Introduction
Merchiston International School Shenzhen (MIS) is a British school offering both boarding and day options in Longhua District, Shenzhen. It is the first overseas campus of Merchiston Castle School in Edinburgh, founded in 1833. MIS opened in August 2018 and teaches the British curriculum to IGCSE and A Level for children aged 4 to 18.
MIS is licensed as a school that only accepts students who hold a foreign passport or identification. That single fact shapes everything else: who may apply, how fees are set, and why so much of what you read about the school online is wrong. This guide uses the school’s own published documents and Chinese government sources. Where a claim could not be verified, we say so instead of repeating it.
Key Facts at a Glance
Founded: Opened August 2018. Mother school Merchiston Castle School, Edinburgh, founded 1833.
Owner: Lighthouse (Shenzhen) Education and Culture Co Ltd, governed by a five-member Board of Governors.
Campuses: Longhua (ages 4–18, boarding and day) and Shekou, now branded the Qianhai campus (early years and primary, day only).
Curriculum: Early Years, British National Curriculum, IGCSE in Years 10–11, A Level in Years 12–13, with EPQ.
Class size: Maximum 22, and 16 in Early Years and A Level classes.
Boarding: Three houses — Pringle, Chalmers, Rogerson. Boarding from Year 3 per the school prospectus.
Eligibility: Foreign passport holders living in Guangdong; Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan students with a residence permit.
Entrance assessment: CEM computer-based test (max score: 160); recommended pass mark: 100. Student and parent interviews are also required.
Application fee: RMB 2,000.
Scholarships: Tuition-only awards, one or two years by year group, renewable on academic standard and conduct.
What Is Merchiston International School Shenzhen?
MIS is a British international school in Longhua District, Shenzhen. It is the first overseas campus of Merchiston Castle School from Edinburgh. It opened in August 2018 for children aged 4 to 18. It is owned by Lighthouse (Shenzhen) Education and Culture Co Ltd, licensed by Shenzhen authorities, and operates as a school for children of foreign nationals.
The Edinburgh connection is a licensing and sister-school relationship, not ownership. MCS does not own MIS. The link runs through people. Andrew Hunter was Headmaster of Merchiston Castle School from 1998 to 2018. He is now Senior Advisor of Lighthouse and Honorary Principal of Merchiston China. He writes the welcome on the school’s Board of Governors page. Duncan Moore, a governor, was Deputy Chairman of the MCS Edinburgh board at the time of the 2017 founding agreement.
The Board has five members: Jianjun Lyu as Chair, Huw Jones, Peng Du, Duncan Moore and Amy Shao, with Anna Li as Secretary. It meets three times a year for formal decisions. Operational authority sits with the Heads of School.
One School, Two Campuses, Three Academies
In April 2026, the school released a structural summary — the clearest document MIS has ever written about its organisation. It describes one school with two campuses and three academies:
Longhua main school — the full ages 4 to 18 British pathway, with boarding.
Royal Mile Academy — an internal academy for high-performing students aged 14 to 18, aimed at Oxbridge and G5 entry. Head: Kurt Gao.
Pengcheng Academy (Merchiston Academy, MAS) — a separate school that helps students leave the Chinese public system. The programme is three years long and moves quickly.
Qianhai campus — the early years and primary campus in Shekou, for ages 1.5 to 11.
Who Can Enroll at MIS Shenzhen?
The school’s autumn 2026 admissions notice is for children aged 4 to 18. It is open to foreign nationals living legally in Guangdong, and to students from Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan with a Residence Permit. Required documents are the student’s foreign passport and the parent’s identity document.
This is not the school being selective. It is national policy. Guangdong has rules for schools serving foreign students, and the Shenzhen Education Bureau’s 2025 notice states that these schools cannot enroll Chinese nationals. A mainland Chinese passport is a hard stop at the Longhua campus, whatever an agent tells you.
