS Ho Chi Minh City in August 2017.
The pivot to a full international programme
The dual-language model was short-lived in Hanoi. In 2013 the British Vietnamese International School relocated to the Royal City Complex in the Thanh Xuan District, serving Vietnamese families who wanted the bilingual offer in a central location. That move cleared the way for the Long Bien campus to convert entirely to a full international programme. The school was renamed the British International School Hanoi, known today as BIS Hanoi.
Nord Anglia Education formally brought the school into its global network in 2015. Membership gave BIS Hanoi access to Nord Anglia's institutional partnerships, professional development infrastructure, and the group's Global Campus learning platform, which now connects students across more than eighty schools worldwide.
Curriculum and accreditation
The curriculum runs from the Early Years Foundation Stage for children aged two to five, through the English National Curriculum and International Primary Curriculum in primary, to Cambridge IGCSEs in Years 10 and 11. In 2016 the International Baccalaureate Organization authorised BIS Hanoi to deliver the IB Diploma Programme, making it one of a small number of Hanoi schools to offer that post-16 route.
Formal accreditation followed in quick succession. The Council of International Schools awarded full accreditation in June 2017. The Western Association of Schools and Colleges did the same in August 2017. The school is also a registered Cambridge Assessment International Education centre and has been a member of the Federation of British International Schools in Asia since 2015.
Results
In the 2024 IGCSE session, 45 percent of grades were awarded at A* or A, and 86 percent reached A* to C. The 2024 IB Diploma cohort achieved an average of 34.7 points against a global average of 30.3, with a 98 percent pass rate. The school reports that IGCSE and IB Diploma students have scored above the global average in each of the past four years, with graduates earning places at universities including UCLA, King's College London, the University of Toronto, and Yonsei.
Campus and present day
The campus sits in the Vinhomes Riverside neighbourhood of Long Bien District, described locally as Little Venice, roughly twenty minutes from Hanoi's city centre. Facilities include a 25-metre indoor swimming pool, a full-sized outdoor Astroturf pitch, a 200-seat theatre with music and drama suites, and a STEAM Maker Space equipped with 3D printers, laser cutters, and robotics equipment. A separate Early Years Centre has a dedicated splash pool, sand pit, and indoor soft-play areas.
The school's Nord Anglia partnerships shape much of what happens beyond core lessons. A collaboration with The Juilliard School underpins the performing arts programme. A joint STEAM initiative with MIT frames problem-solving across the curriculum. A third partnership with UNICEF connects students to the UN Sustainable Development Goals through debate and project work; a selected group of students attends the UN High Level Political Forum in New York each year. Co-curricular provision runs to more than ninety clubs and activities.
BIS Hanoi currently enrols around 1,100 students drawn from more than thirty nationalities. The current principal is Rebecca Carroll. The school is one of four British International schools that Nord Anglia operates in Vietnam, sitting alongside the British Vietnamese International School also based in Hanoi and multiple BIS campuses in Ho Chi Minh City.