Why Choose The British International School Budapest (BISB)

As a premium British International School you can expect an education that equally values academic, social and personal learning. We view academic outcomes as essential, provising our students with opportunities, but it is also important that we ensure our students are set to thrive socially and personally preparing them for the world they will enter as adults.

At BISB we are extremely proud of the academic outcomes our students receive. Our students consistently exceed global averages, achieving alongside the best globally. They succeed across a broad range of subjects and disciplines, accessing the very best universities. However, great schools are about a lot more than good academic grades. We are firmly committed to an education that extends beyond academic outcomes. Complementing academic learning with the development of cognitive, social and emotional skills and dispositions is essential to personal wellbeing and professional success and fulfilment.

As a British International School, character education has always been part of our identity but, over the last two decades societal forces, including the rapid development of communication and information technologies have further reinforced the need for this broader view of education.  

The World Economic Forum’s (WEF) Future of Jobs Report 2023 highlights the need for analytical and creative thinking, curiosity, resilience, flexibility and agility, motivation and self-awareness. The WEF concludes that these skills are considered important and are increasingly in demand.  The OECD also has a view on this with their Learning Compass 2030 recognising the continued importance of core competencies such as literacy, numeracy (including digital literacy); but, supplementing this with cognitive and metacognitive skills (creative and critical thinking) and social and emotional skills (empathy, self-efficacy, responsibility and collaboration). 

At BISB, our commitment to meet this mandate starts with our mission statement. Our five imperatives lie at the core of what we do and how we do it. We expect our students to aspire to excellence, act with integrity, embrace diversity, cultivate responsibility and nurture ambition. We hold ourselves accountable to create the conditions to design learning that supports our students to do this. In addition to these imperatives, we have a vision. Our vision is to empower students in a sustainable school. We empower students through learning, values and action. This Mission and Vision guides our approach to all aspects of our educational provision.  

In classrooms our approach encompasses our pedagogy - the way we teach and our curriculum - what we teach. Beyond the classroom our students engage in co-curricular learning designed to demand commitment, these activities can span the creative pursuits such as the performing arts, competitive and recreational sports, global mindedness, social impact, journalism or certified programmes such as the Duke of Edinburgh’s International Award.  

As students progress and mature we also encourage the assumption of responsibility with a range of student leadership opportunities. This allows them to hone their leadership skills through authentic learning in a range of positions representing the varied international community they belong to. 

We also design our approach to position the inevitable mistakes young people make as learning opportunities. As a restorative justice school our approach to supporting personal and social learning is one where students are forced to reflect deeply on their choices and the impact on others. This ensures that students develop a deep understanding of the impact of their own actions, nurturing empathy and compassion and creating young people who can establish and maintain positive relationships. 

BISB students engage in a broad range of social impact projects working to have a positive impact on their communities at local, national, regional and global levels. Helping young people understand their place in the world and the positive impact they can have on it through opportunities to act is the final component of our vision to empower them. Developing a sense of agency, skills and values ensures that our students are empowered to act and make a positive impact on their world. 

As a member of the Nord Anglia Education family of schools each of these aspects of our provision is amplified by the opportunities the group offers. Through partnerships with Juilliard (Creative and Performing Arts), MIT (STEAM programme) and UNICEF (Social Impact), we enrich our curriculum and pedagogy learning from the world’s experts.  

Our students can engage with their peers on a global level through NAE Global Campus and events such as World Children’s Day. Our commitment to supporting students to act is well supported through the NAE Social Impact Distinction where we are focused on school development in line with the United Nations Charter for the Rights of the Child and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. As a silver accredited school, we have already made strong progress and this year we will be working with our student body to make a bid for Gold.  

Our teachers can benefit from the latest educational research around the development of skills and dispositions carried out by our central education team alongside academics around the world. The NAE Learner Ambitions project focuses on six ambitions: creative, critical, curious, collaborative, committed and compassionate. These align well with those identified by the WEF and OECD and our school’s Mission and Vision. The NAE Learner Ambitions project involves teachers and researchers within NAE working alongside universities and educational research institutions on curriculum and pedagogy that best develop these. This project ensures that we remain at the forefront of educational thinking and our teachers benefit from a suite of professional development and opportunities to engage in ongoing research into how schools can best support this rich and varied learning. 

I am proud of our school and the work we do to equip and enable our students to grow academically, personally and socially. Through building academic foundations, developing cognitive and metacognitive skills, instilling a strong values framework and nurturing a sense of agency we ensure that our students thrive as learners within and beyond their time at our school.  

Mr Ben Turner

Principal, The British International School Budapest (BISB)