← Back to the rankingThe British International School Istanbul
Istanbul, Turkey · Private
Illustration · Istanbul
The school runs as a division of The British School Istanbul and teaches a modified English National Curriculum, with the Cambridge IGCSE and the IB Diploma Programme on top of it. It is co-educational, takes children from two and a half to eighteen, draws students from more than fifty-five nationalities and admits new students through the year. Its graduates go on to universities around the world, chiefly in the United Kingdom and the United States. The main site is the forest campus at Zekeriyaköy on the European side, out of the city, close to the Belgrade Forest and about four kilometres from the Black Sea; there is also a city campus in Etiler.
Key facts
Tuition
$21 600–52 500 a year
Programmes
IB · DP · Cambridge · IGCSE
Languages of instruction
English
Languages taught
German, Spanish
About the fees Fees are quoted in US dollars for the academic year and run from the cheapest stage, pre-school half day, to the most expensive, Year 13, where IB examination fees are already included but remarks and retakes are not. Payment can be made in three equal instalments. A one-off application fee and a one-off registration fee are charged separately; the registration fee goes towards campus development, sports and park facilities, technology and the library, and neither is refundable. The school warns that the published amounts already reflect the latest VAT increase and may change with further announcements from the Ministry of Finance.
Admissions Admission is inclusive: the school sets no entrance tests or examinations. Before entering the secondary school children sit the CAT3 cognitive aptitude test, used not for selection but to set a baseline and track progress afterwards. The school takes students of all nationalities, including those for whom English is an additional language, and regardless of how long the family intends to stay in the country. Placement follows the child's age, provided their English lets them follow the curriculum. In the first EYFS class a child stays for half a day for at least the first term.
Stages and year groups The stages run from pre-school, half day and full day, and Reception through the primary school to the secondary school; the senior years are Year 7 to Year 13. The school does not admit into Year 11 or Year 13 at all, whatever curriculum a child is coming from.
Address Kilyos Caddesi No: 227, Zekeriyaköy, Sarıyer, İstanbul
Accreditations and programmes verified against official registries
IB · DP · authorised programmeCambridge · IGCSE · authorised programmeCIS · accreditationCOBIS · accreditationMSA · accreditationThe school is listed in the IB and Cambridge registries and says of itself that it is the first and only school in Istanbul to hold accredited status simultaneously with the Council of International Schools, the Council of British International Schools and the Middle States Association. Accreditation is renewed every five years, and the school is currently in the self-study process before renewing its CIS and MSA accreditation. Both stages are named: the Cambridge line runs to IGCSE and the leaving stage is the IB Diploma. The school does not publish its Cambridge centre number or its IB code.
school is in an official registryconfirmed by a school document, by membership or by taking part in a networkclaimed by the school, no confirmation, not counted in the scoreGuide to all organisations → What stands behind each entry
IBInternational Baccalaureate
A Swiss non-profit, working since 1968. Its programmes are among the most widely recognised school programmes in the world. Authorisation is granted stage by stage, so a school with the final stage does not necessarily run the younger ones; which stages this school holds is set out in the line below.
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: DP (ages 16-19). DP is the final stage, ages 16 to 19: six subjects plus a compulsory core of theory of knowledge, an extended essay and CAS. The diploma is accepted by universities all over the world, and in a number of countries it counts for admission on the same footing as the local leaving certificate.
Register to check for yourself, and the full guide →CambridgeCambridge International Education
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). IGCSE means exams at around Year 10 or 11, the British counterpart of a lower secondary leaving certificate.
Register to check for yourself, and the full guide →CISCouncil of International Schools
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 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.
Register to check for yourself, and the full guide →COBISCouncil of British International Schools
An association of British schools abroad with a quality inspection of its own. It has nine membership categories, and the word "accredited" appears in seven of them, although COBIS does its own inspection in one: in the rest it recognises an accreditation granted by somebody else.
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.
Register to check for yourself, and the full guide →MSAMiddle States Association of Colleges and Schools
One of the oldest American accreditations, working since 1887 in more than a hundred countries and linked to the Office of Overseas Schools of the US State Department. It judges the school as an institution across twelve areas, including finances, governance, premises and student support.
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.
Register to check for yourself, and the full guide →Exams and destinations from the school's official website
Average IB score
33 (world average 30.88)
Exam results For the IB Diploma the school reports a full pass rate, an average of 33 points with a top score of 40, and says 23 of the 30 subjects and levels it offers scored above the global average. At IGCSE, 88 per cent of grades fell between A* and C, which the school calls its best pass rate in ten years excluding pandemic years, and in mathematics, history, German, Spanish, computer science and biology every candidate passed.
Facilities from the school's official website
✓Swimming pool
✓Sports hall
✓Laboratories
·Theatre or assembly hallnot stated on the website
✓Library
✓Catering
✓School transport
·Boardingnot stated on the website
Also on site: Sports ground or field · Playground
Campus: The forest campus at Zekeriyaköy: four teaching buildings plus an administration building, a botanical garden and outdoor sports facilities, roughly fifty minutes from the centre of Istanbul. The city campus stands in Etiler.
Clubs and activities: list on the school website
Teaching staff
There is no data for this section yet.
Safety and wellbeing from the school's official website
·CCTVnot stated on the website
·Security staffnot stated on the website
·Access controlnot stated on the website
✓Nurse or medical room
·Counsellornot stated on the website
✓Child protection policy
·Staff trainingnot stated on the website
·Anti-bullying policynot stated on the website
Reviews
No reviews yet. The community rating counts towards the score once a school has five verified reviews - until then we do not show a zero, so as not to mislead.
Criteria breakdown criterion weight in brackets
Academics and programmes (16%)84 Community rating (16%)no dataparent reviews are needed: the criterion switches on at the fifth verified one Exams and destinations (12%) scored on disclosed data80 Safety and wellbeing (12%) scored on disclosed data65 Accreditation and verifiability (10%)100 Teaching staff (10%) scored on disclosed data55 Facilities (10%) scored on disclosed data90 Clubs and activities (8%) scored on disclosed data76 "Scored on disclosed data" stands where we count only what the school has written about itself on its own site: exams and destinations, safety and wellbeing, teaching staff, facilities, clubs and activities. A low score here means the school does not write about this, not that the school does not have it: a school with good security and a sparse site will score low. A school can fill in its profile, and the score will be counted again.
The score is counted from 8 of the 9 criteria.Only those with checkable data count: programmes and accreditations from official registers, the fee from a published price list. Where it says "scored on the median", the school has no data and the middle of the list is put in its place, so that a gap gives no advantage. Admissions, teaching staff and reviews come in as their data arrives.
The full methodology → Similar schools in the country