Southbank International School is a

co-educational Mixed-sex education, also known as mixed-gender education, co-education, or coeducation (abbreviated to co-ed or coed), is a system of education where males and females are educated together. Whereas single-sex education was more common up to ...

private school A private school or independent school is a school not administered or funded by the government, unlike a State school, public school. Private schools are schools that are not dependent upon national or local government to finance their fina ...

located in the

City of Westminster The City of Westminster is a London borough with City status in the United Kingdom, city status in Greater London, England. It is the site of the United Kingdom's Houses of Parliament and much of the British government. It contains a large par ...

Kensington Kensington is an area of London in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, around west of Central London. The district's commercial heart is Kensington High Street, running on an east–west axis. The north-east is taken up by Kensingt ...

and

Hampstead Hampstead () is an area in London, England, which lies northwest of Charing Cross, located mainly in the London Borough of Camden, with a small part in the London Borough of Barnet. It borders Highgate and Golders Green to the north, Belsiz ...

, London, England. It is an

international school International schools are private schools that promote education in an international environment or framework. Although there is no uniform definition or criteria, international schools are usually characterised by a multinational student body an ...

for 2 to 18-year olds, from early childhood to

Key Stage 5 Key Stage 5 is a label used to describe the two years of education for students aged 16–18 and at sixth form or college. In England, Wales and Northern Ireland, it is aligned with previous Key Stages in the National Curriculum. Key Stage 5 is a ...

. It has three campuses serving the educational needs of the international community in

central London Central London is the innermost part of London, in England, spanning the City of London and several boroughs. Over time, a number of definitions have been used to define the scope of Central London for statistics, urban planning and local gove ...

and surrounding areas. It is an International Baccalaureate World School, authorised to deliver all three of the

International Baccalaureate The International Baccalaureate Organization (IBO), more commonly known as the International Baccalaureate (IB), is a nonprofit foundation headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, and founded in 1968. It offers four educational programmes: the I ...

programmes. Southbank Hampstead and Southbank Kensington are both

IB Primary Years Programme The International Baccalaureate Primary Years Programme (PYP) is an educational programme managed by the International Baccalaureate (IB) for students aged 3 to 12. While the programme prepares students for the IB Middle Years Programme, it is ...

(PYP; from Early Childhood to

grade 5 Fifth grade (also 5th Grade or Grade 5) is the fifth or sixth year of formal or compulsory education. In the United States, this is mostly the last grade of primary school, but for some states, it could be the first year of middle school. Primary ...

) schools. Southbank Westminster offers the

IB Middle Years Programme The International Baccalaureate Middle Years Programme (MYP) is an educational programme for students between the ages of 11 and 16 around the world as part of the International Baccalaureate (IB) continuum. The Middle Years Programme is intended ...

(MYP; grade 6 to 10) and the IB Diploma Programme ( grades 11 and 12). The Southbank Westminster campus occupies three sites at

Portland Place Portland Place is a street in the Marylebone district of central London. Named after the 3rd Duke of Portland, the unusually wide street is home to the BBC's headquarters Broadcasting House, the Chinese and Polish embassies, the Royal Insti ...

Conway Street Conway Street is a street in the London Borough of Camden that runs from the Euston Road in the north to Maple Street in the south, being divided in the middle by Fitzroy Square in the south. The northern part of the street is crossed only by Wa ...

and Cleveland Street (by

Fitzroy Square Fitzroy Square is a Georgian architecture, Georgian garden square, square in London, England. It is the only one in the central London area known as Fitzrovia. The square is one of the area's main features, this once led to the surrounding di ...

). The school's Cleveland Street campus was the most recent to open, in September 2018.

History

Southbank International School was founded on 12 September 1979 as the American International School. It opened in September 1980 in a disused primary school on the south bank of the River Thames near Waterloo station with 80 upper school students. In line with its founding principles, the school's name was changed to Southbank American International School, following staff and pupil suggestions. In 1982 the school moved to Eccleston Square near Victoria Station and by 1985 a secondary section was added, and the

IB Diploma Programme The International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme (IBDP) is a two-year educational programme primarily aimed at 16-to-19-year-olds in 140 countries around the world. The programme provides an internationally accepted qualification for entry int ...

was eventually adopted. In 1987 the School's name changed again to Southbank International School. In January 1989 the School moved to the present Kensington campus, and with a growing demand for places the Hampstead campus opened in September 1996. In June 1996 MYP authorisation was achieved and this was followed in June 2000 by PYP authorisation. The Westminster campus opened in September 2003. In December 2006 the

Milton Keynes Milton Keynes ( ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city in Buckinghamshire, England, about north-west of London. At the 2021 Census, the population of Milton Keynes urban area, its urban area was 264,349. The River Great Ouse forms t ...

based

private company A privately held company (or simply a private company) is a company whose Stock, shares and related rights or obligations are not offered for public subscription or publicly negotiated in their respective listed markets. Instead, the Private equi ...

