Our School Spotlight series showcases what makes our global community so special, shining a light on the individual strengths of our exceptional learning environments and understanding the benefits of being part of our wider community. We are proud to introduce this month’s School Spotlight; Southbank International School, UK.

For more than 40 years, Southbank has stood at the forefront of providing a world-class education to children and young people from London’s international community and the UK itself. At the heart of the school are the programmes of the International Baccalaureate. These are challenging curricula that have been carefully developed to encourage students across the world to become active, compassionate and lifelong learners who understand that other people, with their differences, can also be right.

We are immensely proud to have been the first school in London to offer all three main International Baccalaureate programmes: the Primary Years Programme, the Middle Years Programme, and the Diploma Programme. From one small school campus originally situated on the Southbank of the Thames, we have grown significantly, and now have three campuses located around central London. This means at the beginning of our 2024/2025 school year, we welcomed over 800 students and families, from over 70 countries, to our school.

We are committed to challenging our students academically, establishing a liberal ethos and the values of the International Baccalaureate. One of the school’s key aims is to develop caring members of society who make a positive difference to the lives of others. This is embedded in all three of the IB programmes we offer through PYP action, MYP Service As Action, and DP Creativity Activity Service (CAS). We provide students with opportunities for helping the school, and local and international communities. This helps students develop an awareness of how to make a positive difference in the lives of others and encourages responsible citizenship by increasing a student’s understanding of the world.

We offer a wide variety of clubs at all our campuses, examples include, Model United Nations, Robotics club, London Exploration Society, Creative Writing club, ballet, fencing, and cookery, and these take place during lunch and before and after school. Students do not have to wear a school uniform, and no school bells are sounded during the day. This aligns with our liberal ethos and belief that students should be encouraged to be independent and express their individuality.

International Night is one of the most important dates in Southbank’s calendar and one we all very much look forward to. It’s a night for celebrating our school’s best asset – our wonderful international community. Students, parents, faculty and staff came together to share food, drink and music from around the world. It is so much fun, and everyone is well and truly stuffed afterwards from all the delicious treats! Every year, the founder of our school, Milton Toubkin, presents an award to students from our Kensington and Hampstead campuses with the Milton Toubkin Award for Making a Difference. This award acknowledges what we can do for others, by taking action.

Our special mix of nationalities, cultures and languages really does create a magical atmosphere and a wonderful sense of community. Existing students are always very welcoming and empathetic to new students, because they often understand what it’s like to start at a new school, or to come to a new city from a different country. Another significant benefit of studying at Southbank is our location in London, one of the greatest cities in the world. It offers an abundance of historic and cultural riches, so as much as possible, our teachers seek opportunities for students to engage in educational experiences outside the classroom. PE lessons take place at our specialist sports facility, Charteris, and we also make use of the spaces we have around us, with many of our Westminster lessons taking place in Regents Park.

We try to adhere to the Sustainable Development Goals and a key part of all of our curriculum from Early Childhood to Grade 12 includes a focus on these. The result of teaching young people about sustainability in such an embedded way means that they grow up deeply understanding the issues we have related to our environment. Our Grade 5 students spend a week at the Sustainability Centre, for example, learning about what it means in real terms, and design and build their own sustainable houses when they are back in school.

By being a part of the Cognita family, we have the opportunity to learn from each other, through school to school, curriculum to curriculum and leader to leader connections.

Find out more about our School Spotlight by visiting our School Finder or Southbank’s website.