Schooling

[Venus]

Can someone help me?
What is the cheapest way for children to go to school in Singapore?
I was shocked at the price of the private schools.
What is the general opinion of public schools?
Are they suitable for two Australian Girls?

[breakcarfast]

Have you considered home schooling?
I have sent my 3 children to The AIS for the last year and have had to pay my own school fees, which has been an interesting experience.(This has been a major factor in our decision to leave here this year)!
The standard is excellent at the primary level, but the school is run for profit and that definitely shows.
I would not consider a local school unless your childern are fluent in Mandarin!

[Wendy]

Your children don't have to know Mandarin to go to a public school here. Certainly not! They have a little bit of trouble in the beginning but might end up learning a new language.

My son did not know any English when he went to nursery school but he did okay. That was in LA. When we came back to Singapore, he did not know any Mandarin or Hokien. But he did okay.

[DaveT]

Your child need not know Mandarin.  But he will definitely benefit with a strong foundation from the core subjects like Maths & Science and some moral education.  Also, he will make a lot of Singapore friends.  

By the time he gets back to his own country, he will definitely be in a very strong position academically.

See the testimony of a top U.S student from Colorado who had a perfect score in the U.S college entrance exam and attributed this partly to his training in Singapore:
http://www.google.com/search?q=cache:www.sg/flavour/bulletin/bb-edu04.html+singapore,U.S+student,top&hl=en

BTW, the Math & Science standard in the primary/secondary schools were tested in 1995/97 and again repeated in 1999 in an American initiated test involving some 40 over countries worldwide called the TIMSS
(Third International Math & Science Study)
{See the ranking chart below of all participating countries}

Singapore top the Math & Science in 1995 and
the tests repeated in 1999 shows Singapore top the Math & was runners up by one point to Korea in Science.

There is another study comparing the "pick of the crop" from U.S schools against the ROW (rest of the world).  See the comments from the APA in U. of Missouri/Columbia: http://www.apa.org/ed/geary.html

".. only about 1 out of 100 U.S. students scored as well as the average student in the top-ranked nation, Singapore."

More importantly is the consistency in the Singapore Schools producing the largest number of top math & science students in all these tests ..and its not rote learning that is measured...and this is across the board as the student sample is representative of all abilities in the local schools.  

The local schools are able to help build mathematical and other important concepts in the young.  You will be surprised by the resources in the local schools.  The local teachers have also been highly commented in one of these studies.

As for Sports & co curricular activities, there are now a wide choice to choose from.  Some schools offer sea sports as well. There are also good IT programmes in the primary/secondary schools.

Some schools/homeschoolers in the U.S are using the Singapore textbooks for Math. & Science.  

If you are interested, the maths/science standard of the participating countries (including Australia,Canada, UK and Japan) are ranked in:

1999 study:
http://nces.ed.gov/timss/timss-r/figure_1.html

Also mentioned is the fact about the relevance of teacher qualifications (mentioned in the previous study about Singapore - that the majority of Singapore teachers are qualified for the subject they specialised in the University):
http://nces.ed.gov/timss/timss-r/highlights.asp#4  

Despite what the media & generally what has been said about the Singapore Education system, it still produces the best primary/secondary students...to be top rank in the world, repeatedly.

If you are looking for a good academic grounding for your child, send him/her to a good local school...

regards

[fellowaussie]

I'm interested in getting more input on the AIS if possible.

Have enrolled my 2 aussie boys there next year, but am appalled at the cost.

We too are paying the tuition ourselves, however I don't know if there are any suitable options. I've heard Tanglin is very good, but I need somewhere my 3y/o can go part time.

Any advice ?

[Tony]

Venus.
If the issue is cost the answer to your question is send them to a Singaporean school. Agree, the fee paying schools are extremely expensive particulary when you factor in their very high deposits, building fund etc etc. I also found some of them to be just too "nationalistic" and operate as if they were back home rather than in Asia. I asked Tanglin when my son could start Mandarin and was told that their second language was French!

Agree with DaveT, the Singaporean schools have a very high academic standard and would not be too concerned about your children not knowing Mandarin. Don't forget there are many
other Asian children here whose mother tongue is not Mandarin. The schools cope well and children can learn a new language very fast. My three year old spent a month in a third country play group and came out fluent.
Think in the end it comes down to more subjective points:
1. Do the girls feel the need to be in an Aussie community?
2. Are they going to be able to handle the pressure to succeed and to take on extra tuition? You may say they don't need to but another contributor made a very valid point some time ago that the danger here is that they are seen by their colleagues to be dropping out and therefore not part of the community.

Have a look at some of the local schools. We are lucky to have the option and this is a country where sending the kids to a local school is an attractive and viable option. Some have actually got a more international student pool than the "international" schools and if the children are prepared to live outside their Aussie "comfort zone" it could be the best option for all of you.

[DaveT]

Here are some suggested good local schools for girls (not exhaustive/not ranked):

Primary (Age 7-12):
St Nicholas
Nan Hua
Raffles Girls
Singapore Chinese Girls
St Hilda's (only the primary sch)
Red Swastika

Secondary (may need good academic ability/performance records;age 13-17;O levels preparation):

Raffles Girls
St Nicholas
Singapore Chinese Girls
River Valley High
Dunman High
Tanjong Katong Girls

Junior Colleges (may need performance/acad records;age 17-19;equiv of Form six/A levels preparation):

Raffles Junior College
Anglo Chinese Junior College
Victoria Junior College
National Junior College
Temasek Junior College
Hwa Chong Junior College

The contact nos/addresses are in the telephone directories.

Hope that helps.

[KT]

Yes, the schools mentioned are all terrific with very high academic performances, but they are impossible to get into unless the child has a sibling there or one of the parents is an old boy/girl and does a lot of volunteering at the school.  When I first arrived in Singapore, I told a Singaporean friend that I'd like my kids to go to Raffles, and she just laughed hysterically ... and she was right!

[DaveT]

Think creatively of a skill or service that the school would love to have...like giving  English literature/poetry classes every month on a volunteer basis...talk to the principals..after all, some of these schools have been employing teaching staff from Princeton, Oxford and other well known schools for their Humanities programmes...

Some other suggestions...be a volunteer for say, wind surfing or new dance form and promise to train a dedicated group of kids for the next important country level games/public performance...whatever that brings repute & visibility to these schools, local and abroad...

Happy volunteering!

[DaveT]

See the latest CNN news on a Singapore school:
http://www.cnn.com/2001/TECH/computing/01/03/singapore.school.reut/index.html

Another suggestion for would-be volunteer...give them some extremely exciting ideas/technology that you can help wire up/implement...cost to them, of course, but lend your expertise in consulting,etc.

I remember there were retirees who volunteered to help run a VSAT system in a school in Fairfax, U.S some decades ago...