The school was established in 1989[1] by a group of Canadian-Chinese investors[2] and opened in November of 1990[3] as a university preparatory day school known as the Canadian Overseas College (COC) in response to "the need for a Canadian system of education in the ASEAN region" by expatriates.
[8] In September of the same year, the school starting offering Mandarin as a second language, with 15 students signing up for the elective.
In 2002, the school was authorised by the International Baccalaureate (IB) to offer the Diploma Programme (DP).
[11] When CIS took over the building, the school hall had " broken windows and a big hole in the roof... the requirement was to restore the hall to its original look and state" according to Angela Henderson, the school's principal.
The damages were subsequently fixed and the school hall was refurbished with new flooring and a fresh coat of paint for the stage.
On March 21 2012, the Lakeside Campus of CIS was opened by then Education Minister S. Iswaran.
[14][15] In June 2020, China Maple Leaf Educational Systems Limited acquired CIS in a deal valued at S$680 million.
[16] Today, CIS is a full-program International Baccalaureate (IB) school in Singapore, housing children in nursery to grade 12.
It opened in November 1990 and occupied the former Toh Tuck Primary School building.