Introduction
Shenzhen Senior High School International Division (SID) is the international track of Shenzhen Senior High School, a leading public school in Shenzhen. The school calls it the International Course System. It sits at Central Campus North, 8 Zetian Road, Futian District, Shenzhen 518043. SID runs three exam tracks side by side: the IB Diploma, AP and A-Levels. It is the only public IB World School in Guangdong province.
Very little has been written about this school in English. In Chinese, the name 深圳市高级中学 is famous. Local parents shorten it to 深高, or “Shen Gao”. This guide covers where the school is, what students study, where they go next, and how a student actually gets in.
Key Facts
| Field | Detail |
|---|---|
| English name | Shenzhen Senior High School International Division (SID) |
| Chinese name | 深圳高级中学国际课程体系 |
| Parent school | Shenzhen Senior High School (Group) — 深圳市高级中学（集团） |
| Local short name | 深高 — “Shen Gao” |
| School type | Public. Run by the Shenzhen city education bureau. |
| Main school opened | 1997 |
| SID opened | 2009 |
| Exam tracks | IB Diploma, AP and A-Levels. Students choose their own direction. |
| IB school code | 051708 — the only public IB World School in Guangdong |
| AP centre code | 694603 — authorised by the College Board |
| Cambridge centre code | CN746 — IGCSE and A-Level |
| Campus | Central Campus North 中心校区北区, opened September 2003 |
| Address | 8 Zetian Road, Futian District, Shenzhen, Guangdong 518043 — 广东省深圳市福田区泽田路8号 |
| Metro | Five lines within a few hundred metres: 1, 2, 7, 9 and 11 |
| Group size (Sept 2024) | 8 campuses, about 14,500 students, over 1,300 staff |
| Awards | National Model High School (2006). Guangdong Level-1 School. UNESCO Associated School. |
| Motto | “For the Future” 为了未来 |
| Who can apply | Only students already accepted by the main school through the Shenzhen entrance exam |
| Official website | cn-school.com (Chinese) |
Where the School Is
Shenzhen Senior High School has eight campuses. Parents often go to the wrong one. SID is not on the main campus.
Central Campus North — this is where SID is8 Zetian Road, Futian District, Shenzhen 518043 （福田区泽田路8号）. Opened September 2003.
Grade 12 students share this campus. There is an IB library on the second floor.
Sports areas include basketball, badminton, volleyball and tennis courts. There is no running track here.
2 Chuntian Road, Futian District, Shenzhen 518043 （福田区春田路2号）. Opened 1997.
The site covers about 47,000 m². Grades 10 and 11 study here.
About a 350-metre walk from Central Campus North.
East Campus in Pingshan
South Campus in Futian
North Campus in Longhua
The Senior High Park in Longgang, which holds four separate high schools
Longgang School
Yantian School
One campus in Sihui, Zhaoqing
What the Area Is Like
Futian is the business and government centre of Shenzhen. Both central campuses sit inside Futian Central District, in the Xiangmihu area. The city government describes the spot as quiet but central, with Xiangmi Park close by. Five metro lines run within a few hundred metres: lines 1, 2, 7, 9 and 11.
This is a dense city district. It is not a green suburban campus with wide playing fields. Families who want space usually look at Nanshan or Longgang. Families who work in Futian, or who cross to Hong Kong often, find this location very easy.
The Three Exam Tracks
SID students do not sit the gaokao. They study for exams that universities abroad accept. SID holds a licence for all three of the main systems, and students choose their own direction. Each track has an official centre code, so you can check the licences yourself.
IB DiplomaLicensed by the International Baccalaureate Organisation. SID is the only public IB World School in Guangdong province.
The campus has its own IB library, and the school also runs a Pre-IB class.
An authorised AP course centre, licensed by the College Board in the United States.
AP suits students aiming mainly at universities in the US.
Licensed by Cambridge International Education. The school won this licence in January 2018, after applying in September 2017.
IGCSE and A-Levels suit students aiming at the UK, Hong Kong, Singapore and Australia.
Holding all three licences at once is rare. When the Cambridge licence arrived in 2018, the school became the fifth public school in China, and the first in Guangdong, to offer IB, AP and A-Level together. Students also complete the required Chinese school subjects alongside their chosen track.
Where SID Students Go to University
The school publishes its own results, so treat these as the school’s figures rather than independent ones. They are still useful, because most Chinese public international divisions publish nothing at all in this much detail.
