Following my posts about CIS and SSV, many people have asked me: What truly sets CIS and SSV apart from other international schools?
While there are numerous differentiators, if I had to choose the single most important element, it would be the word “Caring.” After all, the acronym CIS stands for: Caring – Integrity – Success. Still, people ask me: “Is this genuine care, or is it just another corporate slogan?”
To answer that, let me share three brief behind-the-scenes stories:
1. Safety mesh along the stairwells
Immediately upon taking over CIS and SSV, one of our absolute first initiatives was installing safety mesh systems along every single stairwell across the campuses.
To be fair, the school’s safety standards were already solid under the previous international management. However, our leadership team looked at it from a pure risk management perspective: even if there is only a microscopic probability that a child might trip or leap near the stairwell railing, the consequence would be catastrophic.
Our corporate philosophy is simple: if a risk can be mitigated, it must be driven down to the absolute lowest level possible. We executed this across all buildings within our first month. It wasn’t done for marketing; it was a non-negotiable step to protect our community.
2. Free canteen dining for security staff
The second operational change we made on day one was inviting our entire security team to eat for free at the school canteen.
We reject the mindset that security guards are just “people standing at the gate.” We want them to feel like an integral part of our organization, sharing our community’s culture and values. Therefore, the executive board decided to fully subsidize their meals.
And frankly, the buffet at CIS and SSV is exceptional. I can confidently state it is among the best food quality across all the international and bilingual schools I know.
Members of the security team later shared with me: “Thanks to this policy, I save enough money to cover my child’s tuition back home.” Another told me: “Since we started eating at the canteen, we always get delicious, high-quality meals. It genuinely moves us, and we are ready to do whatever it takes to protect this school.”
3. University transcripts and graduating with dignity
Many international schools within our market segment restrict students by limiting the number of university applications they can submit or the transcripts they will issue. They do this to optimize their “success rates” and protect their institutional rankings by steering students toward safe, mid-tier options. Unfortunately, this practice discourages students from stretching themselves or aiming for elite universities.
At CIS and SSV, we refuse to cap our students’ ambitions. If a student wants to challenge themselves by applying to more prestigious, competitive, and highly ranked global universities, our institution backs them fully. We have built an incredibly robust college counseling department that works side-by-side with students to craft the strongest possible portfolios for elite global universities.
We apply this same human-centric philosophy to rigorous academic tracks like the International Baccalaureate (IB) or IGCSE. The IB curriculum is intensely demanding, and the reality is that it does not suit every single student. Some children work incredibly hard but find themselves under immense, unhealthy psychological stress. Many schools mandate that students pass the external IB exams just to receive a high school diploma. This approach leaves struggling students completely burned out.
CIS and SSV operate differently. While we strongly encourage and support students to pursue the IB or IGCSE pathways, if a child genuinely struggles to keep up, we do not penalize them. We recognize their hard work and allow them to transition to our fully accredited internal high school diploma track.
Because CIS and SSV are completely accredited international institutions, our high school diploma carries full global weight. This flexibility drastically relieves student pressure. It ensures that no child feels like a “failure” simply because they were mismatched with a highly specific, specialized curriculum. (Personally, I find the IB curriculum overly rigid, and it is certainly not meant for everyone).
These are just a few small examples of what “Caring” looks like operationally at CIS and SSV. To our leadership team, caring means ensuring nobody is left behind, overlooking no small detail, and never placing corporate metrics or marketing above the well-being of our students.
Caring is not a slogan we paint on a wall; it is an operational standard we live by every day.
