British International School of Barranquilla

BIS is an IB World School. It has offered the IB Diploma Programme since 1990 in Year 12 and Year 13 (Colombian grades 10 and 11), and was authorised to offer the IB Middle Years Programme in 2019 for Year 7 to Year 11. From Early Years to Year 6 the school follows Cambridge Assessment International Education programmes, with Cambridge Primary Checkpoint exams at the end of Primary; the Early Years curriculum also draws on the UK National Curriculum and Foundation Stage. Graduates can obtain both the Colombian bilingual high school diploma and the IB Diploma.

The school's mission is to offer a comprehensive bilingual Colombian-British education grounded in research, technology and the improvement of national and international curricula, instilling democratic, moral and religious values, social etiquette and leadership skills with a global perspective. Its Social Behaviour programme and the Character Counts programme (trustworthiness, respect, responsibility, fairness, caring and citizenship) guide students' personal development. The school has a Catholic identity, with religious education and pastoral activities, while welcoming students of other faiths.

The campus includes synthetic and grass football fields, a sports centre and courts for volleyball, tennis, basketball, table tennis and softball. The Knowledge Centre houses the library with separate primary and secondary areas. There are art rooms, a music conservatory, an auditorium, the Milton Plaza meeting area and a dining hall. Each section has its own laboratories, including chemistry, biology and physics labs in Secondary. The school also has a nursing service with two care areas and green spaces used by the EcoCampus environmental programme, such as butterfly gardens.

Extracurricular activities run from preschool to Year 13 at an additional cost, Monday to Friday after classes and on Saturday mornings. According to the school's educational project, options include football, basketball, volleyball, baseball, horse riding, ballet, dance, skating, robotics and karate, with sports training and inter-school competitions after school. The music conservatory runs a philharmonic orchestra, choir, rock band and handbell choir for students from Year 1 to Year 13. The house system also organises sports, cultural and social competitions during the year.