Learning the British Way

British-style school offers English-language education option in Beijing

By CHEN WEN

Seven-year-old Flora sits on the floor with her schoolmates, smiles and claps hands as her headmaster gives a speech during the official opening ceremony of the British School of Beijing (BSB). She turns her head to the familiar voice of a young lady: “Hey, look, Mom is here.”

AN ‘INTERNATIONAL’ OPTION: Flora and her parents

Parents did not hesitate to show their excitement over seeing their children interact with their classmates and assess their children’s initial academic performance during the November 4 event at the school, which has a British national curriculum.

Located in downtown Beijing, BSB, a member of the prestigious Kings Group, which offers British education in mainland Europe as well as St. Michael’s College in Warwickshire, is the first of its kind in the Chinese capital. Like other “international schools,” as most Chinese refer to them, BSB offers a non-Chinese education option to the city’s expanding expatriate community.

The school is not exclusive to children of foreign nationals working in China’s mainland. It enrolls passport holders from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan as well as children of Chinese citizens who return from overseas after years of studying or living in foreign countries. “The Chinese market is complex, with local children not being permitted to join a foreign curriculum school under the age of 15, but I am sure that this will change in the not too distant future,” said Gilbard Honey-Jones, Founding Headmaster of BSB.

Flora is now a third-grader at BSB and has been in the school for over two months. She and her mother, Celia Chen, are Hong Kong citizens, while her father is a Dane national. The family moved to Beijing from the UK last year. One of the reasons the couple chose BSB is because “many of my neighbors have sent their kids to BSB, and they said that this is a nice school,” said Celia.

With tuition and additional fees totaling about 120,000 yuan ($14,493) per year, the couple seems satisfied with their choice. “Flora has made pretty big progress, especially in English,” Celia said. The mother feels that BSB students have much less academic pressure compared with regular Chinese schools, where Flora attended first grade.

The school emphasizes creativity. “We give high priority to ‘learning how to learn.’ Process is as important as knowledge. Therefore, children are not expected to commit isolated facts to memory, but instead we teach them how they can interrogate, interpret and present work,” the headmaster said.

EDUCATION WITH BRITISH CHARACTERISTICS: (From left) Gilbard Honey-Jones, H.E. Sir Christopher Hum and Dr. Roger Fry, Chairman of BSB, at the official opening ceremony of the British School of Beijing

For all the various reasons parents choose BSB, Honey-Jones thinks a big draw for the parents is the strengths of the British curriculum. “I hope it’s something that we constantly say that it’s the tradition that British curriculum is of high academic standard,” he said, adding, “We also have a strong child-centered approach. We would like to foster personal development of children alongside the strong curriculum background.”

The school enrolls 130 students, 30 percent of whom are students from Britain and another 30 percent from Commonwealth nations. The rest hail from an array of 28 nationalities. Enrollment is much higher than the 80 administrators had expected. Still, the headmaster insisted, “We’re not going to become a big school. Actually, a lot of parents are a little disappointed with some of the international schools for they become so huge.”

The school’s philosophy holds that it is particularly important for the headmaster to know both the children and their parents to help them attain a high academic standard.

Unlike many other international schools, BSB is very selective with regards to English ability. According to school policy, at least 80 percent of the students in a class must be native English speakers. Those who have a different mother tongue should have a certain command of English. “We made the decision that our teachers are teaching the British curriculum, but not teaching English. English is taught as a part of the curriculum, but we are not the school that teaches English,” said Honey-Jones.

Besides offering an education option for Beijing’s English speaking community, BSB does offer an ESL program, but their English classes for non-native speakers is relatively small.

Standard Mandarin and Chinese-related classes are requirements at the school as well. “It’s compulsory for students to learn Chinese culture in this school,” said Christopher Hum, British Ambassador to China, who encouraged the establishment of the school. Chinese is taught as a second language at BSB, and it is taught according to the child’s ability, not to the age.