Founded
1997

Per a Universidad Pedagógica Nacional study; the school publishes no history page

Curriculum
British + IB

English-medium → IGCSE → IB Diploma, plus US and Colombian diplomas

Ages
3–18

Nursery to Year 13

Location
Autopista Norte

Cra 51 #215-20, far-north Bogotá

Accreditation
CIS + NEASC

Dual international accreditation; Round Square member

Calendar
August–June

Calendario B — the Northern Hemisphere cycle

The short version

The short version

Colegio Gran Bretaña — CGB — is a private, co-educational international day school teaching Nursery to Year 13 on a campus at Carrera 51 #215-20, on the Autopista Norte corridor at the far northern edge of Bogotá.

It follows the English curriculum toward IGCSE and then the IB Diploma, and its students can graduate with three diplomas: the IB, the US High School Diploma and the Colombian diploma.

The school holds dual international accreditation from the Council of International Schools and the New England Association of Schools and Colleges, and runs the Northern Hemisphere calendar (calendario B, August to June).↗↗

For an expat family, the practical summary is this: CGB is the most genuinely international school community in Bogotá — more than 50 nationalities, a policy that caps any single nationality at 50 per cent of the student body, and a student mix that is roughly 70 per cent foreign.

It is small (a few hundred students, not thousands), English-first, and far away from the neighbourhoods where most expats live. Fees are not published, lunch is compulsory and provided by the school, and the commute is the single most-repeated warning in diplomatic-community reports.↗

What the school is

A deliberately international school, not a British expat club

CGB was founded in 1997, according to a Universidad Pedagógica Nacional study of the school — the school itself publishes no history page, so treat the date as well-sourced rather than official. The same study describes its community from the start as the children of diplomats, ambassadors and Colombian and foreign business leaders.

The current director, Joe Jalil Hover, joined for the 2025-26 year describing a school that is “predominately expatriate” and launching a five-year vision built on differentiation, inclusion and safeguarding.↗↗

The structural facts that define daily life come from the school’s own 2025-26 handbook. English is the medium of instruction; every student takes Spanish and Colombian Social Studies in level-adjusted classes, and French is taught in Years 7-9 (new non-Spanish speakers take extra Spanish instead).

No single nationality may exceed 50 per cent of the student body between Year 1 and Year 13 — a written admissions rule, not a marketing line.

Directory data puts enrolment at roughly 360-460 students with about 90 teachers, an average class around 20, three libraries and three dining halls on a campus of some 14,000 square metres with 10,400 square metres of sports facilities.↗↗

CGB’s smallness cuts both ways. Families who choose it over the much larger Colegio Nueva Granada (American) or Colegio Anglo Colombiano (IB continuum) usually cite exactly that: a school where a 50-nationality peer group is guaranteed by policy, class sizes stay small, and the community churns with diplomatic postings.

The trade-offs — distance, scale of facilities, a shorter institutional track record than the 1930s-era flagships — are just as structural.

Academics in practice

IGCSE, then the IB — with an English gate at the door

Students follow the English curriculum to IGCSE examinations in the middle-secondary years, then the IB Diploma Programme in Years 12-13, graduating with up to three diplomas (IB, US High School, Colombian).

The school reports 100 per cent of students achieving A*-C in IGCSE results and highlights university acceptances worldwide; because cohorts are small, read any results statistics against cohort size and ask admissions for the full recent picture rather than the headline.↗

The handbook is unusually candid about the language gate. Entry to the IB Diploma in Year 12 requires English at C2 level of the Common European Framework — the highest band — and students who are not minimally fluent in English are simply not admitted to Years 12 or 13.

Year 13 entry is effectively closed except to IB Diploma transfers whose six subjects match CGB’s offer, including the order of units studied. If you are moving a 15- or 16-year-old, this policy, not the waitlist, is your first conversation with admissions.↗

For weaker English, the school runs an additional-language programme at extra cost, and younger joiners are assessed and placed by age band after the iDAT and English tests.

The school day runs 8:10 am to 2:55 pm on Mondays and Fridays and to 3:20 pm Tuesday to Thursday, with recuperation sessions on Tuesdays — a shorter day than many British-style schools, which matters if both parents work.↗

Admissions and cost

Unpublished fees, monthly billing — and a compulsory lunch bill

CGB does not publish a fee schedule — the International Schools Database confirms fees are not public for 2026-27. What exists publicly: an undated directory figure of around US$16,000 a year, a Colombian directory band above COP 4 million a month, and directory-listed transport around COP 845,000 a month.