Since SID opened, the school reports that close to 1,000 students have gone on to universities abroad. Named destinations include Stanford, the University of Pennsylvania, Oxford, Cambridge and the University of Hong Kong. Alumni are spread across Hong Kong, the United States, the UK, Canada, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Australia and Singapore.
For the class of 2025, the school reports the following.
| Figure | What It Means |
|---|---|
| 8.2 | University offers per student, on average |
| 26 | Students with a world top-10 offer |
| 83% | Received a world top-30 offer |
| 100% | Received a US top-50 offer |
| 69% | Received an offer from Hong Kong’s top three |
One note on reading these numbers. Rankings differ between league tables, and the school does not say which table it used. Ask for the full offer list if this matters to your decision.
Why Is This School So Famous?
In China, a school’s name rests on three things: its government grade, its exam results, and its famous graduates. This school does well on all three.
Reason 1 — A Fields Medal GraduateDeng Yu (邓煜) joined the school in 2001. In 2006 he joined China’s team at the International Mathematical Olympiad, won a gold medal and came sixth in the world.
He then went to Peking University. He is now a mathematician at the University of Chicago.
Many private schools in China hold an IB licence. Very few public ones do.
SID is the only public IB World School in the whole province, and it holds AP and Cambridge licences as well.
These are the highest labels a public high school can hold in China.
It also joined a UNESCO project on sustainable development.
You enter the main school through the city entrance exam, the zhongkao. The score you need is one of the highest in Shenzhen.
Local parents treat a place here as a strong result.
It has eight campuses: seven high schools, five middle schools and four primary schools. About 14,500 students study there.
How a Student Gets In
This is the part most English websites get wrong. SID does not take applications from the open market. There are two gates, and you must pass the first before the second one exists.
Gate One: The City Entrance ExamThe student must sit the Shenzhen zhongkao and then be accepted by Shenzhen Senior High School (Group), at either Central Campus or East Campus.
If the student is not accepted by the main school, SID is closed. There is no other route.
Students who are already accepted may then choose to sit the SID test. It is not automatic, and it is not compulsory. Families sign up on campus in August.
The test covers English and Maths, and the whole paper is in English. It runs for two and a half hours. The school then selects the best results.
Students bring their original school offer letter and their test card. Results come out the next morning, by phone. Offer letters are collected from the IB library.
A student cannot join SID part way through, from another school or another city.
These steps come from the school’s own intake notice, which you can read on its website. The most recent notice published there covers the 2024 intake. Dates change every year, so check the site again in the summer.
Can a Foreign Passport Child Join SID?Almost certainly not — and here is the reason. To reach SID, a student must first sit the Shenzhen zhongkao and win a place at the main school. That exam route is built for students with Chinese household registration or a local residence permit.
A child who arrives in Shenzhen on a family visa, holding a foreign passport, has no way to reach gate one. So SID is not a realistic option for most relocating families.
Foreign passport families in China use two other kinds of school: Schools for children of foreign nationals （外籍人员子女学校）, a separate licence where most students hold foreign passports; and Private bilingual schools （民办双语学校）, where rules vary by school and city.
The school has not published its rules on nationality. Ask the school in writing if your case is unusual. If any agent promises you a place without checking your passport and visa first, they are guessing.
What Does SID Cost?
The school has not published a specific SID fee. But Shenzhen’s city price regulator does publish the standard public high school fee, and this school’s own grade tells us which rate applies.
As a Guangdong Level-1 School, the base fee band is 1,131 RMB per semester for tuition, plus 450 RMB per semester for boarding — about 2,260 RMB a year in tuition, and roughly 900 RMB a year more if boarding. This is the public-school rate, and it is far below what a private international school charges.
What we could not confirm is whether SID adds its own programme fee on top, as many public international divisions in China do. Call the school and ask for the current total in writing before you commit.
Chinese Words You Will MeetZhongkao 中考 — The city high school entrance exam. Students sit it at about age 15. Public high school places are given out by score.
Gaokao 高考 — The national university entrance exam. SID students do not sit it.
Hukou 户口 — Household registration. It decides which public schools a child may attend.
National Model High School 国家级示范性普通高中 — A national quality label for strong public high schools. This school won it in 2006.
Guangdong Level-1 School 广东省一级学校 — The top school grade in Guangdong province.
School group 教育集团 — One strong school that runs several campuses under one name. This school became a group in June 2016.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Sources
University outcome figures and the “only public IB school in Guangdong” claim are published by the school itself. The three centre codes can be checked independently in the IB, College Board and Cambridge school directories.
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