Cognita Cognita is a global private schools group which owns and operates schools throughout various countries. The group has over 100 schools and employs over 21,000 staff and teaches 95,000 students across 17 countries. Cognita schools teach 13 diffe ...

became the major

shareholder A shareholder (in the United States often referred to as stockholder) of corporate stock refers to an individual or legal entity (such as another corporation, a body politic, a trust or partnership) that is registered by the corporation as the ...

s and Southbank International School became the first in Cognita's international division. Cognita subsequently ran into serious criticism of its management of Southbank International School. Robert Booth of ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'' wrote that in 2009 the school "was undergoing a period of turmoil" and a vocal parental group being established to seek remedy from the school's owner Cognita in 2011.Booth, Robert.
How did one of the worst paedophiles in history get away with his crimes?
''

''. 14 June 2016. Retrieved on 20 June 2016. The group made complaints that Cognita had "no serious interest in maximising the educational experience of ... children if it impacts on their bottom line". The group were not satisfied with the group's claims that profits were in line with others in the sector. Cognita provided funding to open an IB Diploma Programme Centre on Conway Street for Grades 11 and 12 and this operates as an annexe to the main campus on Portland Place. The Conway Street building opened in August 2007 and students from the Middle School in Hampstead (grades 6, 7 and 8) joined the Westminster campus. Hampstead then became a two class entry Primary School for 2 to 11-year olds. In August 2012 Cognita acquired the Charteris Sports Centre in London as a facility for Southbank International School which is let out to the community in non-school time. In 2013, students from the school performed at the United States Academic Decathlon. Southbank's Grade 10-11 team came in ninth with a national Silver in Interview and two scholarships for academic excellence, whilst the Grade 6-9 team came in fifth and were awarded with ten national medals. In the same year, the school launched an IB Diploma Scholarship that covers 100% of tuition fees over two years. In March 2014, William Vahey, a teacher who had worked at the school for several years, was found dead. He had been jailed for child sex offences in California in 1969 and it is thought he had abused over 50 students at Southbank. Southbank International School was later praised by the Educational Collaborative for International Schools (of which it is a member) for the transformation of safeguarding practices and processes in the school which were deemed as "comprehensive and robust". In 2017, the school announced further expansion plans of their Westminster campus on Cleveland Street. The new campus opened in September 2018 and offers five floors of relatively open plan space. "Brutal reforms" were also put on place which by 2017 saw the replacement of 30 headteachers across Cognita's organisation. The 2018 Diploma Class achieved the highest results in the history of the school. IB Results: 3 students scored the maximum 45 out of 45 points (reached by only approximately 0.39% of the 2018 Diploma candidates); The average diploma score was 37.7; The world average is just over 29.8; 37% of students scored 40 points or higher (reached by only approximately 4.54% of candidates awarded the Diploma worldwide); 35% of students achieved a Bi-lingual diploma; The pass rate for the Diploma was 100% (Worldwide the pass rate in May 2018 was 78.2%). More recent IB Diploma results from the school can be found on here:

Controversy

William Vahey was an American criminal teacher who drugged many teachers and students at the school and a number of other schools around the world. He later committed suicide.

School demographics

it had in total over 800 students in all of its campuses. As of 2020 it had over 470 students from 70 countries taking classes at the Westminster campus.Weissenstein, Michael and Tami Abdollah (

Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American not-for-profit organization, not-for-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association, and produces news reports that are dist ...

).
‘He ate the cookies, too’: Police search for victims of prolific pedophile who drugged students around the world before abuse
" ''

National Post The ''National Post'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet newspaper and the flagship publication of the American-owned Postmedia Network. It is published Mondays through Saturdays, with Monday released as a digital e-edition only.

''. 13 May 2014. Updated 25 January (year unstated). Retrieved on 20 June 2016. Its students come from families that are generally very wealthy. Robert Booth of ''

'' wrote that a parent told him that the school "gave you a different understanding of wealth" and that a lawyer's family would be considered poor there; students included those from families of foreign affairs officials, hedge fund managers, managers of oil companies, and a manager of a football club.

References

External links

Official websiteInternational Baccalaureate Organization's website

The Primary Years Programme

The Middle Years Programme

The Diploma ProgrammeBBC: Southbank International School's performance between 2003 and 2006
{{authority control 1979 establishments in England Cognita Educational institutions established in 1979 Private co-educational schools in London Private schools in the City of Westminster Private schools in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea International Baccalaureate schools in England International schools in London

History

Controversy

School demographics

See also

References

External links