Wycombe Abbey's first international school opens in China

Wycombe Abbey International School of Changzhou is the first British boarding school in China

Posted by Lucinda Reid | November 28, 2016 | Facilities & buildings

• #wycombe-abbey
• #china
• #international-school-of-changzhou
• #british-boarding-school
• #international-school

Wycombe Abbey has announced that its first international sister school, Wycombe Abbey International School of Changzhou, held an official opening ceremony on Saturday 19 November 2016.

A team from Wycombe Abbey including the Chairman of Council, Headmistress, Bursar and Director of International Schools attended the event along with Lord Wei of Shoreditch and additional government officials from the UK, Changzhou and Wujin District.

The School, which educates boys and girls from kindergarten to age 18, opened as Wycombe Abbey International School on 1 September 2016. It is the first British boarding school in China aimed primarily at educating Chinese nationals.

Students at Wycombe Abbey International School of Changzhou benefit from a unique blend of the Chinese and British curricula from primary school through to middle school, including a wide range of IGCSE and A levels in the secondary school. The school benefits from the ‘best of both worlds’ with a majority of expatriate teachers, primarily British, who work alongside their Chinese colleagues.

Like Wycombe Abbey, the school is a boarding school and of the 555 students currently enrolled, 309 are boarders. The exceptional variety of extra-curricular activities available to these students sets the school apart. Each child takes part in two hours of physical activity every day and traditional British sports such as rowing and rugby have proven to be very popular with students and parents alike. The impressive array of several dozen enrichment activities on offer also extends well beyond the sports field to include a film club, a school newspaper, DofE, the student radio and TEDx talks.

Headmistress Rhiannon Wilkinson said, “I am delighted to celebrate the opening of our sister school in Changzhou. Our mission for Wycombe Abbey International Schools is to provide a world-class education for all our students, not only in academic work, but also in the development of the soft-skills such as communication, creativity, emotional intelligence, teamwork, leadership, and relationship building. It is very exciting to be working with BE Education to bring this vision into practice and to be a part of the development of such a unique school.”

BE Education was founded in 2003 in China with the aim of preparing young future leaders for success in an increasingly interconnected world. It has two key divisions: The School Division operates hybrid British and China curricula, early years to Year 13 international boarding schools for Chinese and expatriate families. It currently has two coeducational international schools in the cities of Changzhou and Chengdu.

For more information about Wycombe Abbey International School of Changzhou and BE Education visit:  www.waiscz.com and www.behk.org.