Hanoi · History
From a dual-language startup to Nord Anglia: BIS Hanoi at thirteen
Founded in 2012 as a bilingual offshoot of Vietnam's original British school network, BIS Hanoi converted to a full international programme within a year and joined Nord Anglia Education in 2015.
The story behind British International School Hanoi begins not in Hanoi but in Ho Chi Minh City, where a Vietnamese family opened a small pre-school called Tiny Tots in a renovated District 1 villa in August 1997. That school grew into the British International School Ho Chi Minh City, the first British international school in Vietnam. In August 2011 the same founders launched a dual-language offshoot, the British Vietnamese International School (BVIS HCMC), to serve Vietnamese families seeking bilingual education alongside a British curriculum.
Origins
The BIS group expanded north a year later. In August 2012, with Anthony Rowlands as its founding Principal, the British Vietnamese International School Hanoi opened inside the Vinhomes Riverside development in the Long Bien District, on the eastern edge of the capital. The site, set in a leafy residential community roughly twenty minutes from the city centre, remains the school's campus today.
The dual-language model was short-lived in Long Bien. In 2013 a second BVIS campus opened at the Royal City Complex in Hanoi's Thanh Xuan District, taking on the bilingual strand of the operation. That move freed the Vinhomes Riverside site to convert to a full international programme, and it was renamed the British International School Hanoi.
Nord Anglia and expansion
In February 2015, Nord Anglia Education announced an agreement to acquire all four BIS and BVIS schools in Vietnam. As a press release at the time confirmed, the transaction completed in early March 2015, adding the group to what was then a network of 35 premium schools across 14 countries. BIS Hanoi entered the Nord Anglia family alongside BIS Ho Chi Minh City, BVIS HCMC, and BVIS Hanoi.
Membership of Nord Anglia brought the school into a set of institutional partnerships that have since shaped its academic offer. Collaborations with The Juilliard School enriched performing arts; an MIT-linked STEAM programme introduced project-based problem-solving; and a UNICEF partnership channelled student energy toward the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
Curriculum and accreditation
BIS Hanoi follows the English National Curriculum from the Early Years Foundation Stage through to the end of Key Stage 3, before students move into Cambridge IGCSE courses in Years 10 and 11. In 2016 the school was authorised by the International Baccalaureate Organization to offer the IB Diploma Programme, giving Sixth Form students a post-16 pathway that is recognised by universities worldwide.
Formal external accreditation came in June 2017, when the Council of International Schools (CIS) awarded BIS Hanoi full accreditation status. The school also holds accreditation from the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC) and its IGCSE qualifications are accredited by Cambridge Assessment International Education. It is a member of the Federation of British International Schools in Asia (FOBISIA).
The school's IB results have been a consistent point of distinction. In the most recent examination session, BIS Hanoi's IBDP cohort recorded an average score of 35.11, against a global average of 30.88, with two students achieving the maximum 45 points.
Present day
BIS Hanoi now enrols around 1,100 students aged two to eighteen, taught in classes capped at 24, with IB classes averaging eleven. The campus in Vinhomes Riverside includes a 25-metre indoor swimming pool, sports hall, all-weather playing field, a STEAM Maker Space, and a 200-seat theatre. Richard Vaughan, who joined as Principal in 2021, leads the school. A House system named after four Vietnamese cities, Hanoi, Hue, Dalat, and Saigon, runs across all year groups. The school has been placed in the top ten in Vietnam in the Edarabia Parents' Choice Awards 2026.