It provided an English language education, primarily to the children of embassy and United Nations personnel and international workers such as oil and gas businesses.

As of 2013 it had a total enrollment of some 73 students from over 11 nationalities, down from a peak of over 200 a decade earlier due to the deteriorating security situation in the years leading up to the Saudi led multinational coalition intervention in 2015.

James E. Gilson, who previously served as the principal of Yemen-American Cooperative School in Taiz, then in Yemen Arab Republic a.k.a.

[2] On December 22, 1976, the school began occupying a plot of land given by the North Yemen government given for free for a 50-year period.

[2] The spacious, purpose built facility incorporated traditional Yemeni architectural features, and was surrounded by farmland and mountains.

The exterior sports facilities provided opportunities for soccer, softball, tennis, basketball, track and field, orienteering, climbing, and archery.

SIS graduates were routinely accepted at top universities in North America, Europe, and the Middle East.

In recent years up to 2015 when operations were suspended, one in three graduates headed to the USA were offered scholarships in Ivy League universities.