East-West opened in August 2006 in Phnom Penh with a vision of providing affordable, international-quality, bilingual education to primarily Cambodian children. The founding of the school was spearheaded by Sandra Chipps, an Australian woman who had taught at the International School of Phnom Penh and was teaching at Northbridge International School when she was approached by Chea Thilay, the founder, to implement the same quality program at East-West.
Back then, East-West held only five classes – an ESL class, two preschool classes, a Kindergarten class and one full-day Grade 1 and 2 class. The original campus was located on Norodom Boulevard, near Wat Sarawan. After starting with around 80 students on the first day, the enrollment grew quickly and forced a move to a second campus a few blocks away, on Street 51 in Daun Penh district.
In the 2007 / 2008 academic year, enrollment continued to grow so rapidly that a third campus was required. East-West was established on its current campus located at the corner of Street 360 and 143 in Boeung Keng Kang 3. The ESL classes remained on the old campus and formed the core of a new school there. Since 2008, East-West has continued to grow in numbers and in the quality of its program and facilities.
East-West was granted a six-year term of accreditation from the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC). East-West was then registered as a Cambridge International Exam Centre, which was necessary to cater to the secondary students who had grown with the school from elementary.
Construction work began to expand and replace the buildings on the current campus.
In August 2015, classes on the early years and primary were moved into a new seven-story building. Construction continued on the five-story building between the primary and secondary buildings, and a gymnasium, canteen and early years playground were added to the campus. The construction was completed before the start of the 2018-2019 school year, with purpose-built science labs, two more open classrooms, and an entire floor dedicated to our music program. The first Grade 12 graduation was held in June 2015.
