Educating Junior in Singapore- An Expat’s View
Last week I posted about Educating Junior in our local education system. In this post I will be sharing with you my interview with Milly, an expat mom who blogs at www.millysmix.blogspot.com.
While doing an update on Choosing the Right Primary School I sent out an e-mail to Milly to seek her opinion on how she decided on where to place her children when they came over to Singapore from Australia.
[Australia’s Bondi Beach]
Photo by penreyes
[Singapore’s Skyline]
Photo by Starving Fox
She highlighted the fact that
- Many expats don’t have much notice when they are posted to a different country, and so if the children are of school age it becomes rather urgent to get a place for them.
- Many of the international schools in Singapore have long waiting lists and also charge exorbitant fees for placing your child on the wait list.At the time that she was looking around at schools here she managed to get her daughter a place in her chosen school straight away. That was the main reason we chose the school. She didn’t want the hassle of having to transfer her daughter from one school to another.
- She also like the fact that the chosen school was a small school, and for young children in a new country we felt they needed to feel nurtured and safe, which is very much the feel of the school.For her she also liked the fact that it was in a convenient location easy to get to without a car. The facilities at this school aren’t as good as some international schools, but for small children this isn’t as important as the feel of the school.
- As expats she also take into account how long we are going to reside in a country. Many Australians who know they will only be here for a couple of years, for instance, send their children to the Australian school as the curriculum is the same as in Australian schools and so the transition is easy for the children when they return to Australia. The holidays are the same which makes it easy when returning for holidays. They celebrated Australian culture and are very conscious of being Australian.
- If people know that they will be here for longer, this is not such an issue. For her family, they felt it was more important that the children got an international education, mixed with local and international children and grew an awareness of Singapore and the region.An at their chosen school there are children and teachers from nearly 50 different nationalities .
- For her children, because of their age and because she thought that their stay in Singapore would only be a short one ,she didn’t look so much at the curriculum. The school she chose follows the PYP program. It is an enquiry based program and subjects are taught based on “units of enquiry”, the assessment is ongoing and takes many forms, not just tests. The only regret that Milly has is the lack in emphasis in promoting 2nd language in the school with only 2hrs per week being allocated for Chinese.
If you are looking for a comprehensive guide which features both options for local and expats educating their children in Singapore do get a copy of my book today.