Two details matter for families based outside China. First, the eligibility criteria refers to foreign nationals legally residing in Guangdong Province. The school’s admissions page helps overseas candidates — they can take the test at their own school. These requirements appear contradictory, and the school has not published a rule reconciling them. If your family is applying from abroad and hasn’t moved to Guangdong, ask admissions in writing. Find out how they will handle your case before you pay anything.
On guardianship — the answer is not on any website, and it is not what most agencies tell you. We put the question to MIS admissions directly in July 2026. Two things came back. If both parents live abroad, the student needs a guardian in Guangdong. The student also needs a place to stay. Admissions later clarified the guardian must be in Shenzhen. This guardian will be the school’s contact for the child’s education and communication. Either way, that is a residence-permit requirement, not a school admissions requirement. The school does not ask for guardian or accommodation documents when you apply, and it does not arrange, support or advise on the visa.
Their words: ask the exit-entry authorities, the school does not handle it. So the guardian is essential to getting your child legally into the country, and entirely your problem to solve.
Alifa Provides the Guangdong Guardianship
This is the gap we exist to fill. Families placing a child at MIS from abroad can get help from Alifa Education Services. We provide a guardian in Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, and take care of the paperwork.
Alifa provides a named local guardian the school can contact about your child’s education, attendance, and welfare.
Guardian authorisation documents are prepared in two languages, notarised when needed, for the residence permit application.
Your child needs a place to go during breaks. MIS expects the guardian to collect a boarder at least once a month. The school does not offer weekend boarding over public holidays such as National Day and Mid-Autumn.
Alifa is the school’s local contact, handling medical consent and other practical tasks. A parent eight time zones away cannot manage these things in the same afternoon.
Where Are the Campuses, and How Do They Differ?
MIS has two campuses. Longhua is the main campus at No.12 Shilongzai Road, Dalang, and covers ages 4 to 18 with boarding. The second campus is at No.1009 Nanhai Boulevard, Shekou, Nanshan, and covers early years and primary only. It is called both the Shekou campus and the Qianhai campus. There is only one site.
The double naming creates confusion. Many guides list Shekou and Qianhai as separate campuses. They are the same address. In 2024, the school partnered with Hong Kong Baptist University Affiliated School Wong Kam Fai, and renamed the Shekou junior campus to Qianhai campus. This campus will serve children from Hong Kong and Macao, and offers a Hong Kong curriculum track. The English contact block still says “Shekou Campus.”
| Longhua Campus | Shekou / Qianhai Campus | |
|---|---|---|
| Address | No.12 Shilongzai Road, Xinshi Community, Dalang, Longhua, 518108 | No.1009 Nanhai Boulevard, Shekou, Nanshan, 518000 |
| Ages | 4–18 (Early Years to Year 13) | Early Years to Year 5 per the current fee sheet; the school’s 2026 article describes ages 1.5–11 |
| Boarding | Yes, three houses | No boarding described |
| Exam years | IGCSE and A Level | None |
| Curriculum | British, with the Edinburgh Merchiston Curriculum in Years 7–9 | British primary, plus a Hong Kong curriculum track since 2024–25 |
| Contact | mis_admissions@merchiston.cn 400-867-0177 |
Shekou-admissions@merchiston.cn (0755) 21600824 |
The Qianhai campus is not simply a smaller version of Longhua. Its intake channel is broader. The 2024 relaunch lets children of overseas Chinese join, as well as returned talent in the Qianhai zone. Important: this campus does not have government approval as a designated Hong Kong and Macao children’s school. The name appears to be school branding supported by a Hong Kong school partnership, not a licence category.
What Curriculum Does MIS Teach?
MIS offers an Early Years programme based on the EYFS framework. It then follows the British National Curriculum from Key Stages 1 to 3. In Years 10 and 11, students take IGCSE courses. In Years 12 and 13, they study A Levels, offered through Cambridge International or Edexcel. The EPQ is available as enrichment. Mandarin is a core subject throughout.
