The Beacon School - Manila

Calling all Beacon students, parents, alumni and friends!

You are invited to the private screening of the much-awaited Walt Disney animated sequel Moana 2 on Saturday, November 30, 10 AM at Cinema 1 of the Power Plant Mall, Makati.

Tickets are available at Php1,000 each. 

All proceeds will go to the launch of our first ever Grade 9 class for school year 2026-27.

Invite your family and friends! If you are unable to attend, you may gift purchased tickets to our school personnel.

The House that sells the most tickets by Nov 30 will win a special prize.

For inquiries, please contact Ms. Arlene or Ms. Mae at [email protected] or [email protected].

Thank you and hope to see you there!

“I entered Beacon School in 2007, having bounced around different schools because my dad was serving in the military and we were moving constantly. My mom found the scholarship announcement in the newspaper, and was excited about the opportunity that she had me apply. Since we didn’t have a computer or printer at home, my application had to be handwritten.

During my first interview, I felt instantly at ease. It was all so new and exciting, and a little bit scary, but I was met with only kindness and openness. My first and dearest friend, Martha, asked me where I was from, and in my usual, sarcastic way, I said “Mars,” and when she laughed, I was right at home.

Beacon taught me to love learning and the library was so special to me. As a scholar, books weren’t always accessible to me but the librarians generously let me soak in the literature.

Beacon opened up new worlds to me, and I was so excited to dive in. Mrs. Locsin taught us to love stories, and I learned to love history with Mrs. Francisco and Mrs. Salvan. The teachers, administrators, and staff gave us not only the tools to explore but also a sense of joy and wonder about learning. The Night of the Notables, plays, scavenger hunts, and sports fests were all opportunities to learn in a way that was tangible and fun. Drama class was particularly helpful in bringing me out of my shell.

The sense of community in Beacon is also one-of-a-kind. Because of the small classes and the egalitarian format of learning, we learned not only to cooperate but also to form lifelong bonds and friendships.

The Beacon School education has carried me through my time in The Beacon Academy, through university, and now with the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA). I am now a junior officer at DFA’s Office of International Economic Relations and I would not be here today without it. In the coming years, in whatever foreign service post I end up in, I hope to carry that sense of Beacon-signature wonder with me at all times.”

- Nicole Mempin, Foreign Service Officer, Office of International Economic Relations, DFA; alumna, Beacon School (MYP 2010) and Beacon Academy (2014)

On October 12, The Beacon School’s Middle School Girls team placed third and our Middle School Boys team won the championship at the Inter-Scholastic Sports Association (ISSA) volleyball tournament. It has been a couple of weeks since and we are still beaming with pride. After months of hard work, sweat, and dedication, our team brought home the win!

“We always knew our team had the potential, so as coaches, we had to be strategic in our approach.” - Coach Gretchen

“We designed practices around core skills but at competition level.” - Coach Mikki

The players had been in serious prep mode - weekend practice sessions, intensive one-on-one coaching, and hours perfecting their serves and spikes.

“We would do drills for teamwork and practice spiking and receiving. The overall value of team sports is that you get to learn from your mistakes and meet new people.” - Rafa

“We had practice about 3-4 times a week. Sometimes I had to wake up early on weekends because of the competitions and extra training sessions.” - Rachel

But it wasn’t just physical. They worked just as hard on the mental game: staying calm under pressure, handling setbacks, and learning to work as a team.

Everyone made sacrifices: study sessions missed, weekend plans canceled, and social lives put on hold—all for one goal: victory.

“Some stuff had to make way for my training. I was unable to attend some parties due to my competitions, and was coming home a bit later because of ASA and training with coaches.” - Ethan

This win is HUGE, but the journey doesn’t stop here. The team is already talking about what to work on next—faster reactions, even more precise plays, and taking our teamwork to a nearly unbeatable level. Our students also took away some valuable lessons.

To everyone who cheered us on and believed in us—THANK YOU! This victory is for YOU too. Go Beacon!

“When I was a student, everything and everyone were just part of my daily routine, so I didn’t fully appreciate how special the experience was at the time. Now, I look back on my Beacon years with deep fondness. My memories of my time at Beacon are more vivid than in high school and university! I can still clearly remember how it felt to walk into my third-grade classroom in the mornings.

Beacon cultivated our individuality and taught us how to be curious from an early age. I find it so important that we were guided by the IB learner profile (something I STILL refer to as an adult!) because even though I didn’t have the highest test scores and grades growing up, I notice how the elements of the learner profiles manifest in my work now. I run a body acceptance community .smithy and a clothes brand , which both advocate for body acceptance and respecting your body in all its versions. We plan events, have a podcast, and create content for social media on all relevant topics about respecting our current bodies. When I first started, I was running both brands all by myself, but now I have a small team that is helping me out. My goal is to raise awareness about body acceptance and bodily autonomy by empowering people to celebrate unique individuality and all the versions that they come in. 

