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Also known as a Top Tier institution, a Tier 1 school is one that is widely considered as one of the best facilities in the international education community.
While there are no official standardised systems for what qualifies as a Tier 1 school, this designation is based on a number of subjective factors.
Click here to find out more regarding what tiers specifically mean for your children.
At Alice Smith, we are proud to be considered a Tier 1 school and the many benefits our school offers your children.
We invite you to create a complimentary, personalised viewbook to see exactly what your children’s education will look like at a Tier 1 school.
Before exploring what places us in this category, let’s take a look at the other Tiers in this educational landscape.
Schools in Lower Tier categories are often for-profit and therefore run as a business. The top schools in this category will feel similar to a Tier 1, and these are actually exceptional places for teachers looking to break into the international school landscape. Lower Tier schools do most of what a Tier 1 institution does, but not as extensive and not in as many areas.
Even with the above definitions in mind, it can sometimes be difficult to categorise which international schools belong in what tiers.
When speaking to admissions, there are eight areas we recommend you focus on, in order to understand what category the school is in.
Click here to download our complimentary Admissions Checklist.
Now that you have more of an understanding of the rankings, let’s dive further into what categorises Alice Smith as a Tier 1 school.
Click the button below to create a complimentary, personalised viewbook to see exactly what your children’s education will look like at a Tier 1 school.
At Alice Smith, we are proud to be considered a Tier 1 school, and we ensure every decision we make is to the benefit of our students and their families.
“We are a forward thinking, leading, not for profit international school in Kuala Lumpur, with an excellent reputation world-wide for providing an outstanding education.”
- Roger Schultz, Head of School
What exactly identifies us as a Tier 1 school in Malaysia?
At Alice Smith, we utilise a curriculum modelled on the British National Curriculum to ensure your children receive an internationally recognised education that will prepare them for any path they choose.
Our innovative approach to a traditional British education helps our students foster character, emotional intelligence and grit.
One advantage of utilising a curriculum that is widely used 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.
“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.”
- David Potts, Vice Principal of Learning and Teaching on our Secondary Campus
Learn more about what our curriculum looks like in each Key Stage.
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.
On average, our teachers have a tenure of six years and 83% of our staff are from the UK.
Our Tier 1 school teachers:
Here at Alice Smith, we are committed to continually investing in developing our staff’s skills and performing quality assurances tests to ensure they are 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.
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 prove this.
The benefits of being a not-for-profit include:
Our academic results consistently rank us as excellent, placing us among the best British international schools in the world.
Our students consistently achieve high marks in both (I)GCSE and A Level examinations. Year after year, we are incredibly proud of our students’ attainment and our 2020 results are no exception.
“In 2020, Alice Smith students celebrated another exceptional set of examination results with 76% of all (I)GCSE grades at A* or A (grades 9-7) and 62% of all A level grades at A* or A.”
“Alice Smith is a warm school, everyone is always very friendly and smiley.”
- Kelly Johnstone, an Alice Smith parent
To ensure this warm atmosphere and sense of community on our campus, we nurture our learners to be happy, healthy, resilient and self-assured as we understand these attributes help students learn better and have more successful lives.
Our learners are:
“We want our students to experience the excitement of discovering that they are capable of achieving more than they thought possible. We encourage them to embrace new opportunities and challenge and support them in developing resilience and determination.”
For Robyn Coryton, who teaches Maths and Economics at our Secondary School, it was her eagerness to work at a not-for-profit school after spending a year at a for-profit institution that brought her to Alice Smith.
“Alice Smith had such an outstanding reputation that even as an international teaching newbie I had heard tales of the school, so it was top of my list when it came to be time to seek a new position.”
When asked how working for a Tier 1 school compared to previous facilities, she outlined the campus itself, the work ethic and the students as the key differentiators.
“Within the classroom, I think the balance between trust in you as a professional and accountability is spot on. This is a really hard thing to get right! The students are ridiculously appreciative of you on a day to day basis and the opportunities to do something different are myriad.”
In just a few clicks, you can create your very own viewbook to see exactly what your children’s education will look like at a Tier 1 school.
In the form, you can choose the academic and student life options you care about for your children’s schooling experience. And in a matter of minutes, your personalised viewbook will arrive in your inbox.
You can revisit your viewbook, edit, print, share with your family and friends, schedule a campus visit, email, call and even text admissions all from your personalised viewbook.
Create your complimentary, personalised viewbook by clicking the link below.