Years 7 to 9 run what the school calls the Edinburgh Merchiston Curriculum. It is not a separate qualification. The school describes it as a skills component of the UK curriculum, covering essay writing, project research, and public speaking — delivered before IGCSE.
Subjects listed on the official curriculum page:
IGCSE — Core Subjects
IGCSE — Electives
A Level
The curriculum page lists Cambridge International and Edexcel as exam boards. The fee sheet shows an AQA logo. Three boards are in play, and the school does not publish which subject sits with which board. If a specific syllabus matters to your child’s university plan, ask per subject.
Photography and Product Design appear in several circulating subject lists. Neither is on the school’s current A Level page — though Photography does run as a CCA.
Mandarin is where MIS separates itself from schools that treat Chinese as a token subject. Juniors study Mandarin every day. All students continue in Years 7 to 9. Most carry on in Years 10 and 11, with qualifications banded from beginner to native level. Mandarin is available at A Level. Chinese culture is taught through Art, Music and Performing Arts.
Accreditations
What Does Boarding at MIS Actually Look Like?
Boarding students are housed across three houses at Longhua. Pringle houses junior boarders. Chalmers houses senior boys in Years 7 to 13, split into East Wing (Years 7–9) and West Wing (Years 10–13). Rogerson houses senior girls in Years 7 to 13, split into North and South. Boarding starts in Year 3 per the school prospectus.
The house names reflect the school’s Edinburgh roots. Rogerson is named after John Rogerson, MCS headmaster from 1863 to 1898. Pringle is named after John Summers Pringle, an MCS pupil from 1896 to 1901 who later served as a school governor. Chalmers refers to the founding Chalmers family line.
The daily routine is published in detail, and it is stricter than most boarding schools in Shenzhen:
No smartphones. Students may not bring one. The school issues each boarder a calls-only handset, and landlines on each floor are used for scheduled midweek family contact.
Laptops collected each evening by staff and counted back in.
Supervised prep after dinner — roughly 18:45 to 20:30 in the senior houses, and 17:30 for Pringle juniors.
Lights out: 20:30 in Pringle · 21:45 in Chalmers · 21:30–22:00 in Rogerson (depending on year group).
Full-time medical staff in the school medical room provide round-the-clock cover for boarding students.
Resident tutors live on the same floors as students. Common rooms every other floor have laundry, kitchen appliances, a small library and a pool table.
Weekends are programmed rather than empty. Saturdays run staff-led activities in the morning and off-campus trips in the afternoon. Sundays run study and sport, with brunch from 11:00 to 13:00. Each month there are go-karting, camping, and Disneyland trips, announced ten days ahead.
What the school does not publish is the exeat policy — whether boarding students go home weekly, fortnightly or by arrangement. Ask.
What Does MIS Cost?
For 2026–27, the Longhua campus publishes the following tuition and boarding fees. Boarding at Qianhai is RMB 120,000 to 160,000 including meals.
| Year Group | Annual Tuition (single payment) | Boarding per Year |
|---|---|---|
| Early Years, ages 4–5 | RMB 200,000 | Not offered |
| Years 1–6, ages 5–11 | RMB 235,000 | RMB 70,000 — optional, Years 3–6 only |
| Years 7–9, ages 12–14 | RMB 265,000 | Single 90,000 · Double 80,000 · Triple 70,000 |
| Years 10–11, ages 14–16 | RMB 280,000 | Single 90,000 · Double 80,000 · Triple 70,000 |
| Years 12–13, ages 16–18 | RMB 300,000 | Single 90,000 · Double 80,000 · Triple 70,000 |
One footnote on that table matters more than its size suggests. Weekend or occasional boarding is charged at RMB 300 a day, meals not included. Admissions told us this covers staff overtime. Occasional boarding is a valid choice, not a full commitment — but check the school’s conditions, as they are strict.
There is also a sibling discount: a second child pays 90% of tuition, a third or later child pays 85%. It is applied to the child with the lower tuition — so a family with one child in Year 12 and one in Year 2 receives the reduction against the Year 2 fee.
