The Beacon School

In Brief

The Beacon School is a serious option if you have children up to Grade 8 and want a small, IB-authorised non-profit school - the only one in Manila offering both PYP and MYP. The fees are substantial, and you'll need a plan for secondary from Grade 9 onwards.

The Beacon School was the first IB school in the Philippines, authorised for PYP in 2004 and MYP in 2007, and it's still one of a small number of schools in Metro Manila running inquiry-based IB education from Pre-K through Grade 8. Non-profit status and a deliberate cap at around 350 students mean the school has a genuinely different feel from the larger IB schools in BGC - class sizes stay small, teachers know children individually, and the parent community tends to be actively involved. The Chino Roces Avenue campus in Taguig puts it roughly 10-15 minutes from Makati on a clear day.

Fees combine USD and PHP components - a structure similar to ISM, but at lower total figures. Annual cost runs from roughly PHP 360K at Preschool to PHP 870K at Grades 6-8 at current estimates, before one-time entry fees (slot reservation PHP 75K, matriculation PHP 50K, capital development fee PHP 125K non-refundable). The school's entry costs add up: new families should budget PHP 200K-250K upfront beyond the first year's tuition. Families who've been through the admissions process say demand for places is consistent and wait-lists are real.

The school stops at Grade 8, which is the planning constraint every parent needs to build around from day one. The sister school, The Beacon Academy, handles Grades 9-12 in Binan, Laguna - the same campus town as Brent International - which involves a significant location shift for families based in Taguig or Makati. If your posting horizon runs past Grade 8, map out the transition clearly before you commit. If you have primary or early secondary children and a Makati-adjacent base, Beacon is among the stronger small IB schools in the city.