International school pre-school/infant programme
Posted: Tue, 16 Dec 2014 8:34 am
We are a Hong Kong family planning to move to Singapore in early 2016, and I’m just starting to do some research on International Schools for my little one who will be 3 years old by then. We are not sure yet if we’ll stay for the long term, and there is the possibility that we may relocate back to Hong Kong after say 2-3 years. We are Australian citizens so we are definitely considering AISS, but we are also exploring other options such as Singapore American School, Stamford, Canadian International School...etc. Ideally, we want to shortlist a few schools and then go for a visit next year.
Some considerations I'm having
- Academic: while I fully agree with the benefits of inquiry-based learning and learning through play in the early childhood years, I’m also worried about academic progression especially in english and mathematics since my child may need to transition back to the HK system after a few years and the primary school curriculum in HK is quite challenging academically. Does anyone know which schools tend to have an earlier academic focus?
- Immersion in Chinese: which school offers a more structured bilingual programme in Chinese? I know AISS has daily Mandarin classes, Stamford has something like 3 classes per week(?), any others? I will teach my child Chinese at home but I would like to know if some schools are relatively stronger in this area.
I'm sorry for all my questions as I’m new here and honestly don't know where to start… but I would really appreciate any help/advice/comments anyone may have.
Some considerations I'm having
- Academic: while I fully agree with the benefits of inquiry-based learning and learning through play in the early childhood years, I’m also worried about academic progression especially in english and mathematics since my child may need to transition back to the HK system after a few years and the primary school curriculum in HK is quite challenging academically. Does anyone know which schools tend to have an earlier academic focus?
- Immersion in Chinese: which school offers a more structured bilingual programme in Chinese? I know AISS has daily Mandarin classes, Stamford has something like 3 classes per week(?), any others? I will teach my child Chinese at home but I would like to know if some schools are relatively stronger in this area.
I'm sorry for all my questions as I’m new here and honestly don't know where to start… but I would really appreciate any help/advice/comments anyone may have.