International School of Bucharest
Romania
About International School of Bucharest
The International School of Bucharest (ISB) was founded in 1996 in a rented building with just 17 students, aiming to meet the needs of the English-speaking community. Within a few years, the school expanded in both size and scope. To better serve a growing international community, the curriculum began to incorporate practices and requirements from various educational systems.
As an independent day school, ISB is dedicated to inspiring excellence with purpose. In 2001, the school became Romania’s first CIE Exam Centre, allowing it to conduct IGCSE examinations. This significant step, along with the introduction of IGCSE and AS/A Level programs, further enhanced the multicultural environment for both teachers and students.
Despite the separation of the Primary School to a different campus in 2003, ISB saw rapid growth, with enrollment reaching approximately 350 students by 2004. This growth prompted the school to seek larger premises, leading to the opening of a purpose-built campus in 2008, located in a green area of eastern Bucharest. Since then, ISB has provided a state-of-the-art learning environment with on-site sports facilities, a conference hall, and a cafeteria.
ISB has been fully accredited by the Council of International Schools (CIS) since August 2012. Additionally, the school became an IB World School authorized to offer the Diploma Programme starting in September 2017. Thanks to the support of an exceptionally close-knit community, the future of ISB looks promising and exciting.
Location
I feel privileged to be a teacher and consider it a joy to work with the incredible students and staff that we have at International School of Bucharest. The students are great and tend to rate education highly so the classroom atmosphere is very positive. The staff are young, friendly and very committed. Bucharest is a rapidly developing city, an interesting mix of old and new with huge shopping centres springing up on various corners of town...
- Dana Breitenhoffer (2002 - )I enjoy working at ISB. There are many wonderful teachers in the primary section and the administration staff are supportive and helpful. The class sizes are very small and the children are well behaved. For International staff the ISB wages are enough to live comfortably on – things are relatively inexpensive in Romania compared to the UK. Flights to the UK (and the rest of Europe) are regular and are also cheap, and it is therefore quite easy to pop back to the UK for holidays…
- Sarah Ssengendo (2010-2014)The ISB staff are here for the children, first and foremost, and those in positions of authority help staff deliver the very best for the children. I look back at my time at ISB, and I see how ISB got better for the children, I see how ISB got better for the parents and I see how ISB got better for the staff. Looking to the future, I see how ISB wants to get even better again. Every child, wherever they are in the school, is learning and improving and that is what matters as a school. That every child is having the help and support, and that every teacher is having the help and support, that they need is the key factor in any successful school. The staff at ISB are there for one purpose; to improve children’s life chances. Especially in this time where people, countries and cultures try to play each other off against themselves or each other. ISB shows that unity and respect works, is possible, and is the way forward. ISB is a team. It is a family of sorts, with a mix of Primary and Secondary. But best of all ISB is a team, family and group of colleagues who want to be better for the children.
- James Peall (2012-2017)