Harrow Shanghai: a Pudong foothold for 450 years of British schooling

Harrow International School Shanghai opened in August 2016 on Gaoxi Road in the Waigaoqiao Free Trade Zone, Pudong. It was the fourth school in the Harrow family of schools in Asia, arriving eighteen years after Harrow Bangkok, eleven after Harrow Beijing, and four after Harrow Hong Kong.

The operator is Asia International School Limited, a Hong Kong-based education group that has run Harrow-branded schools since it launched the Bangkok campus in 1998. AISL now owns and operates more than a dozen Harrow-branded schools across China, Japan, and Thailand. Each campus operates under an agreement with the Governors of Harrow School in the United Kingdom, which was itself founded in 1572 under a Royal Charter granted by Queen Elizabeth I.

Campus and Growth

The school sits in the northern part of Pudong, in the Waigaoqiao district, with road and rail access to both Pudong and Puxi. The campus was purpose-built and designed as an all-through school, with a dedicated Early Years wing, science laboratories, ICT suites, art studios, and sports facilities. The school is co-educational and takes pupils from 18 months through to Year 13.

The school has grown steadily since opening. An internal recruitment document published when enrolment stood at around 450 noted the school was roughly 12 per cent larger than two years prior, and set a long-term roll target of approximately 900 pupils. Current enrolment stands at around 800. Boarding was discussed at the school's founding but has not materialised; it operates as a day school.

Alexander Reed, whose undergraduate degree is in English literature from Cambridge, serves as Headmaster. A former head, Charles, now holds a group-level role at AISL after leading the Shanghai campus; his career included roles as housemaster, head of sixth form, and deputy head at boarding and day schools in England before his time in Shanghai.

Curriculum and Accreditation

The school follows the English National Curriculum from Early Years through to sixth form, with pupils sitting IGCSEs in Year 11 and A Levels in Year 13. From September 2025, the school added an Advanced Placement overlay, offering seven AP courses alongside the British qualifications, making it the first British international school in Shanghai to run a combined British-American curriculum model. The first AP examination cohort sat in May 2026.

In April 2024, the school passed its first British Schools Overseas inspection, administered by the UK Department for Education and carried out by the Independent Schools Inspectorate. BSO accreditation confirms that a school is delivering British education to standards comparable with independent schools in England. Among AISL's China campuses, only Harrow Beijing and Harrow Shanghai currently hold this status, according to a guide published by education research platform Alifaed.

Academic Results and Identity

The school has posted a five-year A Level average of 67 per cent A*/A grades, consistently above the UK national average of 27.8 per cent. The school has also recorded five consecutive years of Cambridge University offers. University destinations include Oxbridge and Ivy League institutions.

A Leadership and Service programme runs from Early Years through to Senior School and sits at the centre of the school's stated identity. The programme tracks six leadership attributes and feeds into a broader house system. The school's motto is "Leadership for a Better World," drawn from Harrow School's own stated purpose of preparing students for a life of leadership, service, and personal fulfilment.

Harrow Shanghai admits pupils holding foreign passports; parents are required to hold a valid work permit and residence permit for China. The school is a member of the British Chamber of Commerce Shanghai and participates in the AISL Harrow Scholarships Programme, which has offered funded places across the network's China campuses since 2023.

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