Western Academy of Beijing

The Western Academy of Beijing is an independent International school founded in 1994 and owned by a Trust and overseen by its Board of Trustees. It started to offer its high education level when expatriate families more need to find an appropriate school for their children in Beijing. The school initially wanted to offer a challenging IB English curriculum education by showing values such as effort, responsibility and embracing the Chinese community. Students not also learn a lot of varied subjects like languages and sciences but also self-initiative, critical thinking and lifelong skills. Teachers and parents cooperate together in order to guide students in their education life from early years up to high school.

“The founders of WAB believed that a new school could also fulfill yet another equally pressing need – that of providing greater educational choice. Instead of merely cloning the existing international school, the dream was to create something different: a non-profit independent school for foreign children in Beijing that embraced Chinese language and a truly international curriculum.”

The WAB always seeks to develop the intellectual, physical and social potential of their students by combining knowledge, experience, technology, great facilities and the advantages of the host country together. We can definitively say that WAB educates the whole child in complete diversity inside a value rich community of parents, teachers and children.

THE CAMPUS

The WAB campus, located outside the city center of Beijing, puts together students from early years up to high school but offering them different spaces and facilities. The entire school has six buildings, science, arts and technology classrooms, two theatres, a wide football field, tennis courts, basketball courts and other green outdoor spaces.

The whole campus is divided by a river with a bridge which links lower and upper school together showing not only amazing views but also nice Chinese style architecture.

IB EDUCATION SYSTEM AT WAB

The education system at WAB runs the IB curriculum framework from Primary school to the Diploma Program in Grade 11 and 12. This system is perfect to provide students inter-relatedness between subjects and leave children also choose some subjects related to their best skills and future needs for University. Values like tolerance, discipline and responsibility are given at WAB together with abilities such as bilingualism, critical thinking, practice and self-experience.

The curriculum explores Tran’s disciplinary themes and develops lifelong skills, such as the ability to conduct research, communicate effectively, and function successfully in different contexts. Class sizes are formed by 14 students in nursery and Pre-Kindergarten years and 21 students from Kindergarten to High School making learning and interacting easy and exclusive.

WAB students finish school with a top-tier education, having worked in English, but having been exposed to Chinese, and even French, Dutch and Spanish.

Destinations countries for the most of WAB students are divided into 50% who join Universities in USA, 20% who chose Europe, around 10% who stay in Asia, 8% go to Canada, around 3% to Australia and 11% start their college studies in other places around the world. WAB’s prestige helps students to join the University of their Dreams having on the list Colleges like London School of Economics, Oxford, Cambridge, University of York, Sussex or Birmingham.

Universities in Paris and Switzerland are also frequently chosen by students at WAB. Because of the fact that WAB graduates want to study a degree in USA, they are joining every year Universities around the entire States from New York to Boston. WAB students also have been able to access to Harvard, Brown, Bentley, Columbia or Princeton Universities.

ACTIVITIES

WABX is WAB’s extra-curricular and recreational activities program. It provides extensive enrichment activities for students to explore and extend their areas of interest. The after school activities program also focuses on the social needs of expatriate youth in Beijing and endeavors to provide a range of interesting activities that promote an active lifestyle, support them in making positive lifestyle choices and provide opportunity for interaction among a broader social group, including their colleagues in Chinese schools.

WAB offers a high variety of activities such as team and water sports, arts, music and drama giving the change to every student to improve their skills. Every activity is important at WAB but they have their own soccer team called WAB Tigers. Some loved sports are not only soccer but also rugby, basketball, badminton, swimming or tennis having girls and boys for each one, participating in competitions with other schools.

TRIPS

WAB organizes trips for each grade around several cities in China running more than 20 outdoor expeditions every year. Students at grade 5 enjoy camps where they learn about nature and environment. From grade 6-8 and as part of the MYP HPE curriculum, students gain competences in communication and activities like climbing, kayak, canoeing and abseiling.

Admissions and Contact:

Applicants to Grade 1 and above for whom English is not the primary language at home will be assessed to determine whether or not they should be enrolled in the English for Speakers of Other Languages or English for Academic Purposes (EAP) programs.

WAB offers shuttle bus service and all students have lunch at school in different cafeterias before finishing classes around 3pm but the School is very convenient if you live in:

Grand Hill, Beijing Riviera, Cathay View, Orchid Garden or Guanfa Garden.