Affiliated with CIE (UK) and IBO (Geneva) — the world’s premier school-leaving examination boards — Canadian International School, Bangalore (estb. 1996) has acquired an excellent reputation for rigorous academics, sports and co-curricular education – Paromita Sengupta

Set in a 15-acre campus shielded by silver oak and eucalyptus trees in north Bangalore’s fast-growth suburb of Yelahanka, the Canadian International School (CIS, estb.1996) recently concluded its year-long 20th anniversary celebrations with the formal inauguration of a state-of-the-art 470-seat auditorium and a first-of-its-kind solar energy project.

Over the past two decades, this low-profile full school affiliated with the Cambridge International Examinations (CIE), UK and International Baccalaureate Organisation, Geneva (IBO) — the world’s premier school-leaving international exam boards — has steadily built a national reputation for rigorous academics, internationalism and excellent sports and extra-curricular education. 

In the EducationWorld India School Rankings 2016, CIS is ranked among India’s Top 12 and Karnataka’s Top 5 international day-cum-boarding schools. Currently, this co-educational pre-nursery to class XII school has an aggregate enrolment of 686 students from 40 countries — including 86 boarders — instructed by 102 well-qualified and diverse teachers of whom 43 percent have worked/trained abroad. 

CIS was promoted in 1996 by Canadian entrepreneurs Jonathan and Bernard Goodman on a modest campus in Hebbal with three students. In 2002, the Canadian promoters’ trust was acquired by Sterling Developers, the well-known Bangalore-based real estate company which immediately started construction of a new multipurpose campus in Yelahanka in suburban Bangalore. The school shifted to its new campus in 2006. 

“Since Sterling Developers took over the school, we have taken great pains to transform CIS into a full-fledged 21st-century international school. To this end, we built a contemporary ICT-enabled campus and invested heavily in teacher training, curriculum development, internationalism and ensured our students had access to a wide range of sports and co-curricular activities. Our objective is to build a culture of holistic development and produce leaders who can compete successfully in a challenging global environment,” says Shweta Sastri, a business management graduate of the London School of Economics who took charge as executive director of CIS when the school moved to its new campus a decade ago.

To fulfill its institutional goal of nurturing global leaders, CIS offers the classes I-X syllabus of the UK-based CIE — the world’s largest school examinations board — and class XI-XII students the rigorous IB diploma programme. “In CIS, we are committed to nurturing a community of lifelong learners by blending academic rigour with sports and co-curricular education. The factor that differentiates us from other international schools is our unique contextual learning programme which empowers and enables students to learn experientially by exploring global and local issues to search for solutions, meet people, discover new places and discuss new ideas,” says Shane Kells, an education alumnus of Canada’s Alberta and Australia’s New England universities with teaching and admin experience of international schools in Canada, Thailand, China and Korea who was appointed head of school in 2011. 

Given this strong enabling and exploratory learning support by the school’s management, it’s hardly surprising that CIS students are steadily improving their grades in the school-leaving exams of CIE and IBO. In 2016, 21 of 50 CIS students were graded A+ in the class X IGCSE exam of CIE and 57 students averaged 31/45 in the class XII IB diploma exam. 

To enable its 686 students including 349 girl children, Sterling Developers and the CIS management have invested heavily in contructing a thoroughly modern, globally benchmarked campus. It hosts eight buildings with a built-up area of 200,000 sq. metres featuring separate pre-primary, primary, middle and senior school blocks and separate air-conditioned hostels with double room accommodation for all boarders. The school’s 80 fully-wired classrooms are equipped with Apple Mac Mini computers and Apple TVs and overhead projectors, 13 science, computer and elementary Ipad labs bristling with latest equipment. The school’s two elementary and secondary school libraries house 18,000 print volumes and 450 DVDs and CDs apart from multiple online resources. Moreover, separate rooms are provided for dance, drama, arts and craft, martial arts, and yoga, supported by a full-fledged Performing Arts Centre. 

Sports facilities are also extensive and include a six-lane 25-metre swimming pool, fitness centre, a yoga/meditation room, a badminton court, cricket nets, two synthetic tennis courts with provision for floodlights, three basketball courts and an 88,000 sq. ft AstroTurf soccer field. Moreover, CIS offers students the option of specialised training in soccer, tennis, karate, cricket and swimming through partnerships with the Rohan Bopanna Academy (tennis), Michael Phelps Swimming Academy, Paris St. Germain Soccer Academy, BYFL Cricket and Shorin Ryu Academy (karate). 

“In less than two decades, CIS has established a national reputation as a top-ranked international school offering excellent globally benchmarked education. I believe we now have the expertise to replicate the CIS model elsewhere. Over the next five years, we plan to promote new K-12 international schools in Delhi and Alibag, near Mumbai. Simultaneously, we will continue to improve our academic processes, invest in professional development of teachers and upgrade infrastructure facilities at CIS,” says Sastri, who has played a lead role in enabling CIS to emerge as a nationally respected international school.