What makes Beijing's AIDI School different?

The full narration of the video.

The kid is about to start middle school, and at dinner the parents are arguing again: the gaokao, or study abroad? They argue this hard because everyone feels once you choose, there's no going back. In most places, that's true. A regular high school teaches toward China's college entrance exam, the gaokao.

An international school teaches a foreign curriculum, and its students sit foreign exams. The two are far apart, like two subway lines. Get on one, and to switch you have to leave the station and start over. So many people assume: go international, and you've said goodbye to the gaokao.

One school in Beijing's Chaoyang district takes that idea half apart. It's called AIDI School. Its high school runs seven lines on one campus: British, American, Australian, Hong Kong, art, foundation, and a bilingual high school. The surprise is a regular-high-school class inside the bilingual line. It's officially approved as a regular high school. Students can take the gaokao, or the arts and sports admission exams.

And it sits right next to the international lines. The school's version: two tracks run side by side, and students choose between them, switching if things change. It's like a big transfer station: several lines in one building. No need to leave, just walk a few steps and switch. This station wasn't built in a day. When it opened in 1999, it mainly had one line: an Australian high school program.

Then line after line was added. Twenty-some years later, it runs from kindergarten at two and a half to high school at eighteen, about three thousand students. It has a few rare extras, too: about seventy thousand square metres of outdoor sports grounds. Twenty-eight sports, including shooting, fencing and golf. Kids can board from primary school. Classes are split by level, and children weak in English start in a language class to catch up.

But a transfer station comes with a bill. First, money: for the 2023 school year, tuition ran from 180,000 to 320,000 yuan a year. Second, time: the two tracks are far apart. The later you switch, the more you have to catch up. Being able to switch doesn't mean it's always worth it.

Third, look closely: admission numbers are published by the school itself. When you visit, ask the questions yourself. So what really sets it apart isn't which line is best. It lets a child decide the direction a little later. Pick one line early, or keep the transfer open, which is better for a child? Nobody has a settled answer.

If it were your family, which side would you take?