Beijing Huijia Private School, Beijing

Boarding and day school in Changping with around 2,000 students, founded in 1993 and the first IBO-authorised school in mainland China. Full PYP, MYP and DP since the late 1990s, with a track record sending graduates to top US and UK universities.

Heritage matters here. Huijia ran the IB Diploma in China before most peers were even thinking about it, and in 2016 it ranked eleventh in mainland China for placements at top American universities. Roll mixes Chinese and international students across 75 classes, with more than 500 staff.

The honest signal on Huijia is mixed. The IB infrastructure is real, and committed teachers describe a school that genuinely changes children. The harder thread is operational: turnover at the high school under recent leadership has been high, with serious complaints from foreign teachers about working conditions, and questions raised about whether daily classroom practice actually matches the IB philosophy on the door. The Changping location is far from central Beijing. The historic reputation pulls families in, but cohort retention and current Diploma score distribution tell the truer story.

Multiple ex-staff posts in 2024 and 2025 describe the secondary leadership as toxic, with claims that the high school principal trash-talks departing employees and gives negative references.
Teachers in the same threads say staff have been fired with little notice and pressured to inflate grades to flatter college admissions stats.
Working hours come up repeatedly, with one commenter calling them "longer hours than PwC" and another citing 7am to 5:30pm days plus weekend duties.
A 2017 Postmedia investigation, recirculated in a 2021 Reddit post, reported a Canadian teacher employed at Huijia from 2011 had previously been stripped of his BC teaching credentials over historical sex offences against students; he resigned after the reporting.
Counter-views are limited but exist: one commenter described it as a stable T2B school in Changping with locally strong reputation, suitable as a stepping-stone for inexperienced teachers with thick skin.
Commenters consistently flag the Changping location as remote, cold in winter and far from central Beijing, with the upside of access to mountains, cycling and skiing.
One ex-staff commenter said the school is not financially stable.