Shekou International School

Shenzhen's oldest international school and the default choice for North American expat families in Shekou, fully IB and not-for-profit since 1988.

SIS sits on three campuses in Shekou and Nanshan, runs the IB Diploma in high school and uses the American Common Core for English and maths lower down. WASC accreditation is intact and the school is governed as a not-for-profit. Harish Kanabar leads around 850 students from more than 40 countries, with a faculty largely drawn from the US, Canada, the UK and Australia.

Among Shekou expats, SIS is treated as the established option, with a settled North American feel and an active Parent Support Association. Families moving across from QSI tend to describe SIS as a step up in resourcing and senior-school depth. The honest caveat is location. Most SIS families live in the Shekou expat enclave, which can feel disconnected from the rest of Shenzhen and pushes a particular bubble experience for children growing up there.

• Long the default tier-1 international school for Shekou expat families, founded 1988 and ISS-managed. Recent forum signal has shifted from clear top-tier framing to a more cautious picture as governance and demographics change.
• The most detailed independent account is a 2023 long-form anonymous review rating the school. The writer alleges leadership instability after a head-of-school transition, an inexperienced new principal described as a puppet, lenient admissions and heavy hiring of inexperienced EAL teachers, and assemblies described as 'a blend of truck rallies and Billy Graham meetings'. Compensation is acknowledged as attractive and tax-free.
• A 2024 r/Internationalteachers commenter noted the school had 'had to let teachers go recently' but still rated it as a workable place to live and work. Several other 2024 and 2025 comments place SIS in upper tier 2 rather than tier 1.
• A counter-positive 2024 r/shenzhen post said it is 'the best school in Shenzhen' with the most qualified and smart teachers; the poster identified as a current teacher.
• Bilingual Chinese programme is a recent change. Reviewers describe SIS as having actively recruited Chinese students, which several frame as a dilution of the international cohort.
• Pre-COVID alumni and teacher comments remain positive. One former teacher said leavers typically moved to tier 1 schools or tier 2 schools in desirable locations and described colleagues as a mix of strong IB and emerging IB practitioners.