Shanghai · History
Britannica International School Shanghai: British-owned since 2013
Founded by Orbital Education in 2013, Britannica is the only British-owned school in Shanghai, running the English National Curriculum from EYFS through to A Level on a single Gubei campus.
Britannica International School Shanghai opened in September 2013. Its founder was Orbital Education, a Manchester-based school group established in 2008 by Kevin McNeany, the serial education entrepreneur who had earlier founded Nord Anglia Education and led it to a London Stock Exchange listing in 1997. Orbital's Shanghai venture was its first school in China, and it planted a flag that no other group had claimed: a school in the city that was entirely British-owned and managed, rather than merely British-branded.
Origins
The school was incorporated in September 2012 and admitted its first pupils a year later. Alun Thomas served as founding principal. The campus was fixed at 1988 Gubei Road, near Wuzhong Road, in the Gubei residential district of Minhang, close to the Puxi city centre and well-placed for the expat families concentrated in that part of Shanghai. It has not moved since.
The proposition was specific. Where most international schools in the city had grown out of joint-venture arrangements with Chinese partners, Britannica would be run from Cheshire, with governance sitting directly with Orbital's UK board. Kevin McNeany chairs the school's governing body.
Curriculum and identity
The school delivers the English National Curriculum from the Early Years Foundation Stage through to sixth form. At secondary level, pupils sit Cambridge IGCSE examinations at the end of Year 11, then proceed to AS and A2 Level qualifications through Cambridge International (CAIE) and Pearson Edexcel. According to the Orbital Education website, Britannica is described as "the only school in the city to be British owned, with fully-trained teachers from the British Isles," covering ages two to eighteen.
Alongside the core curriculum, the school runs an extensive World Languages Programme, offering native-language tuition in Mandarin, Korean, Japanese, French, Spanish, Italian and Hebrew, among others. Mandarin is embedded as a curriculum subject, and students study Chinese culture, history and geography. The school was also the first international school in Shanghai to gain affiliation with the Amateur Swimming Association, giving its swim programme formal British sporting recognition.
Class sizes are kept small. At IGCSE level the school reports an average of ten pupils per class; across the school, all classes run under 22. The school describes itself as deliberately smaller than many Shanghai competitors, with a current roll of around 410 against a stated maximum capacity of 750 to 800.
Accreditation and inspection
Britannica holds accreditation from COBIS (the Council of British International Schools) and from CIS (the Council of International Schools). It is also registered under the British Schools Overseas scheme, inspected by the Independent Schools Inspectorate. The most recent ISI inspection took place on 24 to 25 February 2025, the school's first full BSO accreditation inspection, and the school met all applicable BSO standards. The school is additionally a member of ACAMIS, the Association of China and Mongolia International Schools, and operates as a Cambridge International Examinations centre.
Growth and present day
At the time of the February 2025 BSO inspection, the school had 353 pupils on roll, distributed across early years (38), primary (171), seniors (126) and sixth form (18). The roll has since grown to around 410. The campus has been upgraded over the years; a multi-million RMB refurbishment added a dedicated STEM Centre for science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
Paul Farrell, a Physics and Mathematics graduate of the University of Strathclyde, has led the school as principal since September 2020. He brings prior international experience from Romania, Dubai and London. In 2025, Britannica was shortlisted for a TES Award for International Schools in the Best Curriculum Initiative category, one of the more competitive categories in the sector's main awards programme.
Orbital Education itself has grown since placing Britannica in Shanghai. The group now operates schools across five continents, including sites in Spain, Hungary, Slovenia, Qatar, Ecuador and Mexico, educating roughly 5,000 pupils from 114 nationalities. Britannica remains the group's only school in China and its only foothold in Asia.
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