I wouldn’t be where I am now if I didn’t have the foundation that Beacon helped us build when we were younger. 

I love how even though it’s been more than a decade since we graduated, we’ve all still kept in touch. Even as adults, when I get to meet former Beacon kids from different batches that I didn’t get to talk to growing up, one of the first things we say is ‘I remember you— you’re from (Narra/Acacia/Molave)!’

Some of my fondest memories of Beacon include our field trip to Sagada where we got to experience planting rice, and all the projects where we got to plan, film, and edit our own videos for different subjects.”

- Sabina Yulo, Founder .smithy and
Beacon School student, Grade 3 June 2002 - Grade 8 April 2008

When school resumes and we ask each other what we did during break, some of us will have an answer as athletic as the Olympics 🏐

On July 1, 2024, The Beacon School launched its first ever 2-week volleyball clinic to kickstart this year’s summer vacation in a fun and productive way: learning a new sport.

Packed with basic training, challenging drills and friendly competition, our clinic was opened to students at any skill level from Grade 4 to 8. Led by top-notch coaches, some of whom had competed with the national team, this volleyball clinic focused on three core themes that the students could apply on and off the court:

Discipline: coming to training on time, prepared, and ready to work, whatever the challenge

Teamwork: adapting to people with varying skill levels, learning to work together, and offering encouragement

Sportsmanship: appreciating the value of humility when winning games and grace in times of defeat

Given the positive reception to our inaugural clinic, we are delighted to share that we are planning to hold an extended camp next year. We encourage more students to join, especially those who are interested to learn a new sport, form meaningful friendships, and have a blast at the same time. The volleyball camp is open to Beacon students Grade 4 and up, whether you are new to the game or have a few tricks up your sleeve. Our goal is to foster a positive environment that will teach you to take risks, and overcome challenges, all in the spirit of play and learning.

For more information about our Sports After School Programme, please contact Arlene at [email protected]

The Beacon School is hosting its first-ever golf tournament, Par for a Purpose, on August 19, Monday at 730am at Alabang Country Club. This friendly competition is another way our community comes together to support our school’s development beyond Grade 8 at our Makati campus.

Making our fun event even more exciting are our wonderful sponsors’ prizes, including a Chevy Tracker for the lucky hole-in-one winner!

While we have already reached the maximum number of golf players, we welcome guests who want to enjoy our buffet lunch and raffle draw. Please register at [email protected].

We thank all our generous partners:

PLATINUM: The Moment Group featuring 8Cuts, Manam, Mo Cookies
GOLD: Barchan Architecture | Rockwell | GCash
SILVER: Globe | PAEC | BPI | ATRAM | RCBC | Arthaland | PhilBritish Insurance
HOLE SPONSORS: Alpha Sports | AyalaLand Premier | Brittany | Casitas de Victoria | Champion | Discovery Primea | Dunkin’ | Green Tee | Marca Leon | Oishi | Re/Max
HOLE-IN-ONE PRIZES: MIG1 | Chevrolet
DONORS: The Bayleaf Hotels | The Bistro Group | Healthway | Lightwater | Vitamin Boost | Mogu Mogu | Serta | Emco Musli | Helm

See you on the 19th! ⛳️

Before we cap another meaningful year of learning here at Beacon, allow us to invite you for a swinging good time just before the new school year begins.

Join us at Par for a Purpose, the first ever golf tournament hosted by The Beacon School. Get ready to tee off on August 19, 730am at Alabang Country Club. You may register as an individual or as a team by 630am, but sign up to reserve your slots today!

Grab your clubs and your friends, and enjoy a day of friendly competition. This event welcomes you, whether you’re a seasoned pro or a first-time golfer. Nothing quite like sports to bring our community closer together to realize new developments for our school: offering Grade 9-10 at our campus in Makati.

Register now! For more inquiries, please email us at [email protected].

We are hiring! If you think you are a fit, please send us an application today.

Exciting news! Support your school as it grows and plans its grade level offering to Gr9-10! Wear the Beacon spirit in style to look cool, stay cool, and support the school’s development.

You may now order our new Beacon Barracudas merch. Made with high-quality materials, they are suitable for any season.

With summer at its tail-end, the rainy season is just around the corner, so why wait? Stay hydrated and protected from those UV rays, and ready for any sudden downpour with our all-weather essentials: a water bottle, a foldable umbrella, and a golf umbrella.

To order, please click the link in bio.

Remember when your younger self was asked by adults what you would like to be when you grow up? And how, as an adult, you tend to ask the kids you encounter the same question? It is not exactly fodder for small talk, but rather, a sign of genuine curiosity. We all have our own dreams - sometimes similar, often different from everyone else’s. What could be a better conversation starter?

For a couple of nights at The Beacon School, we get a glimpse of what those dreams might look like for our Grade 6 students. They take a more tangible and visceral form at the Night of the Notables, where students dress the part of eminent people across time and place, showcase their achievements through exhibits the 6th graders designed and constructed themselves, and express, in their own voice, why and how the notable they have chosen have impacted them personally and the rest of the world. A school project that entails months of preparation, the Night of the Notables is an exercise in rigorous research, writing, design and public speaking.