Bogotá private-school fee increases are set within a regulated band adjusted annually under Secretaría de Educación del Distrito tariff rules, so the unpublished number still moves predictably. The honest advice: request the current schedule in writing before applying, and budget transport and lunch on top.↗↗

The billing mechanics, from the handbook, are knowable even without the numbers.

Tuition is invoiced monthly — 10 August, then on the first of each month September through June, payable within 10 calendar days; the June invoice applies only to families who started in September or later, so mid-year joiners do not get a surprise extra month.

If you pay the enrolment fee and your child never starts, only 50 per cent of it is refunded, under Clause 7, paragraph 5 of the enrolment contract.↗

Two policies catch families off guard. First, lunch is effectively compulsory: students may not bring packed lunches to school, an external caterer (Aldmiark) supplies snacks and lunch to every student, the campus is nut-free, and food deliveries are banned — so the catering line is a fixed cost, not an option.

Second, admissions runs year-round with a COP 300,000 application fee, Friday-morning admissions appointments (fully online from abroad, with a parent proctoring the tests), three student interviews, a parent interview, and the iDAT plus writing test from Year 3 up.

The committee meets every Wednesday and children can start three days after matriculation — fast, by international-school standards.↗↗

The family experience

The commute is the decision

CGB sits at the far northern edge of the city, past Calle 200 on the Autopista Norte corridor.

US diplomatic post reports — where CGB is one of the two default schools for embassy families, alongside CNG — repeatedly flag the journey: about an hour each way from the Rosales/Chicó cluster, and up to two hours in heavy rain.

Families who choose CGB tend to move north within a year, toward La Calleja, Chía or the newer northern developments; the school’s contracted buses run with individual seat belts and GPS tracking that parents can follow.↗↗

The handbook’s texture is reassuring on community: a “No Bully Zone” safeguarding posture, house system, UNCOLI sports fixtures, performing arts built into the school day rather than appended after it, and co-curricular activities that are part of the timetable.

Nursery children can attend mornings only (8:10-12:15, including lunch) — but fees remain payable in full and there is no midday bus, a small print detail worth knowing before you plan a toddler’s schedule.↗

Our readConfidence: Medium

The most international community in Bogotá — if you can solve the map

CGB’s paper trail is thinner than the old flagships’ but unusually honest: a 63-page handbook that tells you exactly how billing, lunch, transport and the language gate work. What it cannot show is the classroom.

Our confidence is Medium — the accreditation pair (CIS and NEASC) and the 50-per-cent nationality cap are structural strengths we can verify, but fees are unpublished, enrolment figures vary by directory, and the founding date rests on a single academic source.

The families it suits: diplomatic and corporate postings who want a genuinely international, English-first peer group for a child of any age, who are comfortable on the IB pathway, and who are willing to live north — really north.

The families it does not suit: anyone anchored to Rosales or Chicó who cannot absorb a two-hour daily bus ride, families who need published fees to plan, and older teenagers whose English is not yet near C2.

Visit on a school morning, ride the bus route yourself, and ask for the fee schedule in writing before the COP 300,000 application fee.

Take these to the school

Questions that move beyond the tour script

Admissions and transition

  1. What is the current full fee schedule for our child’s year group — matrícula, monthly pensión, transport, catering — in writing?
  2. Our child is joining from a non-British curriculum mid-secondary: how do the iDAT and English requirements apply, and is the additional-language programme likely to be required?
  3. For Year 12 entry, exactly how is the C2 English requirement assessed, and what happens if our child tests below it?

Academics and support

  1. May we see the last three years of IGCSE and IB Diploma results with cohort sizes, and the university-destination list?
  2. How large is the learning-support and additional-language team, and what does support cost on top of tuition?
  3. How are IGCSE options and IB subject blocks timetabled — are any combinations impossible in practice?

Cost and logistics

  1. Which bus routes serve our shortlisted neighbourhoods, and what is the real pick-up time for a child living in Chicó or Rosales?
  2. What is the all-in catering cost per child per month, and are there any circumstances in which a child can bring food from home?
  3. If our posting ends early, what is the withdrawal notice period and what happens to fees already invoiced?

Continue your research

Choose your next step

Sources and further research

Where to verify and keep reading

We favor direct links to the exact page or document a family may need next. Access dates matter because admissions, tuition, leadership, and programs change.