The Senior School (Senior High School) at Harrow Shanghai provides pupils with a genuinely holistic education in order to help pupils thrive both academically and pastorally.

The Senior School is found at the heart of the Harrow Shanghai campus, and, within its confines, is a thriving educational community, with rigorous intellectual activity characterising the daily routine and endeavour. Pupils enter the Senior High School at age 13, or Year 9, from the Prep School and other schools in Shanghai or abroad.

Year 9 provides a foundation course covering a large number of subjects, enabling the pupils to become familiar with new subjects, while preparing them to make their International General Certificate of Secondary Education (IGCSE) choices at the end of the year. We are registered with three examination boards, Cambridge Assessment International Education (CAIE), Pearson/Edexcel, and Assessment and Qualifications Alliance (AQA), which allows us to tailor courses to meet the needs of our student body.

In Years 10 and 11 the pupils study for IGCSE in a variety of subjects, divided into core and option subjects. This gives pupils a total of nine subjects to study during the two-year course. The Senior High School curriculum in Year 10 and 11 is therefore based on these IGCSE courses. While early entry is possible in some subject areas, the majority of external examinations will be sat in the summer term of Year 11.

The IGCSE programme maintains a breadth of subjects that ensures pupils have a broad knowledge base as well as the opportunity to explore a variety of humanities, sciences and creative subjects prior to greater specialisation in the Sixth Form. The learning approach during these years becomes more formal with pupils being required to master the knowledge and skills of each subject in which they will sit public examinations.

All pupils study the following core curriculum:

Mathematics, English (first language & second language), Physics, Chemistry and Biology

A further four options are selected from the following:

Chinese (first language & second language), Spanish, Geography, History, Art and Design, Music, Drama, Business Studies, Computer Science, Physical Education.

Harrow believes firmly in the importance of a holistic education. As such the pupils enjoy sport, wellbeing lessons, daily extra-curricular activities, as well as a focus on public speaking, community service or Duke of Edinburgh Award and learning about team building skills through our Leadership and Service programme.

Pastoral care is central to helping pupils thrive in their learning and each pupil is part of a tutor group with whom they meet daily to help with their organisation, planning and wellbeing. In addition, each pupil is part of a House which is like a family with whom they remain throughout their time at Harrow, participating in House competitions, earning points for their House and most importantly having the pastoral expertise of their Housemaster or Housemistress to support the pupils and parents throughout their time at Harrow Shanghai.