international schools

[bob]

hi everyone,
we are coming to Sg in April 2001 and are not quite sure to which kind of school to get our little 6-year old daughter. She started school this September and does not speak a word English. So we are quite concerned, it might be too hard for her, coming to another country, everything new and not understanding the language in school.
Has anyone made experiences in that respect? What are the international schools recommended in Sg? How long would it take her to be able to pursue the curriculum?
Thanks!

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robert

[Donna]

First of all, where are you moving from? What language(s) does your daughter speak? For example, there are schools for the Dutch, German, French, Japanese, Swiss and I think, Korean. Also there are the American and British schools, and one International school, United World College of SE Asia which follows a British curriculum will not admit pupils who are not fluent in English (nor will Tanglin Trust, also a British school).

You may have better luck with Overseas Family School, Dover Court, ISS - International School of Singapore and perhaps Chatsworth. I would ask your employer to provide for tuition costs of learning English, the British Council provides courses and individual lessons for non-English speakers and they are based in Napier Road, next to the US Embassy (they have a website so you might want to do a search to get some information about language courses).  

[bob]

Donna, thanks for your prompt reply. We are coming from Germany and I'm pretty aware that there is also a German School. The thing is, that we are not sure whether we return back to Germany or not, so she has to learn English and go to an international school anyway. We think that it might be better for her to start as early as possible, despite the fact that it could be harsh in the beginning. But on the other hand we think that it won't be easier when she is older. But when you say that most of the international schools don't enrole pupils not fluent in English, it seems that we don't have any choice!

[Donna]

Bob - you will probably find that the German school will also be teaching English anyway. I do know that the length of the school day is very short at this school, so your daughter could very easily take English lessons in the afternoons. Or you could consider enrolling her in the German school and moving her to another international school once she is proficient in English. Perhaps you could try to find her a tutor in English before you leave for Singapore, just to give her a little experience? Don't forget, if you choose to live on a condo with lots of children living there, you will find that they all converse in English anyway, so your daughter will soon pick it up from her playmates! We had kids from Finland, Sweden, Denmark, UK, Japan, Australia & NZ on our condo but they all spoke in English when they played together. She is at an excellent age to pick up another language and she'll soon learn English - don't worry, she will be fine!      

[Dane]

Don't worry. After living in Germany for 5 years, we moved to Singapore in October. It only took 4 weeks before our 3 kids (8, 5 and 3) were able to communicate in english - and they did not speak any english before moving here.

We considered the German School, but basically I think it is only a school for Germans living a short time in Singapore and then going back to Germany.

We enrolled our kids in the Canadian International School and we have been very satisfied. It is a very international school with all kind of nationalities and not that many canadians (they seem to be nice though  .

[bob]

Hi Donna, hi Dane,

thanks a lot for your support. It seems that the expat community in Sg is well organised.

What you say sounds quite good. I already contacted the Australian, Canadian and American Singapore international school. The first answer was also encouraging, cause they (American Singapore) say that a big part of their pupils are non-native english speakers, and they confirmed, that the kids are making good progress in english usually.

To obtain more information, Donna, can you please provide me the internet addresses of the schools you mentionned (Overseas Family School, Dover Court, ISS - International School of Singapore and Chatsworth), because I can't find them in the web?

By the way: what are the recommended condominiums?

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robert

[Mo3]

Bob, most Int'l type schools have ESL (English as a Second Language) programs.  My children are at OFS (Overseas Family School) and there are a lot of non-English speaking children.  My son's closest friend, age 4, entered the school speaking almost no English (what little English he spoke was learned in the period of time between April and Oct. when he attended a local playschool) and is fluent now.  Amazing what these kids can do.  The site for OFS is www.ofs.edu.sg.   Good luck.

[Donna]

Hi Bob here are the links to some of the international school websites:
http://www.chatsworth-international.com
http://www.asiaondemand.com/workingguide/internationalschools/singapore.htm

Dover Court School                     http://www.dovercourt.edu.sg  

As for recommended condos - well, there are thousands of apartments and houses in Singapore! It basically comes down to how much monthly rental budget you will have, where you will be working (central business district/Jurong - West Coast/airport vicinity etc?) and the school your child will attend, will you have a company car or have to buy your own (do you know how expensive cars are here?) or do without a car and rely on public transport, whether or not you want to live in a small, low-rise condo or a huge complex etc. etc....when you can provide more information then you will receive lots of advice on this messageboard!

Hope this helps!    

[This message has been edited by BoardManager (edited 30-12-2000).]

[bob]

Hello,

thanks a lot to everyone! I think we do have enough information to decide what to do, and still there is plenty of time.

So I think that's it for the moment!

Happy New Year to everyone, maybe we see each other in Sg later!

bye