Keystone Academy

Founded in 2014 by a group led by Edward Shanahan in Houshayu, Shunyi. A through-school running an immersive Chinese-English bilingual programme primary into a more English-dominant senior school, finishing on the IB Diploma. Boarding optional from Grade 7 and required from Grade 9.

Selection is the defining feature. Admission is competitive at every entry point, and applicants beyond Grade 1 must demonstrate working competence in both Chinese and English to slot into the bilingual immersion track. The roll is mostly Chinese passport holders by design, with a deliberate minority of international families. The 2025 cohort produced offers from Yale, Wharton, Oxford, Cambridge and Stanford, with around a third of leavers heading to top-10 global universities.

Facilities, boarding programme and teacher quality are the consistent positives. The honest framing for an expat family is that this is not an expat international school in the way ISB or Dulwich are. It is a Chinese-led bilingual school of significant ambition, and your child will be in a minority of non-Chinese speakers unless they already have strong Mandarin.

• High-fee, bilingual through-school in Shunyi, founded 2014, blending Chinese national curriculum elements with the IB and an American boarding model.
• Reddit commentary places Keystone in the top tier of Beijing schools alongside Dulwich Beijing for IB results, with strong global rankings on average score and 40+ point share.
• One commenters said Keystone tops the rankings; another noted it isn't in the top five Beijing schools but still made the list. The picture is consistent academic strength rather than blanket consensus.
• Demand sits with Chinese families holding foreign passports. Posts describe the school as 'in huge demand with Chinese parents' with 45% Chinese-passport students and 55% non-Chinese, mainly American, Korean, Canadian and Australian.
• Boarding is mandatory from grade 9 with floor-based 'dorm parents'; small classes (about 14 from grade 6) and a pastoral structure are the structural draws.
• An ISR fragment from the early years described the school as still settling in, with teaching extending beyond classroom hours; this is older and partial signal.