Welcome

A very warm welcome to the British International School Riyadh website. BISR is a vibrant community of over 90 different nationalities situated in the heart of the Middle East. We are a multi-campus school, providing education to children throughout the city of Riyadh and beyond. 

At BISR we believe that learning should be personalised, challenging and enjoyable. We aim to provide high-quality learning experiences within the classroom, through residential programmes and via our extra-curricular programme. This, combined with strong pastoral support, ensures our students can both thrive and flourish within a caring environment. All elements of learning at BISR are underpinned by the core values of respect, honesty, compassion and kindness.

Alongside supporting our students to achieve strong academic outcomes we strive to equip students with the skills they need for the future, helping them to develop as life-long learners ready for both further academic study and the world of work. We use the rich cultural context of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the diversity of nationalities within our community, work with service learning partners and our eco-school goals to help our students consider complex global issues and develop as positive global citizens.

Learners in the Early Years programme follow a play based approach to learning. In Years 1-9 students follow an enhanced version of the English national curriculum, which is greatly enriched to reflect our multicultural community and geographical context. Our 14-16-year-old students study for General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) examinations across a broad range of subjects, with our eldest 16-18-year-old students studying a smaller range of Advanced Level subjects (A Levels). We offer the International Baccalaureate Diploma programme for 16-18 year-old students on our new DQ campus and from August 2024 we will offer a vocational pathway post 16.  Upon graduating our students move on to schools, universities and colleges in countries around the world.

We are very proud of our oasis of learning in the desert.

Helen Olds
Director of Schools