Mission: "The British International School, Shanghai seeks to prepare its students for their role in an increasingly challenging, cosmopolitan, and rapidly changing world."

All children of statutory age (5 years) and above at the British International School, Shanghai are taught using a curriculum based on the National Curriculum of England, that has been adapted to meet the needs of expatriate children.

This means they follow nationally agreed programmes of study in English, Mathematics, Science, Information & Communication Technology (ICT), History, Geography, Modern Foreign Languages, Art, Design, Music, Physical Education (PE) and Personal, Social & Health Education (PSHE), but which will also include an important Chinese programme including the teaching of Mandarin.

Progression:
The School also provides a service to expatriate parents by assessing all pupils following entry to school and monitoring their progress with a series of British standardised assessment tests.

These enable parents to see their child's performance and progress in comparison with all children of a similar age in the UK. Nursery and Reception (Foundation Stage) children (1 to 4 years) follow the Foundation Curriculum, based on the UK Early Learning Goals.