From a District 1 villa to Vietnam's largest international school

Maurice and Rosie Nguyen had studied and lived overseas and wanted a British-style education for their daughter, Jenny. In August 1997, no such school existed in Ho Chi Minh City, so they built one themselves. They opened a small pre-school called Tiny Tots in a renovated villa on Nguyen Van Thu Street in District 1, starting with two classes, two teachers from overseas, and 40 toddlers. A second pre-school, Fundino, followed shortly after in District 3.

Origins

The founders invested their own savings into the venture. The school quickly became the most sought-after pre-school in the city, drawing both international and Vietnamese families. Growth forced an early expansion: in 2000, the original Tiny Tots villa on Nguyen Van Thu Street was extended to accommodate ten additional primary classrooms, bringing total enrollment to 300 children. That same year, the school adopted its current name, the British International School Ho Chi Minh City, and appointed Marjorie Hunt as its first head teacher.

From the outset, the founders enlisted the UK-based education company Nord Anglia Education to provide quality oversight for the curriculum. The relationship began as a management contract, not an ownership stake, but it would prove consequential decades later.

Growth and campus moves

Two years after the 2000 expansion, a new purpose-built primary campus opened in the residential An Phu area of District 2. Alun Thomas was appointed principal across the then three-campus operation, and enrollment reached around 560 children. The school's growing secondary cohort prompted further construction: in August 2005, a dedicated secondary campus opened on land close to the primary site in An Phu. Student numbers passed 1,000.

In 2006, BIS HCMC's first sixth-form graduates sat their final examinations and went on to university, marking the school's completion as a full through-school from age two to 18.

The Nguyen family's ambition extended beyond a single campus. In August 2011, drawing on more than a decade of development at BIS HCMC, they opened the British Vietnamese International School (BVIS) in Binh Chanh District, with around 350 students on roll. BIS Hanoi and BVIS Hanoi followed in 2012 and 2013 respectively, creating a group of four premium schools operating across Vietnam under the British International Schools Group banner.

On 2 March 2015, Nord Anglia Education completed the acquisition of a 90 percent interest in the British International Schools Group in Vietnam, as reported in a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. The transaction, which valued the group at a level requiring $150 million in incremental loan financing, brought BIS HCMC, BVIS HCMC, BIS Hanoi, and BVIS Hanoi formally into the Nord Anglia network. At the time of completion, the Vietnam group enrolled 3,372 full-time equivalent students across the four schools.

The next major physical change came in January 2018, when BIS HCMC opened a specialist Early Years and Infant Campus, consolidating all three age-group campuses into a single concentrated area of Thao Dien, in what is now Thu Duc City. The old Tu Xuong site in District 3, a remnant of the Fundino era, was closed at the same time. For the first time in the school's history, the entire community shared one neighborhood.

Curriculum and accreditation

BIS HCMC follows the English National Curriculum through primary and Key Stage 3. Secondary students sit Cambridge IGCSE examinations in Years 10 and 11 before completing Years 12 and 13 with the IB Diploma Programme. The school is accredited by the Council of International Schools (CIS) and is designated as an IB World School. It is registered with the UK government's Department for Education as a British School Overseas (BSO) and is a full member of the Federation of British International Schools in Asia (FOBISIA).

A BSO inspection by Penta International rated the school outstanding across all categories, with inspectors noting that leadership and management were outstanding and that the quality of education met all BSO accreditation criteria. The school has also held this outstanding rating from an earlier BSO inspection in March 2013.

Membership of the Nord Anglia network brought formal curricular partnerships with The Juilliard School for performing arts, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) for STEAM, and UNICEF. Students also participate in Nord Anglia's Global Campus, a shared online platform connecting more than 80 schools worldwide.

Beyond the classroom, BIS HCMC has a notable record as an institution builder in Vietnamese international education. It founded SAIMUN, the HCMC Model United Nations conference, which launched in 2009 as the only MUN event held in Vietnam. The following year, the school hosted the inaugural FOBISIA MUN.

Present day

BIS HCMC now operates three purpose-built campuses, split by age group, in the Thao Dien area of Ho Chi Minh City. The secondary campus sits at 246 Nguyen Van Huong Street, An Khanh Ward. The school enrolls more than 2,300 students from 55 countries, making it the largest international school in Vietnam.

Simon Higham has served as principal since the 2025-2026 academic year, succeeding Anthony Rowlands, who retired after long service. Higham returned to BIS HCMC having previously been head teacher at the school's An Phu primary and junior campuses, and then principal at sister school BVIS HCMC for seven years. He is a qualified Level 3 BSO school inspector and holds the National Professional Qualification for Headship. The school's founders, Maurice and Rosie Nguyen, attended BIS HCMC's 25th anniversary celebrations in 2022, joined by their daughter Jenny, the school's original inspiration, who had by then graduated from New York University.

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