Hi, we have children at CNIS. The experience has been mixed.
Note that in primary school, the most important feature of the school is the child's teacher. Next would be the other children in the class. Admin, etc. is far less important (within reason). A great teacher can overcome even the most egregious adminstrative incompetence. At the same time, even the most beautiful school with the greatest curriculum cannot survive horrible teachers.
So far our kids have had teachers that range from a "F" to an "A+." But from what I have seen, the bulk is B or above--not bad and some quite good. But it is a great unknown.
As for the peers of my children, this is where the worry lies. I am afraid I have to agree with the previous assertion that we are not getting the cream of the crop. They do carry themselves well, especially at the higher grades.
Finally, there is the adminstration. The soldiers are soldiers, so let's leave them out. Let's look at the leadership. Profit motive is obvious. Reinvestment has been nonexistent, save for the bizarre installation of a golf school. LOL!! Computers for IT have not yet arrived--and we are in week 7. The canteen is friendly but serves God-awful and terribly unhealthy hawker food. The website is a joke...filled with misspellings. Worst of all, there is no sense of a greater mission. CNIS lacks a soul or purpose. If Madarin were the sole objective for a school, I would spend the summers with them in Harbin, where they can learn the most standard Putong Hua.
If we run the table and luck out with great teachers, we can make the case that the children benefitted greatly from their time at CNIS. However, I don't know a single parent who is not looking into alternative options.
It does not take a rocket scientist to figrue out that the place will collapse if the expat parents leave the primary school program en masse. The school simply pales in comparison with local (more or less free) alternatives and is several notches below the top
International Schools.
On the optimistic side, the school has the potential to turn things around quickly. However, unless the fog lifts from the leadership, I remain biased to the pessimistic. Let's not forget, the leadership comes from a country where choice and use of the exit option with schooling is not engrained in the culture. They are simply not used to dealing with clientele who are MBA's, MD's, PhDs, and LLBs, many of whom have risen high enough to warrant their Singapore postings.
A final comment: one needs to watch carefully what the best teachers & administrators do. Perhaps more important, one needs to watch the decisions of key parents, as no parent I know will risk their children's futures.
Iridium08