The British International Colleges and Schools
represent the very best in primary and secondary education. We offer children in South Africa the opportunity to begin their career in academia in a setting which allows them to reach some of the highest levels of international acclaim imaginable.
The group began its life as a simple sixth form college in Bryanston in the previous century, offering A Levels to students who had finished their Matric and had the ambition and intelligence for which the College is so well known. Following its runaway success, the College began to offer O Levels as well, sourcing the finest lecturers from around the world to guide hungry young minds through what is undoubtedly the most well recognised and highly regarded education system in the world.
As the College blossomed, it burst into the new millennium with too many students for its space to handle, as word spread that superior education was now an option in South Africa, and so ground was broken at the beautiful premises on Bryanston Drive that so many students and staff now call their home-away-from-home.
As we grew, so too did the demand for Cambridge education nationwide. Our Founder, Mrs CM Oshry (B.A; UED; B.Ed; M.Ed) founded and became the National Chairperson of ACESA (Association of Cambridge Educators South Africa), in order to facilitate Cambridge's arrival in South Africa smoothly.
Over the next twenty years, other schools opened nationwide offering similar education and qualifications, as the youth of this country discovered greater ambitions than they had ever had before - very many of them leading to further education in internationally famous universities.
Very many of our students went on to study at institutions like the University of Glasgow, the University of Oxford, the London School of Economics, Imperial College London, the University of Southern California (both), several of the Ivy League Universities in the USA, as well as those who chose to remain local and make a real difference here at home, in South Africa. Students going into local universities invariably report back about how greatly advantaged they feel as a result of their time with us, and we just couldn't be any prouder of our glowing, ever-growing Alumni base. A exceptional number of BIC students have gone on to successfully complete prestigious postgraduate degrees.
If you look around now, you'll see BIC students across the world, ranging from genuine Nuclear Physicists, and Quantum Theorists, to some of the brightest artists one could imagine - and yes, even a few chose to return home to lecture to the next generation of what we know to be the brightest and the best young minds of today.
As demand grew all around us, so too did the system we were offering, for example - O Levels are no longer considered a part of the Cambridge examination methodology. Instead, and without missing a beat, we seamlessly adopted their new accreditation - the International General Certificate of Secondary Education or IGCSE. If you walk past any of our higher campuses, you'll be able to recognise them by the dark blue golf shirt they wear as part of their liberal-but-smart uniform.
We found that there was now demand for us all across the country, and in response, we founded the British International Distance College as a way to provide quality international education to bright young minds - wherever they may be. Within a year, the now deeply established Distance Learning wing of our group flourished beyond belief - and is to this day the only Cambridge permitted IGCSE and AS level distance education provider - and now has multiple partnered study centres across the nation, as well as individual students as far and wide as Kenya and Korea, who travel all the way to our examination venues in South Africa or are assisted to sit exams in their home country.
We soon found that such quality distance learning was a prize for those who were dedicated sportsmen and women, with entire Golf and Dance academies adopting our programmes such that their students would be free to focus and build on their passion. Several of our Distance College athletes have gone on to become champion representatives of South Africa in a variety of extra-curricular disciplines, including but not limited to: Golf, Ballet, Highland Dance, Figure Skating, Tennis, Vaulting, Motor Racing, and many more.
With the introduction of the Cambridge Brilliance Awards, we were able to see just how incredibly talented our Distance students were - with several of them receiving the highest marks in the country - or even the world - in some of their final Cambridge exams. In the last two years alone we have had three "First in World" awards for Co-Ordinated Sciences (Physics, Chemistry, and Biology combined), Psychology, and Chinese first language.
We soon found that the demand didn't stop there. As word of mouth spread, it become known that the residents of Northern Gauteng wanted a campus near them, and in a short while, BIC Pretoria was born. A full British International College Campus offering the same quality education as could be found in Bryanston, up in sunny Pretoria. Over time, that campus has grown and really took its place as a full member of the British International Colleges and Schools.
In the early days of the new millennium, the College was faced with a new challenge - IGCSE's usually only begin at age 14, such that the student would typically be 16 upon completion, ready to move into his or her A Level programme. However, it transpired that parents wanted to send their children to us earlier and earlier, encouraging us to implement what we called "Foundation Phase" which became a way for children coming into such a strong curriculum to assimilate to the new styles of learning being presented to them. These children write Cambridge Secondary Checkpoint exams at the end of their Foundation phase, which confirms that they are truly ready to begin their IGCSE courses.
However it didn't end there. As more and more people knew of us, and the local education became less appealing, we began to get requests - demands - to open a school catering to primary school children. After several months of planning and preparation, it was decided. British International Preparatory School would be a reality.
A few months later, our temporary premises were set up while we finished the final touches on our construction plans. Within hours of opening registrations, the Preparatory School was full. To accommodate the quality educators and quality families we were now serving, we had the finest prefabricated classrooms installed - equipped with air-conditioning, AppleTV, WiFi and the greatest Cambridge Preparatory teachers we could source from right around the world.
At the end of Year 6, our pupils write Cambridge Primary Checkpoint exams, in which they consistently prove themselves to be in the top third of children examined at their age worldwide.
And so, our family grows every day. Our love for education knows no end, and likely never will.
Welcome to the British International Colleges and Schools
