Routinely ranked among India’s Top 10 international day schools, CIS has established a national reputation for providing 21st century technology-enabled holistic education to its 2,528 students mentored by 244 highly-qualified teachers – paromita sengupta

CIS new campus: technology enabled holistic education.

Sanchita Raha

Spanning an expansive 9.5-acre campus in suburban Hyderabad in close proximity to the University of Hyderabad, is the mint-new CHIREC International School (CIS). Established in 2010 in its erstwhile Kondapur campus, CIS moved to a new state-of-the-art campus last year.

Meanwhile, since it admitted its first batch of students in Kondapur in 2010, the school has established a national reputation for providing 21st-century, technology-enabled holistic education to its 2,528 students, mentored by 244 highly qualified teachers. In the EW India School Rankings 2025-26 this pre-primary till class XII school, affiliated with the Cambridge (UK) and IB (Geneva) exam boards, is routinely ranked among India’s Top 10 and Hyderabad’s #1 international day school. More recently, CIS was adjudged the International School of the Year 2025-26 and awarded a special prize for Architecture and Design by an EducationWorld Grand Jury.

Since it was promoted three decades ago, as a new-age preschool offering globally inspired early childhood care and education, responding to insistent public demand, CIS has evolved into a full-fledged K-12 international day school by introducing the Cambridge International curriculum in 2009 and the IBDP curriculum of the International Baccalaureate in 2012. In 2019, CHIREC schools including CIS were acquired by the UK-based Cognita Group, which owns and operates 100 private schools in 21 countries worldwide.

“In CIS, our objective is to educate the whole child in a framework that develops students’ capabilities for their development into well-rounded personalities. Our holistic learning system sets quality benchmarks that prepare our students for success in a dynamic, volatile global marketplace. In CIS, we believe deep learning happens when students feel safe, supported, and valued, not just academically but emotionally and socially as well. In pursuance of our institutional belief that a happy child is a successful learner, we have instituted Cognita’s Student Well-Being programme as a central pillar of our pedagogy to cultivate a positive and child-centric learning environment,” says Sanchita Raha, an alumna of Calcutta and Jadavpur universities and highly respected Cambridge and IB educator with teaching and admin experience in diverse schools in the Asia-Pacific region, who was appointed principal of CIS in 2019,

CIS’ new campus with a built-up area of 4.8 lakh sq. ft houses 94 state-of-the-art classrooms equipped with interactive boards and mobile laptop carts, designed to provide an engaging learning environment in which students have access to innovation labs, and secondary students avail an internationally benchmarked C-Hub Lab, complemented with nine well-equipped science laboratories.

Equally impressive is the school’s sports infrastructure, which showcases Hyderabad’s unprecedented elevated sports deck spread across 4.5 acres. Students have the option to choose from an extensive range of 40 indoor and outdoor sports disciplines. Outdoor sports facilities include an athletics track, football field, cricket nets, five tennis courts, basketball and handball courts, archery and air pistol shooting ranges, a roller-skating rink, and dedicated arenas for hockey and handball. The indoor sports infrastructure includes badminton, volleyball, basketball and squash courts, table tennis, taekwondo, and gymnastics arenas.

Globally benchmarked academic and sports programs are complemented by a diverse range of co-curricular activities, with students encouraged to explore disciplines such as art and design, clay modelling and pottery, black box theatre, instrumental and vocal music, theatre and dance.

An especially distinguishing feature of CIS education is celebration of Global Be Well Day, a worldwide initiative of Cognita Group schools. On this day (September 26), there is comprehensive institutional focus of students, teachers, parents and all stakeholders on mindfulness, health and happiness.

CIS’ holistic learning curriculum extends beyond the classroom through a range of innovative platforms. C-Hub, a dynamic learning space, inspires critical thinking, creativity, and problem-solving, enabling students to tackle real-world challenges. Partnerships with institutions including the Indian School of Business, Hyderabad enable students to explore ideas generation, design thinking, and business modelling.

Ramesh Mudgal

“CIS’ objective is to provide every student a first-class 21st century environment that fosters academic excellence and balanced growth. Guided by the CHIREC 2.0 programme, our international campus has been carefully designed to provide an ideal learning environment that supports best global teaching-learning practices’’ says CIS director Ramesh Mudgal, an accomplished educationist with over three decades of experience acquired in several international schools in India, Thailand, Singapore, UAE and Bangladesh.

Well aware that the school’s leading-edge institutional objectives cannot be attained without excellent faculty, the CIS management invests substantially in continuous professional development. Its association with the Cognita Group enables CIS to participate in Cognita’s global learning conferences and sign up teachers through Cambridge and IB training programmes.

CIS’ commitment to balanced and high-quality education for students is reflected in excellent board exam results. In Cambridge International’s IGCSE examination 2025, 60 percent of the school’s cohort were awarded A* and A grades. Students Aadi Ramnani and Samarth Lamba were adjudged global toppers in chemistry and extended mathematics. In the IB Diploma Programme 2025, seven students topped with an exceptional score of 43 of the maximum possible 45, and overall 16 students scored 40 or above.

Unsurprisingly, CIS students are routinely admitted into globally top-ranked universities, including Oxford, Harvard, UCL (UK), London School of Economics and Stanford University, among others.

“While significant strides have been made on the path to success, we continue to strive to establish systems and processes focused on ‘teaching for learning,’ high student engagement in classrooms, and digital transformation of CIS,” adds Mudgal.

ADMISSION & FEES

CHIREC International School, Serilingampally, is an IB-affiliated K-12 co-ed day school. Applications for kindergarten to class XI admissions open in September. For applicants seeking admission to class II onwards, the process typically involves an interview followed by a written test, depending on vacancies.

Tuition fees (annual): Rs.287,686-482,298.

For further information, contact Tel:+9109102544, E-mail:office.isrp@chirec.ac.in

Website: www.chirec.ac.in