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by freespirit22 » Fri, 29 Jun 2012 8:57 am
Singapore is not a great place to arrive in with a school age autistic child, even more so if your child is on the mild end of the spectrum.
There are no laws in place that acknowledge the right of the expat special needs child's to an education, therefore, they fall outside the net.
As the previous people mentioned, your only options will be private schools and even if you do find one that will accept your child, they are expensive and most of the time, probably not as good as your free schools in the UK.
The options for a mainstream education are very limited, and as outrageous as it sounds, most schools will not even meet with you if you mention your child is on the spectrum. Private schools want to make a profit, and they dont want any pesky special needs children costing them extra bucks.
Dover Court is a mainstream school with a british curriculum, but it segregates its special needs kids into small classes of 5 or 6. Segregation goes against other methodologies in western countries but I guess it is cheaper for them than having to hire one-on-one aids. If you want to go that route, then bear in mind that the admissions department there is pretty difficult to deal with. and getting information will be like getting blood out of a stone.
The other British curriculum school is Tanglin Trust, and it's a good school, but dont even bother trying them unless you enjoy being rejected.
The other schools mentioned are for special needs kids solely. If your son is functioning well in a mainstream environment then I doubt you would want him to go to a school that has no typical kids.
There is a shortage of special ed teachers here.
We decided to move somewhere else & I am so glad we did, the level of expertise, staffing, understanding and support, is far ahead of what we experienced in singapore. Having been through some trying times dealing with singaporean schools who had no idea about autism, I would say that your son would probably be better off in the UK.