Most students from overseas who study at a school in the UK will do so at one of the 2,200 independent (or private) schools there. These schools may cover only primary or secondary education, while others cover all ages up to 18 years. Some of these schools take boarders, while the majority are for day students only. Information and advice about schools in the UK is available from the ISC information and advice service or ISCias (see www.isc.co.uk )
The Independent Schools Council (ISC) is the umbrella body representing 1,280 independent schools educating more than 500,000 children in the UK and Ireland plus select schools abroad. Its constituent members include the associations of Independent Schools in the UK that have accepted a Government approved system of quality assurance. Schools in these associations in membership of ISC are regularly monitored by the Independent Schools Inspectorate, or ISI. COBIS is the only overseas association to have accepted this official system of quality assurance, and to have become a Member of the Independent Schools Council. Other private schools in the UK receive a less rigorous Government inspection periodically to ensure that minimum standards are met, but there is currently no requirement for British schools overseas to have any form of inspection in many countries. Parents should therefore make careful enquires of their own when considering a choice of school.
British education outside of the UK is exclusively in private hands; the British Government does not support schools outside the UK (with the exception of a handful of schools for the armed forces, for example). There is, therefore, a wide variety of British schools worldwide varying in size, and age-range, and particularly in management/ownership structure (some are founded as companies, others as charities; some are owned by individuals, others by groups of parents and teachers). Since the British Government plays no part in monitoring these schools, the quality of education offered in these institutions can also, unfortunately, sometimes be variable. (See the article on "How to Choose a British International School").
A school teaching the British curriculum may not necessarily call itself a "British School", preferring to use the term "International School" or "British International School" to reflect its cosmopolitan student body. Equally, schools that call themselves a "British School" may primarily teach the local curriculum along with elements of the English curriculum to create a bi-lingual school.
Around the world there are many schools described as "International". This term can mean virtually anything, ranging from a purely national school of the host country that teaches English as a foreign language, through a host of schools that follow a range of different curricula mixed together in some way, to schools that follow a curriculum leading to the International Baccalaureate.
