Horizon International Bilingual School, Ha Noi
Hanoi, Vietnam · est. 2007 · PrivateKey facts
Accreditations and programmes verified against official registries
CIS · membershipCambridge · IGCSE, A-Level · authorised programmeHorizon International School · school is part of the networkWhat stands behind each entry
It accredits international schools and is a paying association at the same time. It examines governance and ownership, the curriculum, teaching, student wellbeing, staff and premises; a team of volunteers from other CIS accredited schools visits the school. Membership and accreditation are different things here, and schools confuse them more often than anything else.
What the badge means for this school. The school belongs to this organisation but has not been through its accreditation. The difference matters: membership is usually paid for and has no external inspection behind it. The entry is confirmed in the organisation's open directory.
Register to check for yourself, and the full guide →Part of the University of Cambridge. It allows a school to teach the Cambridge programmes and to enter pupils for the exams. There are four stages and they are authorised separately: primary, lower secondary, IGCSE and A Level. If the stages are known they are named in the line below; if that line is missing, the school does not publish them, and the Cambridge registry does not show stages either - it gives only the name of the centre, the country and whether private candidates are accepted. Cambridge calls what it does registration rather than accreditation, and the network holds about ten thousand schools.
What the badge means for this school. The school is allowed to run this programme and to award its certificate. This is a confirmation of the programme, not a judgement on the school as a whole. The entry stands in the organisation's public register - anyone can check it. At this school: IGCSE (ages 14-16), A-Level (ages 16-18). IGCSE means exams at around Year 10 or 11, the British counterpart of a lower secondary leaving certificate. A-Level is the senior years, and their results are what British and many other universities admit on.
Register to check for yourself, and the full guide →Its own site describes Horizon as a single school with campuses in two cities of Vietnam rather than as an international network: there is nothing there about Horizon schools in other countries, nor about a group, a holding company, an operator or a franchise, and no owner is named. The number of sites differs across the site: the sections about the school and about its history speak of two campuses, in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, while the counter on the home page shows three schools, and the contacts list three addresses - Hanoi on To Ngoc Van street, the primary school in Ho Chi Minh City on Tong Huu Dinh street and the secondary and upper secondary school there too, on Tran Van Sac street. The site does not name a year of foundation, and the history section is headed "20 years". The number of pupils differs as well: some 550 from more than 35 countries in the section about the school, more than 500 from about 30 countries in the history section and 600 on the home page. The stages run from kindergarten to grade 12, the ages from 2 to 18. There are two programmes: a bilingual one built on the ministry's requirements and on Cambridge International, and an international one.
What this means for this school. The network owns or operates the school. Its accreditation and programme authorisation the school obtains separately, in its own name.