Canadian International School of Hong Kong

The short version

The short version

The Canadian International School of Hong Kong (CDNIS) is a not-for-profit school founded in 1991, serving more than 2,100 students from over 40 nationalities from Nursery to Grade 12 at 36 Nam Long Shan Road in Aberdeen, with an Early Years Centre in Wong Chuk Hang.

Its signature is the dual award: students follow the full IB continuum (PYP, MYP, Diploma Programme) and can simultaneously earn the Ontario Secondary School Diploma, graduating with two credentials.↗↗

For 2026-27, reported tuition runs from HK$142,780 (half-day early years) to HK$261,500 at the top secondary band. On top: a one-off HK$12,500 entry fee, an HK$80,000 reservation deposit, and — for every student from EY1 upward — either a HK$43,000 annual capital levy or coverage by a debenture.

Because the school no longer issues new debentures, the levy is what nearly all new families actually pay.↗↗

What the school is

Canadian in name, international in intake, dual in diploma

CDNIS was founded in 1991 blending Canadian and Chinese educational principles, and the Canadian thread remains visible: the Ontario diploma option, Maple League-style university pathways to Toronto and UBC, and an admissions priority category for applicants holding Canadian citizenship or a Canadian passport — sitting behind debenture holders and siblings in the published order.

The Education Bureau records the school as not-for-profit with about 198 teaching staff.↗

The dual-diploma structure is the school’s distinctive academic bet. The IB Diploma opens global university doors; the OSSD provides continuous-assessment-based credentials that some students — and some Canadian and US admissions offices — find friendlier than a single high-stakes exam diet.

A bilingual English-Chinese programme is expanding through the Lower School, reflecting the intake: this is a school where local Hong Kong and international families mix heavily.↗↗

The school’s own materials emphasise community longevity: an attributed parent review describes returning to enrol her children and finding the teachers who taught her still on staff. Independent reviewers describe a purposeful but not pressurised atmosphere, with the Early Years Centre in Wong Chuk Hang noted for a contemporary bilingual-and-technology approach.↗↗

Academics in practice

IB results with a Canadian safety net

CDNIS’s IB results are consistently in the city’s upper tier: the Class of 2025 is reported — citing the school’s own results PDF — at an average of roughly 37–38 points, with about four in ten candidates scoring 40 or above, two or three perfect 45s, and a 96% pass rate.

We could not retrieve the underlying document this pass, so treat the exact figures as reported and ask the school for the published summary with candidate numbers.↗

Assessment and admissions mechanics, per secondary reporting: an application fee of HK$1,800 (Nursery) or HK$2,350 (EY1–Grade 11), plus an HK$1,650 assessment fee for candidates selected to assess; applications follow annual deadlines by grade, with assessments generally running November to April.

Fees themselves are set by the Board of Governors in late spring for the following year — so the next year’s schedule typically exists before you need to commit.↗↗

Reported grade-level totals for 2026-27 (tuition plus the HK$43,000 levy) run roughly HK$185,780 in the early years to HK$304,500 in Grades 11–12 — the operative planning numbers, since the levy is unavoidable for new families.

The school also runs a full bus network and keeps long hours (7:30am–5:00pm), which matters for working parents in the south-side catchment.↗↗

Admissions and cost

A closed debenture book, and the levy that replaced it

The capital structure, first-party: every student from EY1 upward must either pay the annual capital levy of HK$43,000 — non-refundable — or be covered by a debenture; Nursery students are exempt. The entry fee of HK$12,500 is one-time and waived for returners within two years, and the HK$80,000 reservation deposit secures the place for 2026/27.↗

The Education Bureau lists three CDNIS debenture classes — Capital Debenture, Gold Corporate Debenture and a Canadian Consulate Debenture — but the school no longer issues new debentures.

Existing instruments change hands only through school-administered transfers, at indicative prices around HK$2.8 million (Capital) and HK$10 million (Gold Corporate); one tracker reports the Capital Debenture as refundable on departure.

The terms of each class are not published online — if you are offered a second-hand debenture, get the instrument’s own terms from the school before agreeing a price.↗↗↗

A correction worth making, because the instruments get conflated online: the famous HK$15 million Corporate Nomination Right that depreciates to zero over five years belongs to Chinese International School (CIS), not to CDNIS. CDNIS’s instruments are a different, older family — smaller, reportedly refundable in at least one class, and closed to new issues.

If a broker describes a “Canadian school CNR”, they are mixing schools; verify against the school’s own records before any money moves.↗↗

The levy arithmetic: at HK$43,000 a year, a six-year secondary career carries HK$258,000 of sunk capital cost — the second-highest levy exposure in the city after Harrow.

Against a ~HK$2.8 million second-hand debenture, the levy wins for postings under five or six years unless the debenture’s reported refundability and any residual resale value genuinely hold; that is a question for the school’s finance office, in writing, not for a broker.

Under EDB Circular 15/2023 both charges sit inside the Education Bureau’s approval and reporting regime.↗↗

The family experience

Aberdeen verticality, the Wong Chuk Hang early years, and demand today

CDNIS’s main campus is a vertical urban school on Nam Long Shan Road in Aberdeen — atrium floors rather than playing fields, with the much-loved ninth-floor playground parents mention — while the Early Years Centre sits separately in Wong Chuk Hang.

South-side families (Aberdeen, Ap Lei Chau, Wong Chuk Hang, Repulse Bay) get short runs; island-wide bus routes cover the rest. Families picturing a sprawling campus should visit before deciding that matters.↗↗

On demand, hedge carefully: CDNIS publishes no waitlist data.

Circumstantial signals — a closed debenture book trading well below the prices of a decade ago, and a city market that softened after the 2019–2020 outflow — suggest a school that is comfortably full but not besieged, with the Canadian-passport and sibling priorities doing quiet work at the margin.

That is inference; ask admissions directly about your child’s grade and entry point.↗↗

Who thrives here: families who want the IB with a continuous-assessment fallback; Canadian families wanting system continuity; south-side households; and parents who value a large, warm, mixed local-international community over campus sprawl.

Who should look elsewhere: families set on A-Levels or a single-stream national system, and anyone for whom HK$43,000 a year of non-refundable levy on top of tuition fails the budget test.↗

Take these to the school

Questions that move beyond the tour script