TISB vs Inventure vs Indus International: How They Compare

Comparison table

# TISB vs Inventure vs Indus International: How They Compare

Bangalore · Comparison

Three schools sit on most Bangalore shortlists for families wanting an international pathway: The International School Bangalore (TISB) on the Whitefield-Sarjapur corridor, Inventure Academy near Whitefield, and Indus International School at Sarjapur. They look superficially similar, with sprawling acreage, IB pathways and senior fees that climb past 10 lakh INR. They are not doing the same thing.

TISB is the long-established academic benchmark with the strongest IB Diploma headline. Indus is the IB-continuum-plus-boarding play on a 40-acre Sarjapur campus where roughly a third of pupils live in. Inventure runs a Cambridge IGCSE route with an experiential, arts-and-drama-heavy ethos that families either treat as the main draw or quietly route around.

At a glance

TISB opened in 2000 and has settled into the role of Bangalore's reference international school. The route is Cambridge IGCSE in the middle years feeding the IB Diploma at the top, unusual in India because few schools execute the transition smoothly. Boarding starts from Grade 5 across three houses, with around a quarter of the student body boarding. The parent demographic skews Indian professional, often internationally educated.

Inventure Academy opened in 2005 and runs a single Cambridge IGCSE track in the upper years, with ICSE feeding underneath. The school is known for taking creative subjects seriously and for an inquiry-and-project-led primary phase. Section sizes are capped at 25. NEASC accreditation alongside CISCE membership. EducationWorld ranked it #1 All-India Co-ed Day School in 2024-25.

Indus International opened in 2003 and runs the full IB continuum: PYP, MYP, DP. A 40-acre campus with horse riding, swimming and a senior leadership programme alongside academics. Around 1,100 pupils, 30-plus nationalities, boarding cohort of roughly a third. That last number is the headline differentiator: very few Bangalore schools offer IB at this scale with boarding genuinely embedded.

Curriculum

The cleanest way to read the three is by senior-year exit qualification.

TISB takes the IGCSE-then-IB route. IGCSE in Grades 9-10, IB Diploma in Grades 11-12. The pairing gives a structured exam-led middle years before the broader Diploma in the final two, which suits families who want a recognisable transition and do not want to commit to MYP from Grade 6. Cambridge Advanced sits on the curriculum list as a quiet alternative for pupils who prefer the Cambridge system end to end.

Inventure stays on the Cambridge track. ICSE underneath in primary and middle phases, then Cambridge IGCSE in the upper years. There is no IB Diploma. Families who specifically want IB at 16-18 rule Inventure out at the comparison stage. Families who want a Cambridge route from start to finish in a school where the early years run on inquiry and project lines find one of the better fits in the city.

Indus runs the full IB continuum. PYP, MYP, DP, with no Cambridge alternative. The argument for the continuum is coherence: assessment philosophy, learner-profile framing and inquiry approach run from age 3 to 18 without a switch. The flip side is that MYP can feel less exam-shaped than IGCSE, and families who want their child to walk into the DP off the back of a board exam may find that gap matters.

Results

The headline numbers, where each school publishes them, look like this.

TISB's IB Diploma average sits around 38, well above the global mean of roughly 30. Multiple 45, 44 and 43 scorers come out of recent cohorts. University destinations include Stanford, LSE, Oxford and the broader UK and US tier. The counselling team is one of the most frequently cited reasons families choose TISB over Stonehill or Oakridge.

Indus does not publish a clean Diploma average in the same way. The school points to scholarship numbers as its outcome metric, with a quoted single-student high of USD 393,000 and a combined cohort total of around USD 7.8 million in 2023-24. Scholarship totals reflect family demographics and university selection as much as Diploma performance, so the metric is not directly comparable to a TISB-style average. Ask on the visit for the actual DP average and the spread.

Inventure publishes Cambridge IGCSE results rather than IB Diploma, which makes direct comparison meaningless. The stronger external signal is the EducationWorld 2024-25 ranking at #1 All-India Co-ed Day School. Rankings of this kind work as a sanity check rather than an exam result. What matters more on a visit is the spread of grades in the year group your child would enter.

If the academic ceiling is the top question, TISB has the clearest published evidence. If the question is whether the school produces strong results for a normal cohort rather than a thin top end, all three need a direct conversation with current senior-year parents.

