Richmond Park Schools Sarajevo

A scheme of the UK Department for Education: a school abroad is inspected against the standards for independent schools in England, including safeguarding and the standards for boarding. The inspections are done by independent inspectorates approved by the department, and the inspectorates themselves are monitored annually by Ofsted. The reports are published in full on the government website.

What the badge means for this school. The school has been through this organisation's accreditation. It was judged as a whole: governance, safeguarding, staff, premises, teaching. The entry stands in the organisation's public register - anyone can check it. The accreditation was first granted in 2024.

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.

The state school programme of the country the school stands in: it is set by that country's ministry of education, which also licenses the school and awards the leaving certificate. That certificate is used for entry to local universities, and abroad it is matched to the local one.

What this means for this school. This entry does not count towards the score, and that is deliberate. Every lawful school in a country works to the national programme, so on its own it tells one school apart from no other - unlike the French, German or Russian programmes, which are carried abroad and confirmed by the register of their organisation. We show it because a parent needs to know what programme their child is taught and what certificate the child will get. Counting it would lift the whole ranking at once and still tell nobody apart.

Richmond Park Education is a group of international schools in Bosnia and Herzegovina; its own site is rps.edu.ba. It describes itself as "a leading group of international, English-speaking schools across Bosnia and Herzegovina" and dates its history from 1996. The figures on the site itself differ, and both are given here: the "About" section claims five cities - Sarajevo, Tuzla, Bihać, Cazin and Živinice - 12 institutions from nursery to university level and more than 1,800 pupils of 36 nationalities, while the front page and the "Our Schools" section name campuses in three cities only: Sarajevo, Tuzla and Bihać. The site does not list all 12 institutions by name, nor say which of them are at university level. It describes the programme thus: "Richmond Park Schools combine the Cambridge International curriculum with common core for Bosnia and Herzegovina"; most subjects are taught in English, with the Bosnian language and cultural subjects built in as the national standard requires. In 2024 the group became, in its own words, the first and only school group in the country with full British Schools Overseas accreditation. Ownership is stated plainly: "Richmond Park Education is owned by Stirling Education", a London company at 35-37 Ludgate Hill founded in 2018; in March of that year it announced the acquisition of the Richmond Park schools in Bosnia and Herzegovina and of International Burch University in Sarajevo. Stirling's network section lists five schools in five countries - Bosnia and Herzegovina, Egypt, the United Kingdom, Bangladesh and Iraq - and the company states its own role as managing and leading educational institutions, so on the owner's side ownership and management are not separated in words, even though Richmond Park itself uses "owned".

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.