any comment about SJI International Elementary School?

[dinomon04]

Hi,

I'm also new here in Singapore.  Am thinking to put my boy into international school after K2.  I heard of this new international school.  The tuition fee is more reasonable compared with UWC, AIS.  Anyone has kids studying there and is willing to share your experience with this school?

[would like to hear more]

A while back, we visited UWC and SJII on the same day.  As it was a while back, memory is a bit hazy now but:

- On that particular day, while looking around the school, we noticed that the children are much better engaged at UWC. 

-  On that particular day, all the UWC kids at the playground have their hats on, and we were told that the school policy is "no-hat-no-play".  There seems to have no such policy at SJII.

- For the same question, the admin staff gives essentially the same answer but in rather different way e.g. when we enquire how much chinese are the kids doing in school.

The UWC answer was: "2.5 hr a week as we are an international school.  Parents should consider chinese enrichment if they are particular about their kids chinese". 

The SJII answer was: "as an international school, we spend a lot of time on chinese: 30 mins a day."

In any case, would be keen to hear from parents with kids at SJII.

[sji mum]

Our child is at sjii

Its a fantastic school.

Chinese teaching is fantastic.dynamic teachers and Principal.

You perhaps also need to know that the school is only in first year of operation.

We are very happy with the school as it has a lovely community and is small.

They do have a not hat no play policy.

[To SJI mum]

Yes: the school is impressive given how new it is. 

Which year is your kid in?  What do you believe is the strength of the school, in comparison to local and other international school.  If you don't mind sharing your view: in what way is their Chinese curriculum fantastic e.g. how and what was taught?  Thanks in advance.

[one moment]

this is off-topic but can someone explain the no hats no play rule?
this might be cultural but I'm not catching it...
I used to play without hats all the time!!

[sji mum]

Hi

My child is in prep 2

Chinese is excellent, very passionate teachers with drama background, lots of games , songs and activities in the junior years.I am amazed by the amount of language that has been learnt in the last six months.Chinese is taught in levels so they mix the kids up according to competency in the language.
Chinese is the favorite subject in our house these days.Last year it caused us alot of stress.

No hats no play...its an antipodean thing....the fear of skin cancer.

Here is my list of why I like SJII very much

1.Strong leadership team which work well together and  experienced teachers , many who have been in Singapore a while.

2.Small school with a lovely community.I think many of the parent have been in Singapore for years and perhaps there is not as much expat wives dramas(this is my personal opinion:-))No offense intended!

3.I love the virtue programmes and the fact you can opt in or out of the faith based aspect of the school.

4.The classroom environment and design of the school is lovely .I think the kids feel a sense of ownership.

5.International Primary curriculum..I like the science aspect of it that is a bit lacking in the PYP programme.

6.Principal is accessible to parents and she write the kids a birthday card( I think that really sweet)

 

[proddy]

Am I correct in thinking SJI is a Catholic school?  Do you have to be Catholic to attend?  Is there much emphasis on religion in the curriculum?

[sji mum]

catholic..nope you dont have to be catholic .I'm not.

They have Mass on Friday at 7.30 am on a Friday before school starts but its optional.

None of the kids in my childs class go as far as i am aware.

[sjii]

   Above poster is correct there are plenty of different religions in the Elementary. However, do take note that in the secondary school(year 7) the children do have to attend mass and have religious educatiom. I was told this as I have a child in the upper elementary grade. Just something to think about if you are here for the long term.

[sjii]

Its not true that the high school kids have to attend Mass. It is optional. No compulsion.

[JCRT]

Hi. My daughter started at SJII last week. We looked at 9 schools during our look-see in November & SJII was, in our opinion, the most warm and friendly. We loved the fact that they place an emphasis on virtues and don't just concentrate on achieving the best grades.

[two questions about SJII]

1- How much are the fees at K2 / K1 / Year 1 levels?

2-How big is the waiting list?

Thanks.

[JCRT]

We enrolled my son for Prep 1 starting in August 2010 last November and they still had places. We applied for my daughter to start Prep 2 (5-6 year olds) immediately & a place came up due to a last minutes withdrawal, at the end of December. You'd have to speak to them about their current waitlist though, as I guess it changes all the time. I think because they are a new school, they don't have the huge waiting lists that some of the other schools have. UWC had over 200 children on their waitlist for my daughter's year.  I believe that the founder of SJII was the former headmaster and driving force of UWC & when he set up SJII he took a lot of staff with him.

The fees are on their website.

[ex-SJI]

I withdrew my child from SJII having had a miserable and worrying time there. We feel we were treated very badly and the whole experience put me off SIngapore. I just wanted to add this to temper the very positive reviews earlier in this post. I would not advise my friends to send their kids there.

[Explain?]

To PP:  What went wrong?  Personally, I haven't approached them as they sound religious and I consider most religious people to be nuts but why were you actually disappointed there?