I visited
Stamford American International School today to meet with the Admissions advisor and get a tour. I am looking at kindergartens, so keep that in mind.
The school is located next door to the
Australian International School. I knew this already: Both are owned by a for-profit named Cognitas, which operates 50
International Schools worldwide and several schools in the UK (their headquarters). When I Googled Cognitas I did not find anything negative about the schools, only concerns that they were poaching from other (perhaps underperforming) schools. The guy in charge was controversial because when he ran the public schools he tried to shake things up. Sounded like in the States where you have good teacher's unions but at the same time it can be hard to get rid of bad teachers. Enough about that. The company beat out 29 other applicants to build an
International School in Singapore and is spending about $250 million (not sure if SGD or USD
)
The school is located next to a highway, which I wasn't thrilled about. However there was a breeze (rare in Singapore) so I didn't notice pollution. The campus is their temporary quarters for the next two years. The buildings are basic, three stories, probably prefabricated but not shipping containers as others have implied
I saw a slide show showing the new buildings that will be under construction -- it's going to be very nice, and in a better location. The current school (the "Foundation campus") uses the Australian school's swimming pool but everything else is separate. At the new location they plan to ultimately expand to 2500 students (all grades), and offer the American high school degree and the IB (decision made by student at age 16, I think).
It's very small right now. A handful of teachers. One kindergarten class that will be later divided in two. About half of the classrooms are completely empty, ready for growth. Small playgrounds and a small soccer field (with nice looking astroturf that will withstand the rain better than real grass). I saw the IT room, music room, library, art room and classrooms. All nice. My only concern would be the music room which has carpeting (probably for acoustics). It's so new that the carpet has a VERY STRONG chemical smell. They probably need to let that room air out a bit. Bottom line: Compared to SAS (the other school I looked at so far) I'd be happy with the resources provided to young children.
The teachers and principal general come from an international teaching background (the principal, I think, most recently was in Dubai). It seems that each teacher has a spouse who also teaches or works at the school -- again, I'm not surprised given these are people who have worked across the globe. The teachers I met briefly seemed nice. I am also familiar with their nurse, as she worked for years with the US military family community. She has a great reputation. I suppose the only issue I could think of is if your child did not like their teacher, there aren't a lot of choices. It's not something I'd worry about.
Stamford places more emphasis on language than SAS. Whereas SAS teaches Mandarin 3 days/week (first thing in the morning), Stamford offers it 5 days/week, mid-day (45 minutes per class). It's not immersion but it is a significant difference. For us, this could be the deciding factor. The chinese teacher is a native speaker and I was told she came to Singapore to set up a Mandarin program for a local school.
As for location, one of the slides says they are located near about 85% of the expat community. The school buses, like most schools in Singapore, are run by a private bus company.
That's about all I can report. Clearly the new campus will be nicer than the temporary quarters. But the truth is that my 4 year old would not notice the difference.
