The Independent Schools Foundation was established in January 2000 as a registered charitable organisation to provide a choice of education for international students. The school was co-founded by Charles Kao and Frances Wong. In 2003, the Foundation established a non-profit, private independent school, The Independent Schools Foundation Academy, for Foundation Year to Grade 12 to cater for Mandarin and English education in an inquiry-based learning environment. In August 2003, the school began its temporary campus in Wanchai, with 56 students in Grades 1 to 4. It set up a second temporary campus in Causeway Bay before moving to a new campus in Pokfulam in July 2007. In February 2007, the school commenced its Foundation Year program, a preparatory year for students prior to Grade 1. The academic year 2007/08 marked the first full year of its Foundation Year program.
Campus
The campus opened in August 2007, in the Kong Sin Wan Tsuen Valley in Pokfulam, within the Island South District of Hong Kong Island, on a 13,152 sq. meter site. The campus includes classrooms and small-group teaching rooms, a library, a music room, a dance and drama room, a computer room, an arts and crafts room, a green corner, and a covered play area. Facilities shared between the primary and the secondary divisions include an assembly hall, four basketball courts, a horizontal climbing wall, a rooftop playground with running track and garden, a dining hall, and conference rooms. A seven-storey building completed in July 2011 which contains a 180-seat black-box theatre, art rooms, music practice rooms, a science laboratory; an indoor gymnasium with a vertical climbing wall, a 500-seat dining hall, a rooftop playground, a study centre; and group teaching rooms. In 2018, 2 new buildings were built. One including an 850 seat auditorium, 25-meter swimming pool, 4 squash courts, gym, and multipurpose tennis court. Another one with a certified molecular biology lab, more classrooms, and a brand new dining hall directed for secondary students, with Sandwich, Salad, Carvery Bars, etc.
