Jakarta · History
From embassy classroom to 45-acre campus: BSJ at 53
Founded under British Embassy auspices in 1973, British School Jakarta has carried three names, moved campus once, and grown into one of Southeast Asia's largest and longest-established British international schools.
British School Jakarta began in 1973 as a modest provision for the children of British Embassy staff and expatriate families in the Indonesian capital. The Embassy provided the initial backing; a committee of parents ran the school in its earliest years.
Origins
In 1975, that parent committee approached a group of British businessmen with a plan to expand into purpose-built premises in Permata Hijau, a residential district in south Jakarta. A year later the school was formally constituted as a Yayasan, the Indonesian legal form for a foundation, placing it on a permanent, non-profit footing under Indonesian law. The British and Australian Embassies retained seats on the Council of Trustees as founder members, a governance arrangement that persists to this day.
In the early 1980s the school was renamed The British International School, a change made under Queen Elizabeth II's command. Princess Diana visited the British International School on 6 November 1989, during a royal tour of Indonesia with Prince Charles, one of several royal connections the institution accumulated in its first decades.
The Move to Bintaro
By 1990 enrolment pressure was acute enough to trigger a relocation project. The Permata Hijau site closed in the 1993-94 school year and the school moved to a purpose-built campus in Bintaro, southwest of Jakarta. Prince Edward officially opened the new British International School in March 1994. He returned to the same campus nearly three decades later, on 24 November 2023, as part of an Asia-Pacific tour to promote the Duke of Edinburgh's International Award.
An early years centre opened in Pondok Indah in 1999, extending the school's reach across the city.
Name Change
In 2014, the school changed its name from British International School to British School Jakarta. The change was required by Indonesian government regulations prohibiting the use of the word "international" in school names. The underlying legal entity, the British School Jakarta Foundation (Yayasan), had formally replaced the earlier name of The British International School Foundation, though the non-profit structure itself dated back to 1976.
Curriculum and Identity
The school runs the Early Years Foundation Stage into the English National Curriculum through primary. Secondary follows the IB Middle Years Programme in Years 7 to 11, and the IB Diploma Programme in Years 12 and 13. The IB Career-related Programme was authorised in September 2019, broadening the post-16 offer. BSJ was authorised for the IB Diploma as early as March 1994, the same month Prince Edward opened the Bintaro campus. IB MYP authorisation followed in June 2021, completing the full IB secondary pathway.
The school is a founding member of FOBISIA, the Federation of British International Schools in Asia, which was established at BSJ in 1988 by Ronald Stones OBE alongside four other schools in the region. That founding role reflects BSJ's standing as a reference point for British education in Southeast Asia.
In July 2023, BSJ was reaccredited by a joint CIS, IB, and WASC team for a further five years, extending accreditation to 2028. The school also holds accreditation from Indonesia's Ministry of Education, awarded in 2019, and is recognised by COBIS, HMC, EARCOS, and SEASAC. It has been designated an Apple Distinguished School for its learning technology programme.
Present Day
BSJ now has around 1,400 students aged 2 to 18, drawn from more than 50 nationalities, on a 45-acre estate in Bintaro Jaya Sektor 9, Tangerang Selatan. The school is led by Principal Phil Edwards. In the 2023-24 academic year, the IB Diploma cohort achieved an average score of 35 points with a 97 per cent pass rate, against a global average of 30. According to the IB's school directory, the Diploma Programme has been offered at BSJ since March 1994. The school is independent, non-profit, and carries no franchise affiliation.