NAE 50 Years of Excellence and 20 Years Anniversary in China

Nord Anglia Education (NAE) is celebrating 50 years of excellence in education and 20 years anniversary in China!

The British School of Beijing (BSB) Shunyi’s Principal Jayne Needham just returned from Shanghai, joining our CEO Andrew Fitzmaurice and senior leaders from our Nord Anglia International and Bilingual schools in China for a conference in celebration of this milestone.  What a wonderful experience!

It is truly inspiring to hear our CEO Andrew Fitzmaurice, special guests and senior leaders talk about the proud history of NAE in China.

Did you know that our very first flagship international school in China, Nord Anglia International School Shanghai, Pudong, opened in September 2002?

In the 20 years and 7 months since then, we’ve had exceptional growth in China across both our international schools and our bilingual schools, starting with NACIS Shanghai in 2016. Last year, we opened our 21st school in China: NAS Beijing, Shunyi and we now have more than 12,000 students and 2,000 teachers in the region.

Mr. Chris Wood, Consul General of The British Consulate-General in Shanghai

Mr. Andrew Fitzmaurice, CEO of Nord Anglia Education

Ms. Jian Tang, Chairman China Bilingual Schools

Dr. Terry Creissen OBE, Regional Managing Director, China International Schools

BSB Shunyi Principal Mrs. Jayne Needham (1st right) and Head of Secondary Mr. Bevan Graham (middle)

Our Head of Secondary Bevan Graham, Director of Admissions and Marketing Sophie He and Area Operation Manager Beijing Elaine Li were also present to meet up with colleagues in other schools and spend time with our leaders. It is this connection, this support network, that sets Nord Anglia ahead of other school groups. 

Our Principal Jayne Needham said “"The chance to come together with colleagues from all 21 Nord Anglia schools across China after such a long time apart was very special. It was motivational to make connections, collaborate and to share best practice. We were able to celebrate 50 years of Nord Anglia Education and 20 years of Nord Anglia Education in China and to focus on our future together, providing world-class education for our students.  It was a perfect opportunity to focus on our mission to be the most forward thinking, technology-enabled educators in the world, using our global reach and world class teachers to create a learning experience like no other in our schools."

Success in China

Academic excellence has always been a hallmark of our schools, and students soundly beat the global scores with an IB average of 36.5 points in China. BISS Puxi had a staggering 38.3 average — the highest of our China schools — closely followed by Léman Chengdu with 38.2. For the last 2 consecutive years at BSB Shunyi 2 students have achieved a perfect score of 45 while 2 others achieved a nearly perfect score of 44.

The academic success has led to offers at the world’s best universities too. This year, NACIS received its very first Cambridge offer for founding student Gogo and two students from BSG received offers from Cambridge too.

BSB Shunyi’s Jenny has graduated from Cambridge in 2021 with a BA in Economics and went on to finish her Masters in Financial Economics from Oxford in 2022. Another standout BSB Shunyi student Kelly received offers from universities including UCL, Imperial College, and University of Manchester this year.

Beyond academics, students in China were undeterred from their social outreach efforts last year, raising $101,000 dollars and volunteering 13,800 hours. China has also had two Social Impact Grant winners so far from BISS Puxi and NAIS Pudong. Meanwhile student Rylan from NAIS Hong Kong was appointed to the 2023 Nord Anglia Student Advisory Board. 

Six DNA pilot schools in China at the forefront of our digitisation efforts, showcase our commitment to thought leadership and technology-enabled educators. These six schools are NACIS Shanghai, NAS Foshan, NAIS HK, BSB Sanlitun, BSB Shunyi, and BISS Puxi.

Our NAE geographic spread across China is vast — from Beijing and Dalian in the north to Guangzhou and Hong Kong in the south, and from Chengdu in the west to Shanghai in the east — with such a big country there’s plenty of room to grow in the next 20 years and beyond.

Looking ahead, we are confident that our NAE schools in China will continue to achieve great success!