Southbank International School in London

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Does anyone know how Southbank International ranks in academic performance compared to The American School in London or ACS International Hillingdon? All i see is what they post, but was looking for more info on how good they are... Any info is welcome!! Tks

ASL does AP exams, whereas Southbank does IB, so a bit difficult to compare. If you google IB schools UK you can compare the results of Southbank, ACS and other IB schools.

ASL is very difficult to get into.

ASL offers the American programme throughout the school. It is very difficult to gain entry into and is the most sought after international school in London. Its admissions policy is slightly bizarre because it is a mixed ability school so the "top" candidates are not necessarily selected but there also seems to be no clear indication as to why one student will be selected over another. Factors like siblings at the school, company the family are being relocated by, etc, tend to play a role but they keep their reasons for selection to themselves. Politics plays a role no doubt, especially as it is a non-profit school and they have big donors.

Southbank offers a totally different curriculum - the IB, which is no less or better then the American programme, just different, so it's really a matter of personal choice. The Diploma Programme of the IB (16-18 years), however, is generally considered more rigorous and challenging than the American High School Diploma (even when taking into account the Advanced Placement (AP) programme). Some of the more selective British schools now offer the IB Diploma alongside A Levels, and tend to usher their stronger students towards the IB, as the more 'elite' universities tend to select IB Diploma students with a strong diploma score over students with strong A Level scores.

ACS Hillingdon offers an integrated curriculum in their Primary School (i.e. American, Primary Years Programme of the IB, and British National Curriculum), the Middle Years Programme of the IB in their Middle School and a choice of either the IB Diploma or American High School Diploma at High School - they tend to 'encourage' their more able students to pursue the IB and their 'weaker' students towards the American High School Diploma. In a way, they offer greater choice at the High School level than either Southbank or ASL, and the best of both worlds.

In terms of the 'hierarchy' of the three schools you refer to, ASL is #1. ASL are considered 'leaders' in the world of international education and with good reason. Everything from the quality of their teachers to curriculum and leadership is strong. It is not just difficult for a student to gain entry but also for teachers to land teaching roles! It is non-profit so there are no 'compromises' in terms of quality. Their results are strong across the board. Read the latest Ofsted report - it is glowing.

Southbank is considered a very good school but it is considered "ASL's car park" and even their staff members attest to this statement. Many students attend Southbank as they wait for places to become available at ASL. Southbank is profit run - part of the Cognita group - so there are lot of compromises for the sake of profit (Cognita is a subdivision of a private equity firm). It is very selective at Diploma Programme level so they have a strong record at this stage of the IB. The school was in the press a few years ago due to unrest amongst the parent body about Cognita's management of the school. Parents have since started their own non-profit IB school, as they claimed that Cognita had changed the heart of the IB at Southbank and were trying to turn it into a British school. Many families and staff members have left since Cognita took over...

ACS Hillingdon is also a profit run school but is run 'more ethically' than Southbank. They are transparent about their profits. If ACS was based in central London, it is likely that ASL would have strong competition but their location in the suburbs (albeit a stunning campus) is the primary reason families tend to choose ASL (ASL is more central). The morale at ACS is strong amongst both staff and families so that speaks volume about the experience for both students and staff.

I hope the above provides a good starting point for your decision. Am happy to answer any further questions if you require further information.

I find this ranking really bizarre, Southbank has far superior IB results and university placements. ACS sends hardly anyone to Ivy League. Are you sure they are considered better than Southbank?

does anyone have any experience with the bussing system for ACS Hillingdon from central London to and from the school? I would welcome any comments on how this works- travel time, convenience, etc. Also, for Southbank International school what are the extracurricular offerings and sports teams etc at the Middle years .

Thanks for your opinion HHM. Very helpful. I am trying to get information for schools in London for my middle school daughter. We would like to live in London, but my daughter was wait listed at ASL. I had not considered busing her out of the city to ACS for school, but will look into that. Is Southbank as difficult to get into as ASL? I would love any thoughts on this transition. There is very little information available on line. Thanks!

My 7th grader was just wait pooled at ASL. Can anyone suggest an alternative school in addition to Southbank. I would be eternally grateful since we move from California to Central London in June. I am getting a bit worried.

have a look at the new Halcyon School on Marble Arch as well, it starts from 6th grade and the head is a former Southbank head.

Hi Makaness,

We are considering a move from Santa Clara, CA to Central London in June as well. Were are you in CA? We have a 9th grade girl, 7th grade girl and 5th grade boy. I am just beginning the school research and would love to compare notes.

up here in north London the Dwight School is a good option for international families. Its IB and my DC love it. By the way have you read about the abuse case at Southbank - must be very hard for them!

Southbank International School doesn't offer children a robust experience. They don't have sports fields, their music program is limited to strings, there isn't a performing arts program or even an auditorium, the children are parceled out to four different campuses, and the school commute is an absolute nightmare for parents with children in different age groups. Many of the teachers are quite competent in the Lower School, but the Westminster campus is a dystopian nightmare. The headmaster left part-way through the term when my children had attended, and their experience at Westminster was chaotic to say the least. By the time we left, most of their peers were already gone or else had made plans to attend elsewhere. Southbank doesn't represent good value for money, especially in the long-term. You might consider it a possible temporary pit-stop if there are no other London options for your children. However, if you are UK residents, there is no reason to consider sending your children to this school. It is under-resourced and massively expensive for what it offers. I've posted a photo of the so-called Charteris sports center for reference; this is actually a public gym in Kilburn with broken equipment, random seniors working out in close proximity to the children and a breaded half-eaten piece of seafood on the floor of the football pitch/basketball court.

Thanks @EddieParker . Where did you send/ would you recommend sending children to from
Southbank Primary? Thanks.

