Eastwood International School Beirut

Setting and Sense of Place

EIS Beirut occupies a hillside site in Mansourieh el Metn, a residential suburb northeast of Beirut overlooking the Lebanese capital and the Mediterranean. The campus's elevated position gives its upper-floor library panoramic views of the city and sea — an unusual geographical asset that the school incorporates into its architectural identity.

Mansourieh is a tight-knit, largely Christian community with a mix of local Lebanese families and long-term expatriate residents. The neighbourhood is accessible by car from central Beirut in roughly 15–20 minutes, and from Beirut's Rafic Hariri International Airport in approximately 11 minutes.

Classrooms and Technology

Classrooms at EIS are described as state-of-the-art, equipped with ceiling-mounted projectors, sound speaker systems and Apple TVs. Air-conditioning is standard. This infrastructure supports the school's technology-integrated approach to IB learning and reflects ongoing investment in the physical environment.

Library

The recently refurbished library sits on an upper floor, taking advantage of the site's elevation. It features dedicated reading lounges, group work areas, computer stations, and multi-language collections (English, Arabic and French), along with over 4,000 e-books — a meaningful resource for IB Extended Essay research and independent study.

Multipurpose Hall

The multipurpose room serves as the social heart of campus. Spacious, with a stage, PA system and projector, it hosts gymnastics classes during the school day and transforms into an arts venue for theatre productions, Christmas pageants, concerts and exhibitions. Its flexibility is a practical asset for a school that supports performing arts across age groups.

Outdoor Spaces

Despite being an urban campus, EIS maintains meaningful outdoor provision. The landscaped entry garden features picnic tables, jungle gyms and a large tree described as "a great sharing tree" — a deliberately communal outdoor space. The lower playground is fenced and grass-covered, with two football (soccer) fields, basketball goals and swings. These spaces serve both PE classes and after-school sports teams.

Cafeteria and Wellbeing Facilities

The on-site cafeteria offers daily hot meals, healthy sandwiches, salads, juices and bottled water at affordable, flexible pricing — including meal plan options. A full-time school nurse operates from a dedicated health centre with a private examination room and stretcher trolley, maintaining student medical records. Together these facilities reflect a campus designed for full-day, attentive care.

A Science-Driven Approach to Learning

Eastwood International School Beirut occupies a distinctive position among Lebanese international schools by explicitly framing education as a scientific discipline. The school's official overview states that it "views education as a science" and commits to "research-backed, evidence-based methodologies" — language rarely used so directly by schools of its size.

This philosophy manifests across the full IB Continuum (PYP through DP). In the early years, Montessori-informed approaches encourage self-directed exploration. By middle school, inquiry-based MYP units connect abstract concepts to real-world applications. In the Diploma Programme, students engage with Theory of Knowledge, Extended Essay and CAS — the IB core components that demand intellectual independence and community contribution simultaneously.

Bilingual Identity

A defining feature of EIS's pedagogical identity is its bilingual English/French structure. The school operates parallel tracks from Primary Years onward: an English-medium stream and a French Section (Section Française). This is not merely language provision — it reflects a philosophical commitment to multilingualism as a cognitive and cultural asset. French-track students engage with literature, sciences and humanities through a Francophone lens, while sharing a campus community with their English-medium peers.

Character at the Core

The mission statement — "We commit to impacting the world by teaching students to be driven by a balance of mind, body and soul, and to couple knowledge with integrity, ambition with compassion, and achievement with service" — is not aspirational decoration. It appears operationalised in the school's co-curricular design: a certified mindfulness programme runs twice weekly from Early Years through Elementary, the Duke of Edinburgh's International Award integrates community service and outdoor challenge for older students, and the broader after-school programme emphasises wellbeing alongside competition.

The 15:1 student-to-teacher ratio and deliberate cap of 15 students per class underscore a belief that meaningful education requires intimacy and individual attention — a structural commitment to the philosophy rather than merely a marketing claim.

Vision for the Region

EIS articulates an explicitly regional ambition: to be "a leading educational community in the Middle East for students of all nationalities and religions." This inclusive vision is evidenced by a student body drawn from 40 nationalities across a school of approximately 1,200 students — a diversity ratio that is exceptional even by international school standards.

Origins in Kafarshima

The Eastwood story begins in 1973, when Lebanese educator Amine Michel Khoury founded Eastwood College in Kafarshima, a southern suburb of Beirut. The institution was conceived to serve an increasingly cosmopolitan community in Lebanon, offering internationally-oriented education at a time when the country was a regional hub of commerce, culture and higher learning.

A Second Campus for a Growing City

By 1985, demand from expatriate and local communities in greater Beirut warranted a second institution. Khoury opened Eastwood International School (EIS) on Sami Solh Street in Mansourieh el Metn — a hillside neighbourhood in the Mount Lebanon district overlooking the capital. EIS was designed from the outset as an international school: English-medium, multicultural, and committed to globally recognised qualifications.

