Canadian International School of Beijing

Run on the New Brunswick (Canada) curriculum alongside the full IB continuum, on two downtown Liangmaqiao campuses near the embassy area. Founded in 2005, around 1,400 pupils from Montessori nursery through Grade 12.

The combination of Canadian provincial curriculum plus PYP, MYP and DP is unusual in Beijing and is the reason most diplomatic Canadian families end up here. Location is the second pull: a downtown school inside the embassy belt, not a Shunyi commute. The two-campus split means younger and older pupils are kept apart, which families generally like.

Parents lean positive on teaching quality, transparent communication and well-equipped classrooms. The headline complaint is fees, which sit above 200,000 RMB at the top end and are a stretch for non-diplomatic and non-corporate-package families. Teacher-side feedback is more mixed, with leadership style the consistent grumble, though that has not translated into a strong negative parent thread.

• CISB is a recurring shorthand for the embassy-district expat school in Beijing. Expat parents place it among the schools Canadian and embassy families default to when they want IB without moving to Shunyi.
• Parent reviews sit across a small pool. The recurring praise focuses on experienced teachers, the diverse student body of more than 60 nationalities and the Liangmaqiao downtown campus.
• Cost is the most consistent caveat. One parent flagged annual fees north of 200,000 RMB; the AmCham China discount programme and the embassy population are part of how families absorb that.
• Staff signal is more cautious. A 2021 teacher review describes the school avoiding visa-related compensation during a contract dispute around China's quarantine rules. Teachers place CISB on the lower side of Beijing teaching salaries; competitor schools like BIBS and BCIS reportedly pay 1.5 to 2 times more.
• One parent discussion on closed schools mentioned a separate Canadian-branded operation outside Beijing that opened and shut several times over a decade. That history is unrelated to CISB itself but the brand similarity confuses readers; the Liangmaqiao school is a stable, longstanding operation.