British School Manila


The British School Manila is a private international school in the Philippines. The school provides British education for children ages 3–18, following an adapted form of a British Curriculum and the IB Diploma. BSM students are prepared for end of Key Stage tests in Primary, GCSEs at 16, the IB Diploma at 18 and for life beyond school and university.

History

The British School Manila was founded in 1976, where it has grown from 2 classrooms and 32 students to over 900 students, representing 45 nationalities.
The school first operated in the old Union Church, then in 1980 moved to Merville, Parañaque. In September 2001, BSM relocated to purpose-built premises in Bonifacio Global City, in Metro Manila, Philippines, next to the International School Manila and the Manila Japanese School.
Two members of the British Royal Family have visited BSM. In 1999, Princess Anne visited the school's campus in Merville. In 2001, Prince Andrew, Duke of York attended the inauguration of the school's current campus at Bonifacio Global City. In 2004, he revisited the school to attend its GCSE awards ceremony. 16 years later, Princess Anne visited the school's current campus at Bonifacio Global City on March 19, 2015.

Campus

With the exception of the Main Building and Learning Resource Centre, all of the other buildings have been named after Philippine locations, people and events. The maximum class size is 25 for all years with the exception of Year 12 and Year 13 where the aim for a maximum class size is 18. The average class size is 22 students.
Facilities include an 8-lane 25-meter swimming pool, an on-campus 95x45m field using artificial turf for higher playability for tennis, football, cricket and multi-use, another sports field that is 100x50m for rugby, football and athletics, 6 Math rooms, 8 well-equipped science laboratories and several multipurpose rooms. It also includes two cafeterias, one for younger students and one for older students.

Creative Arts Centre

At the start of SY 2019–2020, BSM's new Creative Arts Centre opened. Designed for lessons in the visual and performing arts subjects, this state of the art building features four levels, along with a Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf. The first level consists of Drama and Dance rooms, the second level for Music and the third level for Art. It is colloquially referred to as the VPA building, mainly by students.