British Education Korea, Seoul | International Schools Guide

A homegrown British curriculum group founded in 2010 and now running five campuses across Seoul, Bundang and Dongtan from age 2 through 18.

BEK started with a Pre-Prep in Bundang in 2010, added Dongtan in 2011, and has since grown to BEK Secondary in Gangnam plus BEK Prep and BEK Lodge feeder sites. The programme follows the English National Curriculum with Cambridge IGCSEs and A Levels in the senior years, and the group reports 73 percent A* grades at IGCSE in 2024. COBIS Patron status is the main external accreditation marker.

Long-tenure families talk about a recognisably British classroom feel, small year groups and children who are visibly happy on the bus, and they tend to contrast it with Korean-style English programmes rather than with the larger international names. Facilities and cohort breadth are leaner than the Songdo or Seocho heavyweights.

Teachers and former staff on Korean teaching forums treat British Education Korea (BEK) primarily as a hagwon trading on a school identity, with sustained warnings to teachers and visa-holders.
One teacher wrote: 'Under accredited schools you have British Education Korea. I know for a fact they have no accreditation... They are licensed as a hakwon.' The same post says staff teach 'illegally on E2 visas,' that the operation was previously known as Eton House and was 'shutdown by immigration' in 2017 with teachers deported and banned from re-entering Korea, after which it rebranded.
Another teacher said BEK is 'the reason I have a 5 year ban from Korea' after a 2017 immigration raid and described the school name in Korean as still saying hagwon.
A 2024 teacher commenter said the legitimate registration with the Korean Office of Education is the test that matters, and that 'fake international schools have names like British Education Korea' and use the visa type that triggered the prior crackdown.
One teacher's reply was blunt: 'Right. Avoid BEK, British "Education" Korea, at all costs.'
A teacher review from late 2025 rates the school overall, calling it 'chaotic and inconsistent with extremely high turnover rate amongst staff' and rating administration and atmosphere 'terrible' while still praising teachers as 'very good.' US military-base parents in Osan have considered it as a daycare option after the rebrand from Eton House.

Hagwon licensing and accreditation status. Multiple Reddit teachers state BEK is registered with the Korean government as a hagwon (language academy) rather than an international school, and that COBIS or CIS membership does not change that.

2017 immigration raid and rebrand from Eton House. Commenters with personal experience say the operation, then trading as Eton House Prep, was raided in 2017, foreign teachers were deported and banned from Korea, and the school later rebranded as BEK.

Visa risk for teachers. Posters warn that the school issues E-2 visas rather than the E-7 visa used by recognised international schools, putting staff at risk of removal in any future crackdown.

Day-to-day school running. An ISD teacher review describes chaotic operations and high turnover; administration and atmosphere are rated terrible, while individual teachers are still rated very good.

Park Su-jin