Schools

[Still Looking]

I am looking at moving to singapore with 2 Aussie girls. We are going to send them to the local schools only(not international).
Are there any reccomendations for good local schools.
I will be visiting Singapore in just over 1 week so any information at this stage would be great. Thanks in advance

[Local]

You may want to check out the Ministry of Education's website; it has useful info on admission procedure etc http://www1.moe.edu.sg/admission.htm

[The Kemps]

We are arriving in Singapore in about a week and still haven't found a government Secondary school for two of our children.
We have found it hard to follow the procedures outlined on the various Ministry of Education websites and have had one reply from an individual Seondary school saying there were no vacancies.
Any suggestions appreciated.

[sg]

If you wish to email me at kgolds@singnet.com.sg, I may be able to help you.  We had similar problems last year in enrolling children in a primary and secondary school in Singapore.

[Opinion]

My guess is that there is so much competition amongst the Singaporeans to get their children into the "best" schools that no wonder the expats come up against brick walls. I know by looking at the admissions for the local schools in the "Straits Times" that parents get extra brownie points to get their kids into their favoured schools in some of these ways: for being former pupils of the school themselves, or for spending hours 'volunteering' at the school, or living in close proximity to the schools. Not helpful if you're an expat family who probably has yet to choose somewhere to live. Also another concern is that there are 'league tables' published of the 'best' schools and the Heads want to keep standards as high as possible, so everyone is clamouring to get their kids into these schools. No wonder there is no room at the 'better' schools for expat kids. I don't know if parents are allowed to actually take a tour of the local schools to see if their child would be comfortable and happy there, but it is certainly something I would demand of the Head, and it is important to ask lots of questions about support services for new entrants, teaching methods etc, how many expat children are enrolled already etc. One thing to be aware of - the class sizes are very large, up to 40 pupils is not uncommon.