At Alice Smith, we pride ourselves on being regarded as a Tier 1 international school, and we ensure every decision we make is to the benefit of our students and their families.
In our school, your children will learn essential knowledge, discover new talents through extra-curricular activities and develop the necessary characteristics to become well-rounded adults.
Below, you’ll discover six reasons Alice Smith has earned our ranking as a Tier 1 school in Malaysia.
1. Truly British Education
At Alice Smith, we utilise a curriculum modelled on the English National Curriculum to ensure your children receive an internationally recognised education that will prepare them for any path they choose.
Our curriculum offers a comprehensive range of essential subject matter required for entry into top post-secondary institutions, focusing on Mathematics, Sciences and Language Studies and many more fundamental skills. We balance these with elective courses that encourage the development of new skills and the discovery of new passions and talents, which can consist of theatre or musical arts, sports and more.
By having the opportunity to learn a wide range of skills, your children will have a world of resources at their disposal and will be able to discover strengths and talents within them.
“We want our students to experience the excitement of discovering that they are capable of achieving more than they thought possible”, said Dr. Sarah Howling, former Secondary Principal. “We encourage them to embrace new opportunities and challenge and support them in developing resilience and determination.”
We also make sure to stay up-to-date, as educational standards are constantly evolving.
“We respond to UK curriculum developments in a timely fashion to ensure our students have qualifications that are entirely relevant,” said David Potts, Vice Principal of Learning and Teaching on our Secondary Campus.
The quality of our curriculum has earned us our reputation as a Tier 1 school in Malaysia, and we pride ourselves on imparting our students with the knowledge and skills they need to succeed in their lives.
2. Transferability
One advantage of utilising a curriculum that is widely recognised internationally is the ease at which our students are able to adapt to learning environments elsewhere.
Our curriculum is designed so students can easily pick up their education no matter where they end up in the world.
As an international school, we do everything possible to ensure incoming and outgoing students have everything they need to succeed while affecting their education as little as possible.
“We work closely with the schools to which our departing students are transferring to ensure alignment of curriculum/exam syllabus, where necessary. We also provide a wealth of information which allows the receiving school to understand a student's strengths and needs in order that they are able to maintain their learning with minimal disruption.”
The ability of our students to seamlessly transfer back to a school in the UK, or anywhere else in the world, is just one of the many reasons why we have earned a reputation as a Tier 1 school in Malaysia.
3. High Quality Teaching Staff
A world-class curriculum can only go so far if you do not have high quality teachers to impart this knowledge.
At Alice Smith, we place a high value on our teaching staff. As a Tier 1 school in Malaysia, we are able to attract top teachers from around the world.
“The quality of our teaching is intrinsically linked to the calibre of our staff,” said Potts, adding that most teachers at Alice Smith have at least two years of experience teaching at schools in the UK before joining us. Hiring teachers who have taught the very curriculum ours is modelled on means your children are receiving the same high quality education they would be if they lived in the UK.
We consistently invest in developing our staff’s skills and performing quality assurance tests to ensure our teaching staff is performing to expectations. These tests were recently recognised by the Council of British International Schools Overseas (COBIS), as well as receiving the UK Institute of Education's Professional Development Quality Mark.
Great teachers are essential for continual and quantifiable success as a school, and our teachers have proven themselves to be more than deserving of our Tier 1 classification.
Students themselves further help reinforce our Tier 1 ranking. To find out more about the attributes of a student at a Tier 1 school, click here.
4. Not-For-Profit
As the oldest not-for-profit British school in Malaysia, we invest our funding into providing a quality education for your children. All of our decisions at Alice Smith are made with the success of your children in mind, and our student success rates proving this.
“We invest all our resources in making sure that the education for the children we have in our care is the best that it can possibly be,” said Roger Shultz, our Head of School.
Being a not-for-profit school means everything you pay for your children’s education is invested right back into supporting them, whether that be through world-class teachers, improved operations, student services, an abundance of extracurricular activities and more.
As a Tier 1 not-for-profit school, we guarantee the needs of your children are placed above all else.
5. Impressive Exam Results and World-Class Post-Secondary Destinations
The success of our curriculum is reflected by our consistently high standardised test results, namely the (I)GCSE and A Level academic results, as well as the achievements of our graduates. Our students often attend world-class post secondary institutions including the prestigious UK Russell Group and several Ivy League universities.
“In Key Stages 4 and 5 we follow (I)GCSE and A Level courses in exactly the same way as UK schools and we achieve exceptionally good results with a non-selective intake,” said Potts.
At Alice Smith, we are proud to call ourselves the oldest not-for-profit school in Malaysia. With our world-class curriculum, incredible staff and our students-first mentality, we are able to offer your children everything they need to reach their fullest potential.
Learn more about what makes Alice Smith a Tier 1 school and how we compare to others internationally.