From its first graduation class in 2001, and including the Class of 2015, the school has now graduated 500 students, with the vast majority proceeding directly to universities located around the world.
The 500th student to graduate from BISP was Roxanne Yu. A Philippine national swimmer, she is a hopeful for the Rio 2016 Olympics, and has already represented her country at the 2014 World Cup in Singapore; Youth Olympic Games, Nanjing; SEA Games; and World Championships, Doha 2014; breaking several national records along the way.
Altogether, this year’s graduating class is composed of 19 different nationalities, drawing from a truly diverse whole school student body – from pre-school to IB – of more than 60 nationalities.
Headmaster Neil Richards acknowledges that this is quite an achievement for the school in its relatively short history, and he is delighted to be a part of the school’s proud tradition, but he believes that schools must constantly evolve and that the best is yet to come.
“BISP cannot rest on past success, and although this is a good indicator that the school knows exactly what it is doing, there are always ways to improve the learning environment for the students,” he said.
“Many people in Phuket are aware of the outstanding success of our Sports Academies, but less aware of our Academic Academies in Business; Art and Design; Film and Media; and Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics (STEM).
“These academies provide an added dimension to the school and offer experiential opportunities for those with passion to pursue their interests or develop talents beyond external examinations and to a professional standard, before graduating to university.
“It is our job to see that students are offered a breadth of learning opportunities that extend to the highest possible levels, and back this up with an exceptional teaching staff. In this we can never be satisfied because learning is always open-ended.
“However, what is particularly pleasing is the growing interest in the school by the best universities from around the world, evidenced by the numbers who now wish to send their admission officers directly to the school to meet with our students.”
From this year’s graduating class, we have received seven scholarship offers for university study, the amounts ranging from approximately USD5,000 to USD65,000 per year of study.
Last month, Martyn Rowlands, the BISP College Counsellor, was one of only 22 international school college counsellors from around the world invited to an International Counselors Forum in Switzerland and Spain at the full expense of the Laureate International Universities Group.
Earlier this year, he was also one of a select group of counsellors invited to a regional forum in Taipei organised by New York University Abu Dhabi.
For more information about studying at BISP, visit bisphuket.ac.th. To learn more about their university partnerships, contact Martyn Rowlands: mrowlands@bisphuket.ac.th