Admissions

Thank you for your interest in applying for a place for your child at the British International School Riyadh. 

BISR offers a holistic education in mixed gender classes. Students studying at BISR achieve excellent outcomes, where learning is supported by a strong emphasis on student wellbeing and a broad co-curricular programme, including trips, extra curricular activities and service learning. We believe that all of these areas are important ingredients in the growth and development of a child and expect all children to fully participate in these different aspects of learning at BISR.  

Factors to consider when decided to apply for a place at BISR

Before you make the decision to join our community, there are some important factors that you will need to consider:

As a co-educational school students will be taught in mixed gender classes for all of their lessons. Students are expected to participate in the full curriculum, which alongside Mathematics, English, Science, Humanities subjects, Computing, and Modern Foreign Languages (MFL), includes swimming, PE, Art, Music, Drama, Design Technology, residential trips and extra-curricular activities. 

All pupils are unique and some students have individual needs that may impact their learning physically, emotionally or academically. If your child has received learning support it is essential that you contact us, to ascertain if BISR is able to meet the needs of your child before you sign a contract with a prospective employer or agree to take up employment and relocate to Riyadh. 

At BISR we have a very strong Learning Support department, but we can only cater for mild special needs. Some of our students receive help each day for a limited period while some are admitted on the understanding and agreement that the child has support for the majority of each day by our team of Learning Support Assistants (LSAs). However, we only have a limited number of LSAs and if all are allocated, and we cannot make the provision, we will not accept the child into the school.

There are other very good schools in Riyadh, but for children of families wanting to continue a British style education choice is restricted to BISR, so if your child has moderate to severe learning difficulties it is best to stay in the UK where a full range of support services are available external to the school. Please be honest on the application form – far too many families have ignored school advice and brought children out assuming they will be accommodated. This ends in disappointment and heartache, and in many cases has impacted very negatively on family unity. Please do what is best for your child.

The decision whether or not to accept a child will be based on information contained in the application form, reports from a child’s previous school plus on-line assessments. We reserve the right to contact the child’s current school for confidential verbal references.

If your child is part way through GCSE or A Level course it is unwise to move unless they will be continuing with the same syllabuses. Again, it is very, very important to contact the school and seek advice from the Head of Senior. In some instances, it will not be possible for students to continue with the same subjects as classes may be full, or subjects may clash on the school timetable. Schools construct timetables based on student demand for subjects so what is possible in one school may not be possible in another. A further problem is syllabuses followed at BISR (AQA, EdExcel and CIE) may be very different from those that the student has followed in the UK.

At BISR children will be placed in the correct year group for their age. Children are assessed and, if successful, placed in year groups appropriate to their chronological age i.e. age appropriate birthday between 1st September and 31st August. Exceptions are considered for those arriving from the UK education system for summer born (June, July and August) placement in Foundation only . Once placed in an age appropriate year group, students will not be allowed to jump  a year group as they transfer from a UK school to BISR or during their time at BISR. 

BISR Facts & Figures

7

Campuses

500 +

Staff members

90+

Nationalities

3000+

Students