Our school vision is to be an outstanding International School, continuously striving for improvement and engaging our whole community with the concepts of:
- Learning to Live.
- Learning to Learn.
- Learning to Lead.
We provide excellent British Style education with an international perspective, within a safe environment, where individuals feel secure, respected, valued, happy, and successful.
Our community of learners from many nations works together harmoniously. In a spirit of international-mindedness, we develop understandings of our own and others’ cultures. Our teachers, working with parents as partners, inspire in our students a love of learning, motivating and challenging them to become the best they can be.
Our students build personal and interpersonal knowledge, skills, and values. In developing these attributes in an innovative environment, we expect our students to flourish, becoming balanced individuals with the potential to make a difference as principled leaders of the future.
The British International School of Jeddah is a private community school licensed by the Ministry of Education. We are a not-for-profit organization governed by a Board of Trustees. Our school caters to children from years K-13 and has more than 1500 students from over 60 countries. We are accredited by the Council of International Schools (CIS) and the New England Association of Schools and Colleges (NEASC). Additionally, we are authorized by the International Baccalaureate Organisation (IBO) and are a center for Cambridge International Examinations (CIE) and also a member school of British Schools in the Middle East (BSME).
BISJ Primary is a warm, vibrant, and welcoming school, where learning is at the heart of everything we do. We are committed to providing a safe, secure, and happy environment where our students, from around sixty nationalities, come together to learn in an atmosphere of mutual regard, respect, and international mindedness. Our Golden Rule says it all “We treat others the way we would like to be treated”.
Nursery is the first experience many children have of a school setting. We begin by ensuring the children settle smoothly and that they and their parents feel safe and secure while becoming accustomed to the routines of Nursery life.
We believe that each child has unique capabilities and aim to provide a stimulating, challenging, but supportive environment through planned indoor and outdoor activities. Creativity is fostered through the use of a wide range of media and materials in messy, sensory, or imaginative play and free choice activities. Language is developed through stories, singing, rhymes, and by encouraging the children to communicate and express themselves at every opportunity.
Nursery is a year of growth for the children where we endeavor to build the foundations of independence, cooperation, and communication. We strive to develop a positive and open relationship with our parents as their support is essential if we are to achieve our aims in developing happy, confident individual
Learning is a holistic experience and we want our students to leave as well-rounded individuals who can make a positive contribution to society. This means that learning at BISJ goes beyond the classroom with a broad range of after-school clubs, trips, sports, and events that aid the social and emotional growth of our students. We also have a strong pastoral program and there are several special days during the year where all of Senior School come together with a focus on holistic education.
In the latter part of the 1970s, there existed in Jeddah an American school and a British preparatory school. The prep school only admitted holders of British or Dutch passports, and it had been founded under the auspices of those two embassies, which were located in Jeddah at that time.
The school is a non-profit educational establishment, licensed to operate by the Directorate of Foreign Education (formally the Saudi Arabian International School’s Office – SAIS) of the Ministry of Education. The school has a self-perpetuating Board of Trustees. It is patronized by some diplomatic missions, notably the British, but it should be emphasized that the school does not have any form of diplomatic status.
In its original form as ‘The Continental School, it was accredited by the European Council of International Schools (ECIS) in 1990, the first British-style school worldwide to achieve this status. It gained re-accreditation by the Council of International Schools (CIS) as ‘The British International School of Jeddah’ in 2002 and again in 2012. It is also accredited by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges (NEASC) and is an accredited member of British Schools in the Middle East (BSME).
In 2015 the school is very different from the original villa school of October 1977. The evolution of the school over its 38 years of existence has, in no small part, been due to the changing nature of the expatriate community in Jeddah and the Ministry's decision to allow Saudi students, with special permission, to attend. It is also due to the high demand from both local and expatriate parents for what is perceived to be high-quality education. It is also true to say that some of the changes are due to the changing regulatory framework in which the school operates.
The perceived high quality of the school has resulted in significant enrollment problems with many year groups now being heavily oversubscribed. The popularity of the school with Saudi families adds dynamic.
Reflecting the international nature of the school, today our primary curriculum is based around the International Primary Curriculum and in Upper School, we follow a program leading to the International General Certificate of Secondary Education in Year 11 and the International Baccalaureate Diploma in Year 13.
