Shenzhen · History
Harrow Shenzhen: A British School Born in a Pandemic Year
Opened in October 2020 in Qianhai amid Covid restrictions, Harrow International School Shenzhen has grown to around 900 students and earned BSO accreditation as the first school in Guangdong to do so.
Harrow International School Shenzhen opened its doors in October 2020, in the middle of a global pandemic. There was no whole-school opening ceremony. Instead, each class received enrolment certificates and specially designed founding gifts. The school's own records note the quiet start plainly: Covid restrictions ruled out anything grander.
Origins
The school sits in the Qianhai Cooperation Zone in Nanshan District, on a 14,700 square metre campus at No. 39 KeChuang Road 6. Its formal name is Harrow International School Shenzhen Qianhai. The campus was designed to accommodate more than 800 students, spanning Early Years through to Sixth Form, with boarding available on site.
The operator is Asia International School Limited, or AISL, the Hong Kong-based group that has run Harrow-branded schools in Asia since it opened Harrow International School Bangkok in 1998. AISL entered mainland China with Harrow Beijing in 2005, then Shanghai in 2016. Shenzhen and Haikou both joined the network in 2020, extending AISL's reach into the Greater Bay Area.
The parent institution, Harrow School in London, was founded in 1572 under a Royal Charter granted by Queen Elizabeth I. Its alumni include Winston Churchill, Lord Byron, and Jawaharlal Nehru. The Shenzhen school imports the House System and four core values — Courage, Honour, Humility, Fellowship — directly from that tradition.
Campus and Community
The school serves expatriate families and residents of Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan aged two to eighteen. All five sections of the school — Early Years Centre, Pre-Prep, Prep, Senior School, and Sixth Form — share the single Qianhai campus. The site includes sports and leisure areas, a library, break-out spaces, canteens, and lecture halls designed to let students move freely between learning and activities.
Chinese is taught to foreign students from Years 2 to 9. The school's prospectus states that the curriculum follows the National Chinese Curriculum Standards as much as possible alongside the British programme, a requirement that reflects China's post-2021 regulatory framework for international schools.
Curriculum and Accreditation
The English National Curriculum runs from Early Years through to IGCSE and A Level. As a member of the AISL Harrow family, the school operates as part of a network that includes Cambridge International Examination Centre accreditation, Pearson Edexcel, and registration with UCAS. It is also a licensed Duke of Edinburgh's Award organisation and a College Board SAT examination centre.
Memberships include HMC, the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference; FOBISIA, the Federation of British International Schools in Asia; and ACAMIS, the Association of China and Mongolia International Schools.
The school's most significant external validation came in 2026, when it passed the British Schools Overseas inspection and was awarded BSO accreditation. Head Master Daniel Berry announced the result in May of that year, describing it as confirmation that the school delivers British education to standards comparable with leading independent schools in England. The school was the first in Guangdong province to receive the designation.
Leadership
Daniel Berry took up the post of Head Master in August 2023, arriving from Kirkham Grammar School, an independent day and boarding school in the United Kingdom. He works alongside a Chinese Principal, Kevin Qian. In 2024, Berry and Qian visited Harrow School in London for a two-day exchange covering curriculum development, safeguarding, and the school's ties to its founding institution.
Results and Present Day
The first graduating cohort sat A Levels in 2025, with 61 percent of grades at A or A*. The Class of 2025 numbered 27 students. A year later, the Class of 2026 produced 32 students, 215 university offers, and total scholarship awards exceeding RMB 4 million. Destinations included Imperial College London, UCL, LSE, the University of Michigan, and the University of Hong Kong.
Current enrolment stands at around 900 students. The school has grown beyond its original design capacity of 800, reflecting sustained demand in the Greater Bay Area. AISL's wider regional expansion continues: Harrow International School Guangzhou is scheduled to open in September 2026, becoming the fifteenth Harrow-branded school in Asia.
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