Our History

Our History

The American School in Aberdeen was established in 1972 with a school population of thirty-six students from Kindergarten through grade 12 and a faculty of eight teachers.The original campus was located on Craigton Road in Cults and was a former convalescent hospital, built in 1910 and situated on 9.5 acres of green lawns and woodlands overlooking the picturesque village of Cults.

In 1979, the parents and the corporate payers were having more divergent opinions about how the school should move forward. The sponsoring corporations decided to establish a charitable company to run the school. The property was purchased from Mr. AJ McCormick and Paloak, Ltd., the consortium of oil companies, was set up to act as landlord to the school.

A second property, 'Fairgirth' in Milltimber was purchased in 1980 and was originally the Elementary (up to Grade 6) campus of ASA. A series of building works in 1991, 1995, 1996 and 2002 extended the original manor house to include extensive classroom and sporting facilities on the 10 acre site.

In 1996 the High School moved across from the Cults campus to Fairgirth and the entire school was under one roof.

In addition to the merging of the two campuses at Fairgirth in 1996 the school also changed its name to the International School of Aberdeen in recognition of the International Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma Programme that was implemented the same year. At that time ISA was the only school in Scotland to offer the IB Diploma to its senior students.

In December 2005, in the midst of on-going construction work to add a new gymnasium and theatre complex, the school was notified by the Scottish Government that a major roadworks project was being planned to run through the Fairgirth property.

In August 2010 the International School of Aberdeen moved into its new, purpose-built campus at Pitfodels House. Our new campus includes a 25m swimming pool shared with AASA; climbing wall in our dining area utilised daily by pupils; a state of the art sports facility; glorious library and amazing outside spaces.

Accredited by

International Baccalaureate Council of International Schools Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools Cambridge International Examinations CNED