Fees and what they include

Senior-year tuition runs in roughly this shape, day pupils only:

• TISB: 5.5 to 11 lakh INR, with boarding additional from Grade 5.
• Inventure: 4.3 to 10 lakh INR, day only.
• Indus: 5 to 12 lakh INR, with boarding additional.

The published ranges hide what they include. TISB and Indus fees absorb a wide co-curricular menu and the campus facilities, with transport and boarding billed separately. Inventure's lower ceiling reflects the absence of a Diploma offering at the top and a smaller-scale day-only model. All three sit in the upper bracket of the Bangalore international market alongside CIS, Stonehill and Oakridge.

A separate question is fee predictability. Across the Bangalore market, parent friction tends to cluster around mid-year hikes and ancillary billing rather than headline tuition. Ask each school for the published fee schedule across the last three years. The year-on-year increase is a better guide to what the next five years will feel like than any single-year figure on a prospectus.

Community and feel

TISB reads as the school where the parent body is most academically driven. The cohort is heavily Indian professional, with strong international-school exposure in the parent generation itself. The local reputation is of focus and outcome rather than warmth, although senior-year parents speak well of the pastoral team and the boarding houses.

Inventure is the most pastorally distinctive of the trio. Drama, music and the arts get genuine timetable space, students take on event organisation earlier than they would at TISB or Indus, and the early years run on inquiry and project lines that some Indian families find too loose and others find liberating. Parent voice tends to be strong in both directions. Variability by teacher in middle and senior years is real.

Indus sits somewhere in between, with the boarding cohort giving the school a different texture from a pure day campus. The recurring praise is teacher quality and the senior leadership programme. The recurring complaint is around school management responsiveness and operational handling, which the school has acknowledged in public replies.

Admissions

All three are selective, with the selection bar shaped less by raw academic screening and more by year-group availability.

TISB at the established grades, particularly Grade 9 entry into IGCSE and Grade 11 entry into the Diploma, moves fast. Boarding places at Grades 5 to 8 are the bottleneck most often flagged by current families. Sibling priority operates, and the assessment process includes an interview alongside written assessments.

Inventure runs an assessment-and-conversation process across grade levels, with a strong emphasis on parent fit. The school positions itself as child-and-parent-centric, and families who want a transactional admissions experience sometimes find this irritating. Section caps at 25 mean mid-year movement is limited.

Indus admissions follow IB continuum logic, with entry points cleanest at PYP foundation, the start of MYP and the start of DP. Boarding capacity allows for entry that day-only schools cannot match, particularly for out-of-state Indian families and relocating expats arriving at unusual points in the academic calendar.

How to read the comparison

A family picking between these three is almost always answering one underlying question:

• If the question is: which school maximises the academic ceiling for an IB Diploma candidate? The answer leans: TISB.
• If the question is: which school fits a child who needs creative subjects taken seriously and an inquiry-led early years phase? The answer leans: Inventure, accepting a Cambridge-only senior phase.
• If the question is: which school works for full IB plus boarding on a single campus? The answer leans: Indus, with eyes open on operational consistency.

For families wanting two of these three for different reasons, the deciding variable tends to be commute, boarding need, or which year-group has space, not the headline brand.

FAQs

Does TISB offer A-Levels alongside the IB Diploma? Cambridge Advanced sits on TISB's curriculum list as a route for senior pupils who prefer to stay in the Cambridge system. Most families pick the Diploma. Confirm current senior-year provision directly with the school.

Can Inventure Academy students transfer into an IB Diploma school for Grades 11-12? A Cambridge IGCSE cohort can transition into the IB Diploma at another school, although the receiving school's admissions team sets the bar. Families who know they want IB Diploma usually pick a school that offers it end to end.

How does boarding work at Indus compared with TISB? Both run on-campus boarding with full house staff. Indus has roughly a third of pupils boarding; TISB has roughly a quarter, with boarding starting from Grade 5.

What is the realistic fee envelope across all three? At the senior end, day fees sit in the 9 to 12 lakh INR range. With transport, registration, capital fees and (at TISB and Indus) boarding on top, families should plan above the headline tuition.

Which is easiest to get into mid-year? None of the three are easy mid-year, particularly above Grade 6. Indus has the strongest mid-year flexibility because boarding capacity allows for entry points that day-only schools cannot match.