Other costs on the same 2026–27 chart: school bus RMB 13,000 to 18,000 · day-student lunch RMB 9,800 · textbooks and uniform priced individually · some CCAs are chargeable, with amounts in the activities section below.
Refunds, Penalties and Payment Terms
| Term | What It Says |
|---|---|
| Application fee | RMB 2,000, which includes the entrance test fee. Non-refundable and non-transferable once paid. |
| Place-reservation fee | Withdrawn. The website still describes an RMB 18,000 fee at offer stage; admissions confirmed in July 2026 that it no longer applies. |
| Registered but never enrolled | 90% of tuition is refunded. |
| Withdrawal refund | Tuition paid ÷ 184 instructional days × (184 − days actually attended). Under one month attended counts as one month. Boarding fees use the same formula. |
| Notice period | Written notice one full term in advance. Miss it and the school charges the remaining term. |
| Late payment | 1.5% per month. Students may be barred from class, and reports withheld, until accounts are settled. |
| Card surcharge | 1% on domestic cards, 3% on foreign-issued cards, payable in person at the Finance Office only. |
| Fapiao | The original tax receipt must be surrendered to obtain any refund. No fapiao, no refund. Lost fapiao cannot be reissued, and none is issued for a prior academic year once a new one starts. |
| Payment channel | The School Pal online portal, with invoice number and student name on every payment. Refunds settle within 15 working days of the academic year ending. |
| Extras | Day-student lunch, school bus, textbooks, IGCSE and A Level entry fees, starred fee-paying CCAs, individual music lessons. Amounts unpublished. Bus fees are non-refundable once a term starts. |
Read the 184-day divisor and the one-term notice rule together. A family that pulls a child out mid-term without notice can end up paying for a term the child did not attend, and still be pro-rated against 184 days. This is the clause to model before you sign.
How MIS Compares on Published Fees
| School | Published Annual Tuition | Boarding | Intake Restriction |
|---|---|---|---|
| MIS Longhua | RMB 200,000–300,000, 2026–27 | Yes, from Year 3 — RMB 70,000–90,000 | Foreign passport, or HK/Macao/Taiwan residence permit |
| MIS Qianhai/Shekou | RMB 120,000–160,000 incl. meals (ages 1.5–11), 2026 | No | Broader; includes HK/Macao and some returnee families |
| Harrow Shenzhen Qianhai | RMB 291,400 (Reception) – 360,300 (Y9–13), 2025–26 | Yes, RMB 119,800 | Foreign, HK/Macao/Taiwan, and qualified Chinese nationals |
| International School of Nanshan (ISNS) | RMB 219,000–274,000, 2026–27 | No | Foreign passport or HK/Macao/Taiwan ID |
| QSI Shenzhen | RMB 140,400–248,400, 2026–27 | No | School for children of foreign nationals |
| BASIS Shenzhen | RMB 264,200–326,800 (quoted in Harrow’s own comparison, not by BASIS) | No | School for children of foreign nationals |
| SCIE (深国交) | Not published in retrievable form | Yes | Not a foreign-nationals’ school; admits Chinese nationals by exam |
Read the top two rows together. A Year 12 boarder at MIS in a double room costs RMB 380,000 a year for tuition and boarding. The nearest equivalent, Harrow Shenzhen, is RMB 360,300 plus 119,800, or RMB 480,100. MIS runs roughly RMB 100,000 a year cheaper at the senior boarding end, and boarding from Year 3 is rare in Shenzhen at any price.
Does MIS Offer Scholarships?
Yes. MIS scholarships cover tuition only. Families must pay all other fees — including application fees, boarding, co-curricular fees, uniforms, and learning resources. Awards run one academic year for Junior and Lower Senior students, and two years for Years 10 and 11 and Years 12 and 13. Renewal depends on academic standard, conduct and participation.
A scholarship does not cover the RMB 2,000 application fee. View the school’s scholarship criteria on their admissions page.
