Keystone Academy

Keystone Academy is an innovative and unique school in China and the world. It draws from Chinese, American and global learning traditions and weaves them into a powerful bilingual education model. It is truly one-of-its kind in China. The curriculum is bilingual in the primary years with more intensive instruction in English through middle and high schools. We focus on inquiry-based learning, critical thinking, and creative problem solving in a rigorous intellectual environment. This prepares Keystone students for the challenges of the modern integrated world. Keystone's academic program is global in scope with a strong and intentional central Chinese focus on national identity, language, culture, and history. Our school is from foundation year through grade 12.

Our school includes a boarding program, optional in grades seven and eight, and mandatory in grades 9-12. Through our residential program, our students will develop the values, close relationships and independence that are essential for positive leadership and success. Western educational approaches in a Chinese context enable a model of true cultural fusion and global understanding. The majority of our students will be Chinese, but we will also have a healthy representation of other nationalities.

Our sprawling campus is in Shunyi, Beijing, which includes a state-of-the-art music room, theatre, indoor gymnasium, science labs and other facilities.

It is with a deep sense of excitement and pride that we welcome your interest in Keystone Academy, a school from foundation year to grade 12 with magnificent, purpose-built facilities. We do so on behalf of a team of outstanding educators drawn from around the world. With your involvement and assistance, our new school will quickly become a beautiful blossom in the Beijing educational garden. Here’s why.

First, our name says a great deal about who we are and what we are doing. We know that a keystone is the central piece of an archway. It brings the two sides of the arch together, bears their weight, and makes the entire structure stable and durable. Our major “keystone” fuses the best of Chinese pedagogy and practice with the best of the American boarding school tradition. We have added to this a curricular base drawn from the global education movement and its insights. The result is a powerful combination, academically excellent and educationally innovative.

Second, we have other distinctive “keystones.” Our classes will be small, 18 in the elementary years and around 14 from grade 6 upwards. Although all our younger students in the primary division will be day students, most students in the middle and high schools will be full boarders. Here they will learn to live together and to develop true character in a residential setting notable for its care and compassion. Their teachers will live on campus with them, and teach and guide them around the clock. Keystone Academy will be a partner with significant boarding schools around the world, most particularly the East Coast of the United States, where a number of our senior administrators have served in leadership positions over many years. We shall create a world-class boarding school right here in Beijing.

Full immersion in bilingual education, Chinese and English, is a “keystone” for the younger grades, yielding more to English as the students mature. Our school will prepare Chinese students for fine colleges and universities in America and other English-speaking countries. When they leave Keystone Academy, they will be fluent in at least two languages, and they will be proud ambassadors for their country. Running through all years of the curriculum is The Chinese Thread that focuses on Chinese history, culture, and identity. We shall also attract a small, but significant group of non-Chinese students who wish to gain an understanding, through their schooling, of the glorious language, rich legacy and proud future of China.

Experience is like an arch. It opens up new worlds, and draws us onward to the new visions and views that it frames. Keystone Academy will do that for you, and for all of us who study and live there.

Keystone Academy is a new model of education in China. It blends distinctive traditions in eastern, western, and global education, creating a new world school with a liberal arts program that is academically outstanding. All our endeavors are framed by five shared Confucian values: compassion, honesty, justice, respect, and wisdom.

At Keystone, we embrace a world that is dynamic and ever-changing. We learn from and we learn for this enterprising, global, and diverse community.

Our keystones are:

• Bilingual immersion in Chinese and English;
• Building character and community throughout our residential setting;
• Promoting Chinese culture and identity in a world context.

Our ambition is to share successes generously and to learn from failures bravely, to open our doors to many, and to engage fully with the world of education, and the world at large, beyond our gates.

Our students are hungry for opportunity, bold in their thinking, and creative in their instincts. They are encouraged to become expansive in their dreaming, determined in their actions, collaborative in their teamwork, and humble in their achievement. They learn to be stewards of the environment and to be at ease with otherness.

Our teachers are passionate about learning, rigorous in their standards, and inspirational in their methods. They are respectful listeners, attentive caregivers, interrogative thinkers, compassionate mentors, and world-minded citizens.

Our graduates will possess the intellectual, cultural, and ecological fluency to navigate gracefully the colleges, careers, and communities of their choice. They will know how to apply their emotional intelligence, character, and zest for learning to help develop and improve the communities in which they live.