Mansourieh's elevated position — roughly 11 kilometres from Beirut's Rafic Hariri International Airport — made it accessible to diplomatic and expatriate families while offering a quieter residential setting than the city centre.

IB Authorisation and Accreditation

A pivotal milestone came in 2016 when EIS received full IB World School authorisation, enabling it to offer the complete PYP–MYP–DP continuum. This positioned EIS among a small group of Lebanese schools delivering the internationally portable IB Diploma Programme, recognised by the Lebanese Government as equivalent to the Lebanese Baccalaureate.

The school also holds Cognia (formerly AdvancED) accreditation — a quality assurance standard used by thousands of schools worldwide — underscoring its commitment to continuous improvement against international benchmarks.

Regional Expansion

The Eastwood network has since grown beyond Lebanon. The group now operates three campuses across two countries — Lebanon and Iraq (Erbil) — collectively serving over 1,200 students from 40 nationalities. This expansion reflects both the strength of the brand established by the Khoury family and the broader demand for internationally accredited English-medium education across the Middle East.

Today, EIS Beirut remains the flagship campus of the network, holding the institutional memory of four decades of educational innovation in Lebanon.

Multiple Credential Options

One of EIS Beirut's most practically significant features is its ability to deliver three distinct upper-secondary qualifications simultaneously: the IB Diploma Programme (DP), the American High School Diploma, and the Lebanese Baccalaureate. This is unusual even among well-resourced international schools and reflects the school's understanding of the diverse credential needs of its multinational student body.

IB Diploma candidates follow the standard DP structure: six subject groups, Theory of Knowledge, Extended Essay and CAS. Their examinations are externally marked by the International Baccalaureate Organisation — papers are "sent sealed to the IB Organization offices for correcting," as the school notes, ensuring assessment integrity independent of the local context.

For families whose children may need to re-integrate into Lebanese higher education or the American university system, the alternative diploma tracks provide meaningful flexibility.

The Bilingual Dimension

Academic life at EIS operates across two linguistic channels. English is the dominant medium of instruction across all programmes and year levels. However, the French Section (Section Française) offers a parallel track within the PYP and continues through to higher grades, making EIS one of the few schools in Lebanon to offer genuinely bilingual IB education.

Arabic is taught as a mother-tongue subject for Lebanese students and as a foreign language for others — acknowledging the school's dual identity as both an international and a locally embedded institution.

Small Classes, Strong Support

With a deliberate cap of 15 students per class and a 15:1 student-to-teacher ratio across the school, EIS positions academic support as structural rather than remedial. Students needing English language development are assessed on entry and placed in the school's internal ESL/EAL programme. Those with additional learning needs can access the Special Rights Programme, a dedicated support stream.

Science and Technology

EIS's science laboratory has been recently updated and features digital microscopes, CO₂ and pH sensors, a chemical storeroom, and full safety equipment — infrastructure consistent with IB Group 4 internal assessment requirements. Classrooms throughout the building are equipped with projectors, sound systems and Apple TVs, reflecting a commitment to technology-integrated pedagogy from the earliest years.

A Genuinely International Community

With students drawn from 40 nationalities within a school of approximately 1,200 pupils across the Eastwood network, EIS Beirut cultivates a level of cultural diversity that is notable even by international school standards. The student body spans Lebanese, Arab regional, European, North American and Asian families — a mix that reflects both Lebanon's historical role as a regional crossroads and the school's deliberate international positioning.

This diversity is not incidental: the school's vision explicitly targets "students of all nationalities and religions," and its dual English/French instruction model further broadens accessibility to both Anglophone and Francophone families.

Co-Curricular Breadth

The after-school programme at EIS is notably wide-ranging. Core offerings include artistic gymnastics, tennis, football, STEAM and robotics, performing arts (drama, dance, music), salsa dance, Zumba fitness and choir. A certified mindfulness instructor delivers sessions twice weekly for Early Years through Elementary students — an unusual provision that reflects the school's wellbeing-centred philosophy.

For older students, the Duke of Edinburgh's International Award (DofE) provides a structured framework for adventure, skill development, physical activity and community service — connecting IB CAS requirements with a globally recognised youth award.

Service and Belonging

The mission's explicit pairing of "achievement with service" finds expression in the school's community engagement activities. The Friends of Eastwood School Foundation, a local non-profit partner, supports community and service programmes. Student leadership is encouraged through activities that prepare young people to contribute beyond the classroom.

Mindfulness as Culture

The integration of mindfulness as a scheduled, timetabled programme — not an elective — signals an institutional commitment to emotional wellbeing as part of academic life. Teaching students to manage stress "from a young age," as the school describes it, reflects an understanding that academic performance and mental health are interdependent — a message increasingly central to IB-aligned international schools worldwide.