How Does Admission Work?
Applicants apply online, submit documents, and pay a non-refundable RMB 2,000 entrance assessment fee. Years 1 to 3 sit a one-to-one assessment. Juniors and Seniors take a CEM computer-based test by Cambridge Assessment, with a maximum score of 160 and a recommended pass mark of 100. They also have an English interview and a parent interview. The whole session takes about an hour.
The CEM test covers graphical reasoning, mathematics, skills, and vocabulary. It adapts as you answer — difficulty changes with each response, stopping a child from sailing through easy questions. Older third-party guides describe CAT4 instead. For the 2026 intake the school’s own notice names CEM.
The student interview is one-on-one, in English, testing listening skills, spoken expression and reasoning. The parent interview explores the family’s views on education and readiness to collaborate with the school — it can also be conducted in Chinese. External English scores are accepted as optional supporting evidence, but only IELTS or TOEFL. No minimum score is published.
Timeline
Apply online at merchiston.cn, or call the admissions hotline. The office phones the family within two working days.
Bring five things to assessment day: completed application form with photo; student’s passport copy; both parents’ passports or IDs; school reports for the most recent year; and the RMB 2,000 fee. No guardian, accommodation or visa paperwork required at this stage.
Attend an assessment session. Whole-school open days combined with entrance exams ran on 13 June, 27 June and 11 July 2026. Arrive 15 minutes early to register and pay.
Receive the outcome by email. The school’s published process chart says an offer letter arrives 10 to 14 days after assessment, with one week to accept. Its 2026 intake notice says one to three working days, with five days to accept.
If declined, reapplication is possible after six months — conditional on meeting the school’s recommendations and providing proof. A waiting list operates when candidates outnumber places.
Overseas applicants can take the assessment at their current school. Admissions confirmed this can be done online. Per-stage application deadlines are not published.
One clause deserves reading before you invest in the process. The school’s admissions chart notes that MIS “reserves the right to decline an application for school and/or summer/winter camps if we think we cannot provide the support the applicant may need.” Families with children needing extra academic or language support should ask directly, early and in writing, what support exists — before paying the assessment fee.
One widely repeated cost has now been withdrawn. The Chinese-language Application Information page says you must pay a place-reservation fee of RMB 18,000 when accepting an offer. Admissions told us in July 2026: “没有了，现在已经不存在了” — it no longer exists. The school’s own web page is out of date on this. If anyone quotes you RMB 18,000 at offer stage, query it.
What Are the University Admission Outcomes?
For the Class of 2026, MIS reported 51 graduates holding 171 offers as of 26 April 2026, rising to 192 offers by mid-July. G5 and Hong Kong top-three offers together numbered 35, held by approximately 68% of graduates. The cohort included one Oxford offer and one Cambridge offer — the school’s first year with both.
| Cohort | Graduates | Offers | Oxford / Cambridge |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | Not published | Average 5 per student, as of 1 Apr 2024. Named: Imperial 3, UCL 12, Tsinghua 1, HKU 2, CUHK 3, HKUST 3, Melbourne 9, Manchester 8 | None listed |
| 2025 | 26 | 109 offers as of 30 Apr 2025, including 25 G5 offers | 1 Cambridge offer, Mathematics, and a confirmed enrolment |
| 2026 | 51 | 171 as of 26 Apr 2026; 192 as of mid-July. G5 breakdown in July: Oxford 1, Cambridge 1, Imperial 6, UCL 20 | 1 Oxford offer (Biochemistry) and 1 Cambridge offer (Natural Sciences) |
| University | Offers | University | Offers |
|---|---|---|---|
| Oxford | 1 | King’s College London | 12 |
| Cambridge | 1 | Manchester | 22 |
| Imperial College London | 6 | Edinburgh | 6 |
| UCL | 21 in April, revised to 20 in July | Warwick | 6 |
| University of Hong Kong | 4 | Amherst College | 1, with a full scholarship |
| Chinese University of Hong Kong | 2 | Also named | UC San Diego, Univ. of Washington Seattle, Northeastern, SAIC, Virginia Commonwealth |
The counts for Warwick, Manchester, Edinburgh, and King’s College London are part of the “Hua-Man-Ai-Wang” cluster — just below the G5. Twenty-two Manchester offers from 51 graduates tells you more about the school’s median outcome than one Oxford offer does.