@Amplifier Most of the IB children from my kids' years went on to ACS Hillingdon or else Halcyon. We also looked at TASIS. If you want to enter the British system, it's where your children will be admitted--in my children's grades it was Wetherby and Godolphin and Latymer. These are pretty good results from the Lower School, but you will notice that Southbank's destination universities for the Upper School children are poor, considering the very high cost of tuition. Also, if your children do not thrive at Southbank, they will not be tracked for the IB diploma and will be left with few decent university options and a rubbish/worthless diploma from a fourth-rate school.

EddieParker is spot on... If you look at the Universities the kids matriculate into, it's dreadful. For the price, not a single Ivy League School acceptance...but also- no NYU, Northwestern, UVA, UT, Michigan, etc.

Principals cycle through the school (3 Principals in 3 years). No one seems to want to stay. Low test scores that only seem to get worse.

Teacher morale is low, which translates into the classrooms.

Parent involvement is zero. Families leaving the school in droves.

So- a disappointment academically, socially, athletically...

To preface this review, I graduated from both the IB MYP and the IB DP program at Southbank International School. Most of my review pertains to my experience in the DP program. I have no knowledge of what the Primary Years Program was like, and cannot make any comments on this.
I would say that Southbank International School was a good school when I first started attending five years ago. The quality of instruction here has since fallen, and the effects of this are most noticeable in the IB DP program. There has been an exodus of good, competent teachers in the past couple of years from Southbank. While there are still very competent teachers and staff members working at this school, there are less than there used to be, and even more have left since I graduated. The less competent teachers who have remained seem not to care about seeing the students succeed. Two such teachers currently have the Physics department in a chokehold (by this I mean no one else seems to be allowed to teach Physics but them, which is a shame, because all they seem to be able to do is make their pupils feel bad about themselves). One of them assigned approximately a quarter of the IB DP Physics syllabus to the students to teach themselves over the summer, and then scheduled an exam on the subjects right after they came back to start the second year. This exam counted for 70% of their predicted grade. Consequently, many students who had performed very well on previous exams had their grade average tank. Overall, the instruction in the STEM subjects has grown weaker since I first started at this school, particularly in IB Mathematics and IB Physics.
Additionally, the school has an issue with principal turnover, which seems to point to the general instability within the structure of the school. The school has seen three principals in three years, and while the third is still holding this position, the most recent vice principal left just after a year, his reason being that he doesn’t think he can “make an impact here because of the strong personalities higher up”. The current principal herself has claimed that the structure of Southbank is “archaic”, and that there is nothing she can do to change the way the school works. This is an incredibly discouraging thing to hear from the principal herself. It is also discouraging to hear members of faculty say that they plan to leave within the next few years if Southbank's problems don't improve.
On another matter, although Southbank presents itself as a progressive institution, there have been issues with teachers making sexist, ableist or transphobic remarks. One notorious Spanish teacher is openly transphobic and frequently complains about “all these kids changing their genders”. On one occasion, they openly agreed with another student's view that: "being LGBTQ+ is unnatural". As much as I respect that people have their own opinions, it is unacceptable for teachers to express hate in a school setting, where making sure that students of all ethnicities, sexualities, and gender identities feel safe should be a priority. In other cases, some teachers enable students to make bigoted comments, and seem to find it very difficult to call these students out or recognise their behaviour when it occurs. While this is largely not the fault of the teachers themselves, little action is taken even when other students report their peers for bigoted comments.
This brings me to the next point; disciplinary action in this school is weak, if it is ever taken. The most severe punishment I have ever seen dealt out to a student at this school is the revocation of the privilege of buying lunch off-campus for a week. There has also been an issue with a band of homophobic and transphobic students who corner LGBTQ+ students (some who are acquaintances or friends of mine) in stairwells to interrogate them about their sexuality and/or gender identity. Blatant hostility has been directed at gay and transgender students attending this school by their anti-LGBTQ+ peers, and gone unaddressed for far too long, even after it was brought to the school's attention.
Overall, if you are planning to send your child here, I would recommend only the lower school programs: PYP and the MYP. The quality of education at DP-level is, unfortunately, lacklustre for all the tuition that Southbank demands, especially if your child is STEM-focused. This is not to say that students who study STEM subjects at this school do not succeed- many do. However, they succeed because they break their backs teaching themselves the content, not because they receive much guidance from their teachers.

Nora's views are fully consistent with the opinions of a large swath of parents/attendees at Southbank.

Just not a great school all around, sadly. 😥 Most students would tell you: "I get one good teacher for every three bad ones at Southbank..."

If you can't keep a Principal around for more than a year, and the only teachers that stay are the ones without a better option, or younger teachers that just started their careers...you get results like this.

They'll still get families coming though, but that's just based on location, not quality. There aren't many good IB options in the city.

If you went with a Boarding School, or went outside of London, and ranked them against each other, Southbank would be dead last.💥

Hi there - also wondering if Southbank is very difficult to get a place in. I've also heard of Halcyon School. ACS looks amazing but is it really true that those kids don't go to Ivy's? Also, if anyone has a kid at ACS Cobham, would we have to live in Surrey? We are flexible as to location but initially focused on the Northern Line, e.g. Golders Green/Hampstead/Barnet, we aren't going to bother with ASL.

So helpful, thanks. Love the evocative "dystopian nightmare" description. On we go, looking more and more like ACS Cobham, if we can get in. Or TASIS if the day student situation works for my kid. If you have any updated information, please let me know, I would love to have a conversation, you can PM me - we are planning our move from California to London but are quite flexible as to where we land/buy a home.

@TreeHugger67 DD1 went to ACS Cobham. We lived in Central London. She boarded (largely due to the number of after school stuff she did), but had local friends who were day pupils.