Beijing's oldest British school, built from a single Sanlitun campus

Nord Anglia Education founded the British School of Beijing in 2003, planting it in Chaoyang District's Sanlitun neighbourhood, home to Beijing's embassy community. Wikipedia's entry on the school notes it was originally scheduled to open in September 2004 but began taking pupils on 29 March 2004; the school's own account simply dates its opening to 2003, the academic year in which it was established. Either way, it was the first British curriculum school in the capital, a distinction it still claims today.

The address has not changed: 5 Xiliujie, Sanlitun Road, a site in the leafy, tree-lined streets of the embassy district that families can reach on foot. From the start, the school was positioned as a day school for the children of foreign nationals, covering ages from the earliest years through to the top of primary.

Expansion and the Shunyi split

Demand from Beijing's growing expatriate population pushed Nord Anglia to open a second campus. The British School of Beijing expanded to Shunyi, on the outskirts of the city, in 2009. For several years both sites operated as a single institution under one name. In 2013 they were formally made into two separate schools, each with its own administration and identity: BSB Sanlitun for Early Years and Primary, BSB Shunyi for the full age range through to Sixth Form.

That separation defined Sanlitun's role clearly. The campus would concentrate on children aged 1 to 11, running the Early Years Foundation Stage and the National Curriculum for England through Key Stages 1 and 2. Pupils completing Year 6 transfer to BSB Shunyi, where the British curriculum continues into IGCSEs in Years 10 and 11 and the IB Diploma in Years 12 and 13.

Curriculum and accreditation

The school delivers the National Curriculum for England, adapted for an international community. Youngest children follow the Early Years Foundation Stage; from Year 1 onwards, pupils move through Key Stages 1 and 2. A bespoke Year 1 centre bridges the transition from Early Years to Primary. Mandarin Chinese is taught from the earliest years, with Heritage and Advanced groups for more proficient speakers, and an optional German programme runs through Years 1 to 6. An English as an Additional Language programme supports pupils new to English-medium schooling.

A BSO inspection carried out in March 2016, published by COBIS, found the school met all British Schools Overseas standards. Inspectors rated the overall quality of education as good, with the Early Years provision judged outstanding. The school holds COBIS membership and BSO accreditation, and it sits within Nord Anglia's wider quality framework, which is supported by an Oxford-based education team.

Curriculum partnerships with the Juilliard School, MIT, and UNICEF, arranged through the Nord Anglia global network, bring specialist content in performing arts, STEM, and civic education into the timetable. The school also runs its own community programmes, including an Earth Guardians environmental initiative.

Campus and present day

The Sanlitun campus includes a dedicated Early Years Li Building with indoor and outdoor learning spaces, a Year 1 transition centre, two dining halls, two performance spaces, two libraries, a dance studio, a science lab, two Makerspaces, an art room, and a student kitchen. Technology runs through the programme via a 1:1 iPad scheme, in-classroom laptops, VR headsets, and coding courses.

The school currently enrols up to 700 pupils from more than 60 nationalities. Over 60 percent of teachers are from the United Kingdom or Ireland. The teacher-to-pupil ratio stands at 1:10. Joanne Prabhu is Principal. BSB Sanlitun celebrated its twentieth anniversary in 2023, and continues to describe itself as Beijing's longest-serving British international school.

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