stanford school

[helenhelen]

I will be moving to singapore in aug, and have three children aged 8, 6 and 2. We have got into stanford school and have applied to the american school. I would love to hear any opinion on both schools please. thank you. helen

[scarbowl]

Suggest you check the archives. There has been MUCH discussion on this matter. There is one more American school - International Community School - which you might find useful to check out.

[helenhelen]

thank you. will do

[Stilli]

Our daughter is at Stamford in Grade 2. We are very happy with the school so far - only been there since Aug. We were keen to keep her in an IB framework as that is where she was coming from in HK and it works well for her. We also like the focus on language as she can continue with Mandarin 5xs a week. The school is small as it is only 3 years old (this might turn some people away) but will have the potential to grow as they move to a bigger campus this summer. My daughter has 22 children in her class (max #) with a full time teacher and a dedicated assistant teacher.
The Head of school is British and the teachers are a mix of nationalities. The student population has a majority of American students however there is a nice mix with other nationalities as well. In my daughters class of 22 she has 10 Americans and the rest are from Korea, Japan, England, Australia, NZ, Italy, Holland and Mexico.
As far as it being an "American" school it is a hard call. As I mentioned, yes there are plenty of Americans there, in Math my daughter is working with USD on the money unit and we had the Thanksgiving holiday off but other then that you don't necessarily feel a full blown American focus. For us this works nicely as I am American and gives our daughter a bit of a focus on some American things yet it remains quite international.
The writing with in the school has more British English then American - for example Maths vs. Math - Mum vs Mom etc. This does not bother me but I can see why it might for others if they are thinking that they are going to an American School.
If you don't already know - SAIS is owned by Cognita which is a British based company and also runs the Australian School next door.
IMO, SAS and SAIS are two very different school so it really depends on what you are looking for. I know of several families that started off at SAIS thinking they would eventually go somewhere else when they got it but like it so much they have stayed. Schooling is a very personal choice. You just really need to visit the school and know what you want.
Good luck!