By Nick Yates, ISB Communications
Published on Friday, June 13, 2025
The International School of Beijing (ISB) is a community of learning that extends beyond the classroom, strengthened by partnerships with many external groups. Every year, ISB students excel in prestigious academic competitions and events organized by these groups. They range from math to literacy to robotics and take place around the world and close to home.
Support for students participating in these programs with partner organizations is consistent with ISB’s Mission. The school is committed to challenging and joyful learning with the freedom to explore, and to building strong relationships and setting high expectations together.
Here’s a roundup of some of the successes and learning experiences ISB students have had outside the classroom and with peers from other schools around the world in 2024-2025. The following is just a small, representative sample of all these activities. From Early Years to Grade 12, students in Beijing’s best-connected international school should watch out for plenty more such opportunities next year!
ISB’s awesome design facilities are home to a robotics program that culminates in several competitions each year. In the VEX V5 High School club and VEX IQ Middle School team, students are annually introduced to a robotics game. They work in teams to design robots with VEX Robotics parts to score points. It takes creativity, knowledge of mechanics, and precise building skills.
The ISB teams face off against counterparts from other schools in regional and national competitions organized by the Asia Pacific Activities Conference (APAC), Association of China and Mongolia International Schools (ACAMIS), and others.
In High School, students selected as club executives and leaders take a large role in club meetings, equipment management, and training new members. They organized and hosted a scrimmage with nearby international schools in December for the last two years.
It would take the world’s strongest and most dexterous robot to pick up all the competition awards earned by ISB students in robotics in 2024-2025. Top honors for the High School club include Tournament Champion for ACAMIS North and the Innovate Award in the TIS Robotics Challenge. The VEX IQ Middle School team won Robot Skills 2nd place and the Girl Power Award at the ACAMIS Robotics Nationals.
KIDS READ is a literature competition for students in Grades 6 through 8. Middle school students from international schools across China read a shared list of books and compete by answering questions about them. This fun and engaging event builds a community of young readers, encourages students to discover new books, and gives them the opportunity to connect with peers from other schools through friendly competition.
KIDS READ culminates in an in-person finals event between schools, with possible preliminary rounds held throughout the school year. ISB hosted the finals in 2023-2024. 2024-2025 saw two ISB teams travel to the finals at another Beijing school, where they both won awards. ISB proudly took home Second Place Overall and the Collaboration Award.
Math competitions are popular with ISB number whizzes of all ages.
Kangaroo Math is a fun competition for younger mathematicians. Upper Elementary School students at ISB who select this option practice in an after-school activity (ASA) before taking an online test. The ASA encourages students to work in groups to solve previous years’ problems.
Several ISB students received gold and silver certificates in Kangaroo Math in 2024-2025. Three of them achieved perfect scores.
The American Math Competition (AMC) consists of math challenges for various grades. Students practice the tests then take them for real simultaneously with other students around the world. In this year’s AMC for Grade 8, two ISB students achieved perfect scores. This put them among the best 0.001 percent of all AMC 8 entrants globally!
ISB Middle School mathematicians were similarly successful in the MATHCOUNTS competition. A team of 10 traveled to Vietnam for the MATHCOUNTS regional finals in February. One ISB team member qualified to be on the Southeast Asia team to compete in national-level competition in America.
Model United Nations (MUN) is an academic simulation of one of the world’s most important diplomatic organizations. Students role-play delegates from various countries and debate solutions to world problems against their peers. The real United Nations (UN) supports MUN conferences globally, guiding schools, universities, and clubs to create authentic simulations that result in actions contributing to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.
ISB’s own Beijing Model United Nations (BEIMUN) has a reputation as one of the leading high-school MUN conferences. Students from across the region come to Beijing to challenge themselves at this event once a year.
Meanwhile, ISB delegates regularly travel to famous centers of diplomacy including the Hague for MUN. In 2024-2025, ISB Middle and High School students took home numerous awards from MUN conferences around China and abroad, and younger ISB students enjoyed the annual Elementary School version of BEIMUN.
Many of today’s leaders in law, government, business, and the arts participated in MUN as students. Mattie Bekink, ISB’s latest Alumni Achievement Award winner, took part in MUN at ISB in the early 1990s and is now the Ford Foundation’s regional director in China. She was the keynote speaker for BEIMUN 2025.
As ISB runs one of the world’s leading Chinese language programs in an international school, it’s no surprise that ISB students do well in the Chinese Language Festival.
The fifth Chinese Language Festival, hosted online by the Chinese Language Festival Association from October through March, offered learners a platform to showcase their talents including in poetry, storytelling, and calligraphy. The festival includes competitions for both native and non-native Mandarin learners of all ages.
ISB participants excelled this year across divisions and programs, earning awards including Champion, 1st Runner Up, 2nd Runner Up, and Merit. Jia you!