Hi Parents, We are an Indian family with 5yr old daughter (in K1 currently) looking for an International School for next year admission. We have looked at few schools and have narrowed down to GESS & IFS (French school). Before finalising, we would like to seek your suggestions and candid feedback on some of the points mentioned below.
1. While GESS offers English IB stream, IFS has 50% English/French . Would like to check Non-French speak parents on what's your take on IFS, what challenges you have experienced on the French language for kid and parents, homework, also during IFS school tour, they were pushing for French stream (75% French ), Has anyone enrolled their kids into French stream, any pros and cons ? Also has anyone switched from French medium (75%) to French-English (50%) later on ?
2. We found IFS is less inclined towards Digital gadgets based learning vs GESS ? What's your take on this ? We like the idea of less Digital gadgets to protect child's innocence and also building writing skills.
3. We found IFS balanced on Academic and CCA's given that they have existed since 1960s, however GESS is little liberal. Is this observation correct ? Can someone share some candid feedback around this ?
4. CCA's in GESS were top notch, we as parents want to ensure our kid has good exposure to sports/art/music in her formation years (before 10) so that she can pick passion/interest outside of academics as well. Any particular feedback about CCAs in the above regard and how's it in IFS ?
5. We parents have a clear goal of next 5yrs before daughter goes to secondary school , in case if choosing European language whether GESS or IFS doesnt help, we would then decide to change her school in secondary. Has anyone done this ? Will this have a drastic change in the way kids adapt to new school or curriculum ?
6. We live in East Coast (Tanjong Rhu), both GESS and IFS are 30-40 mins Taxi ride. We found IFS have tie up with comfort delgro for door2door drop-off service. Is this an advantage compared to private shuttle in GESS ? Also our current condo contract is up for renewal in Oct 2026, we are contemplating of moving house closer to daughter school.
7. How different is French Baccalaureate vs International Baccalaureate ? although I could get an answer on chatgpt, would like to know from parents on their experience.
8. We would also like to know/be aware of Woke culture in GESS or IFS ? although this may not be a concern for primary years, however kids these days are exposed to these in many of the mainstream, so would like to know if any of these schools promote these kind of things or liberal in handling such cases ?
9. What about the Homework, especially in IFS, since we are non-french speaking parents, what's the challenges we may face and do we need to get some elementary French language skills ?
10. Last question to my fellow Indian parents, in case of relocating back to India, what's the plans for continuing the same form of education ? I know there are many IB schools in Bengaluru and other cities, can you shed some light on this ?
