Advice needed urgently

[alihau]

Hi,
after spending hours trawling through the forums regarding schools we finally made a decision on UWC or Tanglin, only to be told by both schools that they have over 80 on each waiting list for both year groups for my children. I am reluctant to pull them out of fantastic grammer schools her in the UK to send them to not so good schools in Singapore. I am not saying other schools are worse than UWC or Tanglin only that they are the ones that sounded closes to the UK schools they now attend. As we may have to return in 2-3 years I felt it important that they follow the UK or IGCSE - IB systems so the Australian or American schools would not suit. There seems to be alot of bad comments about Overseas Family School so I am really stuck. We are being pushed to make a decision quickly by my husbands company whether we are definatley going to Singapore or not but I dont want him to sign the contract if we have no good schools line up.
I would really appreciate some direction or advice from any mums who may have had similar problems when moving over. I am losing sleep over this as my hubby really wants to make the move, as do I, but not at the expense of our childrens education, which in the current UK climate is more important than ever.
Please don't point me in the direction of the forums as believe me I have sat up night after night looking and there really is not much current info on any schools, most of it is over 18 months old.
Kind regards
Ali

[boffenl]

You should be in daily contact with your choice schools. I understand the waiting lists are moving quickly and you may be able to get them a spot sooner rather than later. I've also had friends who put their child in OFS or another school for a half-year until they got into their "choice" school.

Good luck, it's a tough decision. But do let the schools know how pressed you are to make the decision NOW. They can be very helpful. Make sure you speak with a Brit or fellow expat and NOT the secretary.

[ksl]

I'm British myself and been here 4 years unfortunately, foreign parents cannot pick and choose for the local schools, this is a very high competitive market for schools, only straight 'A's are interesting and Sinapore families get priority in local schools.

So if your kids can pull it off, they will be in with a chance in the local schools, it's not easy and after 4 years we have not had our wish fulfilled, in getting our daughter in the school 50 meters from where we live.

The nearest was about 8km away.

But if you can afford it, go for http://www.rafflesis.com/index.php, I guess your company foot the bill

[fristromcan]

You didn't mention the age of your kids. If they are in primary school, you might want to take a look at One world (http://www.oneworldinternational.org/) or SJII (http://www.sji-international.com.sg/index.htm). For high school, you may like to take a look at ACSI (http://www.acsinternational.com.sg/en/section/101).

Good luck!

[ela]

Hi Ali,

My family and I are in a similar situation and will relocate to Singapore in the summer from Seoul. We went out to Singapore 2 weeks ago to look at schools and a close 2nd to Tanglin Trust, in my opinion, is Dover Court and Chatsworth Orchard. If your children are under 8, the advice I have been given by our current British school is that it won't matter if they go to an American school and then relocate back to the UK in two or three years as they should all be at the same level by then. Most of the schools have not heard back from parents yet if they intend to return in August so the waiting lists may decrease.

Good luck