International Community School London

[matthewlondon1]

My family will be moving to London from the states in January (for 3 years) and we are looking for a school in London that would offer comparable schooling for our 4.5 and 6.5 year old boys. We visited the following schools;

Southbank
Abercorn
The International Community School (ICS) (York Terrace)
(ASL was full and are not accepting applicants)

Does anyone have any reviews on ICS? We did like Southbank, but they don't have availability for our oldest. ICS and Abercorn do. We did NOT get a warm and fuzzy feeling from ICS and we are just not sure if that is because we are not used to the smaller city schools with limited space or if there is a reason.

If anyone has ANY comments on ICS, or the others, I would love to hear!

Thank you so much!

[JoJoSM2]

Have you looked at any ACS schools? They are located in Hillingdon, Egham and Cobham. Not commutable from central London but close to prime outer London and commuter areas.

[matthewlondon1]

Thanks JoJoSM2.!! We have looked and have decided to live in central London.

[BradleyPooper]

Was going to suggest ACS. I work with their summer school program for students from the USA and it's awesome, so professional and informative. My organization has been using them for 10 years.

[MrsSchadenfreude]

I have a DD at ACS Cobham. I contacted all of the international schools in London prior to coming back. ICS were the least helpful - I asked for their IB results as I couldn't find them online. They refused point blank to give them to me and said "they were better than expected." I asked to visit, and they were even less helpful at that point, so I gave up.

I met someone the other week who teaches there. I think, from what she said, that it is improving. She said that the IB results were good last year - all got over 35 (which is pretty good). It is an extremely small school - I think this is fine for primary, but I think they need a bigger pool for secondary. The international "mix" is also a bit odd - from what I gather, a lot of the children are from Arab families and the subcontinent, rather than the usual huge mix of US/Aus/Russian/Kazakh/Spanish/Canadian/French/Indian/everywheere else mix that you get at other schools. The woman I spoke to said she wasn't sure how much socialising there was after school - the kids all tended to get picked up and whisked back home to their families.

ACS Cobham does have a bus that runs from central London out to the school - think it starts at Vauxhall and then does Sloane Square, Kensington, Fulham etc, but it makes for a long day. Think the Hillingdon bus does a west London pick up, and starts from Baker Street, too.

Given that yours are so little, why not just stick them in a local primary or private school? (And you'll get plenty of different nationalities there, in central London!)

[matthewlondon1]

Thank you MrsSchadenfreude! Great comments!

[MaryA88]

Hi, my family will be moving from Miami to London in July. 2 kids, 10 th grader and a 7 th grader.
I need feedback regarding the ACS schools, we are interested for our eldest daughter IB and for our 11 year son could be Ib or A level. We were planning to live in Kensington but it turns out commute to school is 50 mins and have been told Richmond could be a better option, but we are afraid of airport traffic being so close to Heathrow, please comment regarding this.
The comments I've read or have been told regarding ACS are
Nice property but not so great reviews about Hillingdon, but there is a new IB director? Seems to be a drug situation, does anyone have an update ?
Eggham good academically but if you don't live nearby then its a problem for socializing. We are not thinking of moving to Surrey.
Cobham, great facilities but very big school and gives priority to the boarding kids that actually live there.And Egham has better IB results than Cobham and Hillingdon.
Please anyone that has true and updated info, please comment.
Thanks.

[cannotseeanend]

You'll have a drugs situation at all schools with super rich kids which mostly ACS kids are, in comparison to the average UK resident child. You'll equally have drugs problems in public schools too.

You get plane noise everywhere there is a flight path. I would look up the flight paths.

[MaryA88]

Yes that is true all over the world! But does anyone have specifics regarding ACS schools. Also does anyone live in the Richmond area, how bad is the airport nearby, do you actually hear the planes?

[cannotseeanend]

I've lived in Richmond, yes you hear the planes. You hear the planes in Kensington too. You need to look up the flight paths, then come and spend time underneath them and find out your tolerance level.

Compare IB results for the schools you are interested in.

[MaryA88]

Thanks.

[user1498774319]

Hi MarryA88. I am also looking at ACS schools for ib diploma ( child will go into grade 10). Just wonder what did you decide and if you have found any good feedback about ACS hilingdon ?

[MrsKlugscheisser]

No info on Hillingdon but can help with info on Cobham and Egham.

[MrsKlugscheisser]

I don't think the drugs situation is any worse than any secondary school. Cobham had a zero tolerance policy on drugs and kicked out a few kids.

[Svemoh]

@ MrsKlugscheisser Please shed some more light about ACS COBHAM Vs ACS EGHAM --IB RESULTS. My son is joining Year 9 this month ...

[jasonelsom]

Hi Svemoh

ACS Cobham is a significantly larger school with around 1450 students. Offering IB/US curricula.

ACS Egham is a smaller school with around 550 students, has a focus on the IB and is slightly ahead in the results tables (from memory). That said, both do very well in terms of value added.

ACS Hillingdon is a similar size to Egham, but growing reasonably quickly at the moment. It is IB/US curricula also and is producing similar results to Cobham.

All are very international, with a significant number of nationalities represented (Egham 52, Hillingdon 45, Cobham 85), and benefit from being part of a non-profit group which is currently on the journey to becoming a charity. The student/teacher ratio is very small.

ACS as a whole invests significant (often) double digit millions per annum in capital projects across the three UK schools (there is also one in Doha). The last few years have seen the opening of an impressive gym, upgraded reception, and investment in the main house at Egham, new science floor and refurbished classrooms at Hillingdon, new boarding house and refurbishment of existing boarding at Cobham, new performing arts centre at Cobham (seating 500 I believe), new dining and sports centre at Cobham. Additional significant capital investments are scheduled for the coming years.

Both Hillingdon and Cobham offer busing as far in as Kensington and Chelsea.

The Hillingdon busing map is here -> fluencycontent-schoolwebsite.netdna-ssl.com/FileCluster/ACSInternationalSchools/MainFolder/acs-hillingdon/admissions/Busing-Services/ACSHillBusingv2.pdf

Egham here -> fluencycontent-schoolwebsite.netdna-ssl.com/FileCluster/ACSInternationalSchools/MainFolder/acs-egham/5-admissions/Busing-Services/3786_2103_ACS_Busing-Service.pdf

Cobham here -> fluencycontent-schoolwebsite.netdna-ssl.com/FileCluster/ACSInternationalSchools/MainFolder/acs-cobham/6.Admissions/Busing-Services/ACSCobBusingv2.pdf

Best wishes, Jason