Our school’s name - Chinese International School - requires a brief explanation. We are Chinese first and foremost by virtue of a curriculum that is delivered in English and Putonghua (Mandarin). We are International both through the demographics of our student body, which includes approximately twenty-five nationalities, and through our commitment to fostering international mindedness via curricular and co-curricular offerings. As a School, we seek to be a friendly, smiling community in which the highest standards of academic excellence are embodied in confident, well-adjusted young people. I believe that whether you read about our collaborative teaching model in the Primary School, our arts program, our university placements, or any other aspect of the School, you will find CIS to be a school of uncommon quality and innovation.

When CIS opened its doors in 1983, its co-founders Nelly Fung, Kin-Yue Fu and Joyce Tai realized a long-held dream of a school that would offer the best of both Chinese and Western worlds. Born in Asia and educated in Asia and the West, they saw a need in the late 1970s for an educational institution in Hong Kong that could provide an alternative to local schools teaching mainly an exam-based curriculum and to international schools teaching mainly Western curricula. Their vision was for a school open to all regardless of nationality, race or creed, where students would achieve fluency in Chinese (Mandarin) and English and an understanding of the dual heritage that makes Hong Kong unique.

CIS remains true to that vision today. Dual-language and multicultural, it continues to break ground in its language teaching and to earn acclaim for preparing bright, articulate young people at home in the East or the West.