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British School of Chicago Breaks Ground on New Lincoln Park Campus
Building Designed to Accommodate International Curriculum

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PHOTO CREDIT: KRISTA AUSTIN

British School of Chicago students join (from left to right) Ald. Ted Matlak (32nd), British Consul-General Andrew Seaton, BSC Headmaster Mike Horton, British Schools of America CEO Dennis Hallahane and COO Sheree Speakman to break ground on construction of the school’s new Lincoln Park campus. Located at Eastman Street and Halsted Avenue the new school will accommodate 700 students with a maximum class size of 20. Set to open in early 2008 it features a rooftop playground, regulation-size gym, and a full complement of laboratories and learning centers.

Ald. Ted Matlak (32nd), Headmaster Mike Horton and original British School of Chicago students Blake Burleson, Grace Burleson and Erol Bulun are digging the British School of Chicago’s new Lincoln Park location at Eastman Street and Halsted Avenue. The new school will accommodate 700 students with a maximum class size of 20. Set to open in early 2008 it features a rooftop playground, regulation-size gym, and a full complement of laboratories and learning centers.

Original British School of Chicago students Grace Burleson, Rachael Cohen and Arpad Neale leave their handprints in a cement square that will become part of BSC’s new Lincoln Park campus when it opens in early 2008. Located at Eastman Street and Halsted Avenue the new school will accommodate 700 students with a maximum class size of 20. It features a rooftop playground, regulation-size gym, and a full complement of laboratories and learning centers.

Eight of the British School of Chicago’s original 11 students participated in the groundbreaking ceremony by sinking their hands into fresh cement and leaving their handprints in the cement square, which will become part of the school’s new Lincoln Park campus. The eight students have attended the school since it opened in 2001. Located at Eastman Street and Halsted Avenue the new school will accommodate 700 students with a maximum class size of 20. Set to open in early 2008 it features a rooftop playground, regulation-size gym, and a full complement of laboratories and learning centers.

British School of Chicago Headmaster Mike Horton helps BSC student Erol Bulun leave his handprint in a cement square that will become part of the school’s new Lincoln Park campus. Bulun was one of the first 11 students to attend the school when it opened in 2001. Located at Eastman Street and Halsted Avenue the new school will accommodate 700 students with a maximum class size of 20. Set to open in early 2008 it features a rooftop playground, regulation-size gym, and a full complement of laboratories and learning centers.

Original British School of Chicago student Maddie Brewer leaves her handprint in a cement square that will become part of the school’s new Lincoln Park campus when it opens in early 2008 at Eastman Street and Halsted Avenue. The new school will accommodate 700 students with a maximum class size of 20 and features a rooftop playground, regulation-size gym, and a full complement of laboratories and learning centers.

British School of Chicago Headmaster Mike Horton joins eight of the school’s first students as they leave their handprints in a cement square that will become part of the school’s new Lincoln Park campus when it opens in early 2008. Located at Eastman Street and Halsted Avenue the new school will accommodate 700 students with a maximum class size of 20. It features a rooftop playground, regulation-size gym, and a full complement of laboratories and learning centers.

British School of Chicago student Chase Malackowski stands ready to assist construction crews at the school’s new Lincoln Park campus. Located at Eastman Street and Halsted Avenue the new school will accommodate 700 students with a maximum class size of 20. Set to open in early 2008 it features a rooftop playground, regulation-size gym, and a full complement of laboratories and learning centers.

CHICAGO (September 27, 2006) – The British School of Chicago (BSC) today broke ground on the site of its new Lincoln Park campus with a short ceremony featuring Ald. Ted Matlak (32nd), British Consul-General Andrew Seaton, BSC Headmaster Mike Horton, British Schools of America CEO Dennis Hallahane and COO Sheree Speakman. Eight of the school’s students who have attended BSC since it was founded in 2001 left their handprints in a cement square that will become part of the new campus.

Set to open in early 2008, the five-floor, 74,000-square-foot building at Eastman Street and Halsted Avenue is a mixed-use facility with retail sites planned for the ground floor. The BSC will occupy most of the building and will have a separate entrance from the retail space. The school will feature a rooftop playground, regulation-size gym, a full complement of laboratories and learning centers and will accommodate 700 students with a maximum class size of 20.

Currently, the BSC is housed in the former St. Gregory’s Elementary School at 1643 W. Bryn Mawr and offers the traditional British National Curriculum. The BSC first opened its doors in 2001 with 11 students and now, just five years later, has more than 270 students.

The BSC currently serves children aged three to 18 and is one of five schools operated by British Schools of America. The others are located in Boston, Houston, Charlotte and Washington, D.C. The BSC places an emphasis on individualized learning, and its curriculum is structured into “key stages,” following the International Primary Curriculum and the British National Curriculum. In Chicago, the equivalent of a United States high school began this fall, based on the successful expansions into the secondary level of the British Schools in Houston and Washington, D.C.

The BSC also operates the British Music School of Chicago, which offers private music lessons by some of the most accomplished musicians in the city to children in the community. The British Music School is the only institution in Illinois accredited by the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music, the world’s leading music examining board.