As of 1 December 2025, the school had seven interview invitations from Oxford and Cambridge for the 2026 cycle, plus one from Imperial and two from the HKU Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine. Interview invitations are not offers. Seven Oxbridge invitations came in; two led to offers.
The school shared individual highlights. A 2025 graduate studies Mathematics at Cambridge, having scored 600/600 in A Level Further Mathematics, 9/9 in TMUA, grade S in STEP 2, grade 1 in STEP 3, and earned an Outstanding Pearson Learner Award. A 2026 Cambridge offer holder received a Prince Philip Scholarship the school values at around RMB 2 million. A 2026 graduate took a full scholarship to Amherst College.
The school reported that 29% of A Level candidates achieved A* grades, and 43% of IGCSE candidates did so in the August 2024 series. Note the measure: that is the share of students who achieved A* grades, not the share of all grades awarded at A*. The two are not comparable and are frequently confused. No official 2025 series statistics were found. In the 2026 HSBC and Forbes China International School Selection (published 27 April 2026), MIS ranked ninth out of thirty junior-high schools for foreign nationals — its first year on the list. Different rankings use different methods; read any single placement with care.
Who Leads the School, and Who Teaches?
Marion Muetzelfeldt is the Principal of the School, appointed in autumn 2022. Before that, she worked at Merchiston Castle School in Edinburgh for about forty years as Deputy Head Academic. Benjamin Webster is Executive Head of School. Class sizes are capped at 22, and at 16 in Early Years and A Level classes.
Leadership TeamMarion Muetzelfeldt — Mathematics graduate from Royal Holloway, University of London.
Benjamin Webster — Executive Head of School.
Jon Banks — Head of Juniors. BA with QTS in Primary Education; eighteen years of experience in Shanghai.
Wendy Yuan — Vice Principal; M.Ed.
Kurt Gao — Head of Royal Mile Academy; Master’s in Education from Queensland University of Technology.
Daryl McGee, Fred Zhang, and Katie Worner — Deputy Heads.
What the School Told Us Directly
In July 2026 we put the questions this article could not answer from published sources to the MIS admissions office. Their answers cover guardianship, visas, Year 7 boarding, overseas assessment, and weekend plans. None of this is on the school’s website.
We are quoting a written and verbal exchange with the admissions team, not a policy document. Think of it as current practice, not official policy. Restate anything important in your admission contract.
Guardianship and Visas
Where both parents remain overseas, the student needs a guardian in Guangdong and accommodation in the province. That guardian is the school’s point of contact for the child’s education and day-to-day communication. On visas, admissions was direct: the school does not support or assist with the student visa process. Families arrange it themselves. Their framing was that if you can solve the visa, there is no eligibility problem — which reads as an operational filter rather than a legal one.
Boarding at Year 7: Opt-out, Not Opt-in
This one is easy to get backwards, so precisely: at Year 7 and above, boarding is the default and day attendance is the exception. Admissions confirmed that a family can opt out of boarding — but must submit a special non-boarding application form that the Principal needs to approve. Day attendance is available, but it is granted rather than chosen.
The 2021 prospectus’s claim of “full boarding for Years 7 to 13” is mostly accurate but does not mention the formal opt-out option. If day attendance is essential for your family, raise it before the assessment, not after the offer.
Conditions for Weekend Boarding
Three things overseas families should know before assuming a child can simply stay at school:
Weekend boarding costs RMB 300 a day on top of normal fees, meals excluded.
The school expects the guardian to collect the child at least once a month. A boarding student is not meant to remain on campus continuously.
