The International School of Beijing (ISB, ) is a non-profit international coeducational day school in Beijing, China. The school was founded in 1980 and offers a dual English and Chinese language program for students from EY to Grade 12. ISB is recognised by the Beijing Education Commission (BEC) as an independent school for expatriate children. History In the 1970s, a small foreign school was established in Beijing, under the auspices of the United States Liaison Office in Beijing, precursor to the US Embassy. Classes were held in a hallway in a diplomatic apartment compound in Sanlitun, with 8 students and 2 certified teachers. In 1980 the US Embassy merged its school with those of the British and Australian embassies. The Canadian and New Zealand embassies joined in, and the five nations together formally founded the International School of Beijing. Located on the grounds of the US Embassy, the school provided education for the children of the five founding embassies; eventually, as space allowed, children from other embassies were permitted to enroll. Bound by the strict requirements imposed on diplomatic schools, the founding embassies worked to meet educational needs of the growing expatriate community in Beijing. In 1988 under new regulations, China's Ministry of Foreign affairs officially registered ISB as a "school for diplomatic children." The campus moved to the Lido complex of offices and housing units, and the school was permitted to accept applications from all expatriate residents of Beijing. In 1991 ISB became the first school in Beijing to offer the full Diploma Programme of the International Baccalaureate Organization. And in 1997, the school was accredited by WASC (in the United States). In January 2002, the Beijing Municipal Education Bureau allowed ISB to be restructured as an "independent school for foreign children". In the same year, the school moved to a , purpose-built facility in the Shunyi district, a northeastern suburb of Beijing. The following year, ISB was accredited by the Chinese authority NCCT. It was awarded full accreditation from CIS, NEASC (United States), and again from NCCT (China) in 2007. In 2014, ISB opened its Futures Academy – an educational model designed to inspire creativity, develop problem-solving skills and effective communication, and encourage flexibility and cooperation. The model facilitates learning opportunities and experiences that cultivate these transferable skills and aims to empower students to take ownership of their learning. In 2016 ISB opened its Dual-Language program in EY