The Night of the Notables is the brainchild of educator Gregory Smith. According to him, this activity “ideally shows the autonomous learner at work” as it allows the student to “work at his or her own pace and to his own depth, free to move where he wishes.”

Over the years, the Night of the Notables has transformed from a mere school requirement to a school tradition that everyone in the community looks forward to, not just the sixth graders and their parents. When you first walk into the auditorium, numerous student-led exhibits and their accompanying applause welcome you. You don’t really know where to begin. But as you visit each exhibit and listen to every speech, every account of what makes each notable a person of impact, you feel yourself learning something new. You walk out of the auditorium a little bit wiser, not to mention more appreciative of the work all the students put in to make the Night of the Notables truly a night to remember.

The Night of the Notables started in 2002 at The Beacon School and continues to be a popular student-led activity for the community.

“I joined Beacon in May 2017 as the administrative assistant to the dean of school.

I couldn’t forget my first day of work. When I told Miss Mary, the former dean of school, that I was about to head out, she said “Thank you for your hard work.” I was shocked - no one from my previous job had ever done that. I got emotional because I felt that I mattered. Pwede ka palang makatanggap ng appreciation sa simpleng trabaho, when words like “thank you” or “sorry” are not so common anymore. So on my first day, I had a good first impression of the school.

My interactions with the parents were even more shocking because I never expected them to notice me, the HR person, whose work is behind the scenes by nature. When I pass by them at the campus, they make it a point to say hello, even if they don’t know my name. Magngingitian kayo kahit hindi niyo kilala ang isa’t isa. They acknowledge that I am part of the team, and I could feel their trust.

But the real privilege of being a part of the Beacon community is sitting in at the board meetings. I have seen how the trustees make sure that the school’s activities are aligned with its mission and vision. The decisions they have to arrive at are never easy, and the trustees who attend these meetings do it selflessly. I know because many of them no longer have a stake in the school - their kids have already graduated. They are volunteers. They come to the board meetings always with this commitment to make sure that Beacon continues to provide the quality of education that the school is known for.

I always learn something new at these meetings. Minsan naiisip ko bakit ang talino nila. I’ve learned, just by observing them, that it’s not about the money. Other schools, perhaps in their struggle to stay afloat, may tend to focus on profits. Here at Beacon, quality is the priority. That is hard to sustain when you have a budget to work with to meet the different needs of parents and teachers. But the trustees still try to make it work, during those meetings, simply because they care about the school.”

- Ms. Rikah, serving Beacon School since 2017

Join us at The Beacon School’s second fundraising event for One Beacon: an early screening of Kung Fu Panda 4 on March 9 and 10, Saturday and Sunday, 10AM in Cinema 7 of the Power Plant Mall, Makati.

Tickets are at Php1000 each.

Proceeds will go to the opening of our first ninth grade class in the school year 2026-2027. This means that most of our current students can spend more time together in our Makati campus and complete the MYP programme before they move on to our sister school in Laguna. Hooray :)

Invite your family and friends! The House that sells the most tickets by March 1 will win a special prize at our school fair.

For ticket purchases, please contact Mae at 09178663684.

Hope to see you there!

“The person I am today was molded by my three (far too short) years at Beacon. I grew up a bit of an oddball - homeschooled throughout elementary, the onus was on me as a student to learn the various subjects, with only books to serve as a teacher.

Stepping into Beacon for the first time knocked the wind out of me. Classes were a whirlwind of engagement, active back-and-forths between my classmates and my teachers. My ability to learn was amplified tenfold in that environment, catapulted forward in this educational flywheel. Our teachers were brilliant educators, supportive guides, and even good friends.

The career path I have since taken is incredibly inter- and transdisciplinary. I am a scientist, an educator, an entrepreneur, and an explorer, all rolled into one. Looking back, Beacon prepared me very well for this. Our subjects never stood in silos, and we were always taught to connect ideas and thoughts across disciplines. The ability to think critically and creatively was nurtured in this environment, as opposed to the rote memorization that was so prevalent elsewhere.

The Night of the Notables was a perfect example of the interdisciplinarity of the Beacon program. From conducting research on your subject, to translating that into a written spiel, to practicing speaking in public and all the theatrics involved, not to mention the handiwork that went into the construction of your booth - that one night was the culmination of hard work across many different disciplines, and one I will never forget.

Outside the classroom, the many friendships I’ve made in Beacon will last me a lifetime. It’s been fifteen years since my batch graduated and though many of us haven’t talked in nearly that long, we find it extremely easy to catch up with each other as if no time at all has passed. This might be the most defining indicator of Beacon’s success - that an eclectic and widely varied bunch of kids can remain thick as thieves decades later.”

- Johnny Altomonte
Beacon School student from 2005 to 2008

We are hiring!