Weekend boarding is not offered over public holidays — National Day and Mid-Autumn were the examples given. Families must arrange off-campus accommodation during these periods.
This is the most important part of the guide for families placing a child in Shenzhen while living abroad. Read it with the fee chart. A guardian is not a formality for signing forms. They need a home the child can go to, monthly, and across every public holiday.
Overseas Assessment
Candidates abroad can be assessed online. The RMB 2,000 registration fee applies regardless. The assessment lasts about half a day, covering mathematics, skills, logical reasoning, and an English interview with the Principal. There is also a parent interview. The Principal’s direct involvement is worth preparing for — this is not a screening call with an admissions officer.
Merchiston, MCS, MAS and the Exam Centre: The Entity Map
| Entity | What It Is | Who It Admits |
|---|---|---|
| MCS — Merchiston Castle School, Edinburgh | Scottish independent boys’ school, founded 1833, in Colinton, Edinburgh. The licensor and mother school. | UK independent-school admissions. No Chinese nationality rules. |
| MIS — Merchiston International School, Shenzhen | The school this guide covers. Two campuses. Owned by Lighthouse (Shenzhen) Education and Culture Co Ltd. | Foreign passport holders, and HK, Macao and Taiwan residence-permit holders. |
| Royal Mile Academy | An academy inside MIS for high-performing students aged 14 to 18, on an Oxbridge and G5 track. Not a separate institution. | MIS students who meet its academic bar. |
| MAS — Merchiston Academy 曼彻斯通鹏程书院 | A separate school launched in 2026, developed from the Merchiston Songshan Lake Academy in Dongguan. Compressed three-year route from the Chinese public system to A Level, with an AI-focused pitch. Tuition stated as below RMB 200,000 a year. | Positioned for students transferring out of the Chinese public system. No explicit passport policy is published. |
| BRS — Beijing Royal School / Fazheng | Partner in the Wangfu Merchiston International Assessment Centre at MIS, also styled the BRS–Merchiston Greater Bay Area International Examination Centre. Offers A Level, Cambridge series, AP, ACT, IELTS and TOEFL sittings. | Not an MIS owner. No ownership change is documented. |
This matters commercially, not just for tidiness. Families with mainland Chinese passports cannot enter MIS. They should look at Merchiston Academy instead. Anyone comparing the two should know they are different schools with different licences and different fee levels.
One footnote for exam-board watchers. Pearson’s published centre list shows Merchiston Academy at Songshan Lake, a different entity. MIS’s own award announcement gives its Pearson centre number as 92334. If board authorisation matters to you, ask each entity for its own centre number rather than assuming the family shares one.
Traditions, Facilities and the Napier Connection
Facilities on the Longhua campus include libraries, multimedia audio-visual classrooms, science laboratories, a theatre (described in the 2021 prospectus as a black box theatre), a recording studio, an indoor swimming pool, basketball and tennis courts, an indoor virtual golf hall, a gymnasium, and landscaped gardens.
The school runs three terms. For 2026–27: Term 1 runs 19 August to 18 December; Term 2 runs 5 January to 2 April; Term 3 runs 12 April to 25 June. Key dates: Merchiston Day on 24 October, Challenge Week on 2–6 November, a residential trip on 14–18 June, and two Working Saturdays on 23 January and 8 May.
Two things on that calendar matter if you are booking flights from abroad. The Spring Festival break runs a full 1–19 February — long enough to justify a trip home. And no half-term breaks are published inside any term; the only gaps are Chinese public holidays. Families used to a UK or American calendar should plan around this rather than assume an October or February half term exists.
Official traditions include MCS sporting traditions, start-of-term ceremonies, MIS Founders’ Day, Halloween, St Andrew’s Day, Christmas, Winter Market, Chinese New Year, and Love Boarding. The school motto is “Ready Ay Ready” — the Merchiston school song carried over from Edinburgh.
Frequently Asked Questions
Alifa Education Services
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