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Choosing a School

Choosing a School

Choosing a school can be overwhelming. To help you in your decision-making, we have compiled a range of information about AISB in one place.

Rachel

What I want you to know

From Rachel Caldwell, School Director

There are a few key things I would like every prospective family to know.

At AISB, your child will be known. Our teachers build authentic relationships with students, supported by dedicated teams that ensure individual needs are always met.

We are a genuinely international community representing over 60 nationalities, with a culture of warm welcome that families call one of our greatest strengths.

Above all, we are honest about where we are and where we are going. Guided by three clear Future Design Commitments established through an exciting and inclusive community process, we report our progress each year.

Hear more from our Director

We chose AISB because of its reputation. We stayed because of its people. The teachers genuinely know our children — not just their grades, but who they are.

AISB Parent

Parent

We’re on a mission

We value our students and the way they shape our school. So much so that they wrote our mission. In a series of workshops, students from across the school put into words what AISB means to them and what they want it to become. It was a special experience for all involved.

Think fearlessly Act with kindness Shape tomorrow

AISB has been here since 1962. It has survived an earthquake, an authoritarian regime, and a revolution that left the building riddled with bullet holes. Each time, the community found a way back.

Our future design commitments

Our priorities for the years ahead.

We want every person at AISB to feel they belong. That means physical and emotional safety: a place where empathy is taught and practiced every day.

We want students who can direct their own learning by setting their own goals and following through on them. Students who know how to find out for themselves.

AISB is committed to designing learning environments, physical and timetabled, that are joyful, flexible, and built around how people actually learn best. Spaces that invite collaboration. Time that is used well.

How your child will learn

AISB is a three-program International Baccalaureate school: Primary Years Programme (PYP), Middle Years Programme (MYP), and Diploma Programme (DP). We also offer the new Global Impact Diploma as an alternate pathway in Grades 11–12.

We learn on a single campus, starting from 2-years-old. Across all sections we have a max class size of 20 – and smaller class sizes in EC2-EC4. In Secondary, we have a 6:1 student-to-teacher ratio.

Your child experiences the same approach to learning from their first day in the ELC to their final moments in Grade 12.

Learn more about our curriculum

Learning principles

Our inquiry-led instinct sits at the center of how we teach, and we integrate it into a range of teaching approaches.

Agency

Students make real decisions about what and how they learn.

Collaboration

We believe in the power of collaboration to support deep learning.

Challenge

Learning is personalized to stretch each student.

Environment

The Makerspace, playing fields, theater, and Design Center are all important learning spaces.

Context

Real-world relevance runs through every stage of the curriculum.

Feedback

Timely, goal-oriented, and designed to build reflective habits.

Finishing school

AISB’s average DP score is 34, consistently above the world average of 30, with a 100% pass rate in 2025.

The Global Impact Diploma opens pathways beyond the traditional IB mold.

Choosing a School

Belonging & Community

A week in our life

The school day starts at 8:00am.

In Elementary, Friday mornings begin with the whole school gathered for music. In Secondary, an Advisory mentor checks in about how we are doing. Lunch is at Stradale, the campus cafeteria. You will see other students from across all three sections there.

Every week, we study Programme of Inquiry, Literacy, Math, Science, Social Studies, Art, Music, Languages and PE.

After school, over 40 co-curricular opportunities run across three seasonal rounds. Athletics practice, CCA rehearsals, student council meetings, club sessions. There is so much to do!

Questions are starting points. The International Baccalaureate (IB) approach means we learn to investigate, test, and build on what we find. That habit forms early. By the time we leave AISB, thinking for ourselves is nothing new.

From Grade 1 through Grade 12, we spend lots of time in the arts. In Elementary: music, visual art, drama. In Secondary: original compositions, full theatrical productions, and The Bite, AISB’s student journalism publication. We pitch, edit, and publish.

In the lab, ideas meet constraints and solutions have to work. Science labs, the Design Center, robotics workshops. Our robotics teams compete at CEESA level against international schools across Central and Eastern Europe. The Design Center is where prototypes get built, tested, and rebuilt.

Support built in to each day

AISB is a safe and supportive space. We provide support to students in many different ways.

  • Strengths-based approach across every section – we identify what your child does well and build support around it
  • Multi-tiered system that identifies needs early, before gaps grow
  • Learning Support specialists, Early Interventionists, and EAL teachers from ELC through Grade 12
  • Individualized Learning Plans created as needed in partnership with families
  • Counselors in every section, ELC through Grade 12
  • Advisory system in Secondary, one dedicated mentor for every student
  • Extension opportunities for students who would benefit from more challenge
  • Transitional support for families joining and leaving

Learning support and counsellors were extraordinary, he loves school so much he is sad on the weekend.

AISB Parent

Parent

A school community to help the transition

We come from everywhere. From Seoul, São Paulo, Amsterdam, Nairobi, and from the end of something familiar into something new.

Before your family’s first day, AISB & Co is already in touch. AISB & Co is an active, welcoming community, made up entirely of people who have done exactly what you are doing.

Learn more about AISB & Co
Stuff the Bus
Choosing a School

Almost a third of our families are Romanian

Choosing an international school does not mean leaving Romania behind. At AISB, Romanian language is offered in the curriculum. Romanian Week is one of the year’s most exciting cultural celebrations. The school’s scholarship program has supported more than 50 local students to attend AISB since 1999.

What families say

  • AISB Student

    Secondary Student

    What I personally enjoy most about art is getting to be myself and expressing myself artistically. I believe art is important in school because it helps you see things through colors that math and science don’t really show you in.

  • AISB Student, Grade 11

    AISB Student, Grade 11

    I think my most unforgettable moment was last year, in the final, when we were super close to winning and Serena rolled the ball onto the court. If you know, you know.

  • Secondary Student

    Secondary Student

    After a big win, the first people I call are definitely the girls on the varsity basketball team, because they’ve been helping me since day one. They’re my main support.

  • AISB Student, Grade 5

    AISB Student, Grade 5

    It’s been nerve-wracking and now I can actually get it out of my system. This is my favourite part — actually doing it.

  • AISB Student, Grade 9

    AISB Student, Grade 9

    It’s really cool to have friends from all over the world. To hear and understand their experiences, past, language and embrace their culture.

  • AISB Community Member

    Community Member

    There is a camaraderie that forms within an expat community which is important to a sense of community. But it’s important to attempt to balance that with interaction with the Romanian community.

  • AISB Student

    Elementary Student

    I like art because we create there and I like creating.

  • AISB Community Member

    Community Member

    Read about the country and its history. Take language lessons. Read translated versions of the news. Talk to people who already live here. See if your priorities in life match what Bucharest can offer.

  • AISB Parent

    Parent

    Learning support and counsellors were extraordinary, he loves school so much he is sad on the weekend.

Want to see the school for yourself?

Book a visit, or if you are ready, start your application.