Singapore Expats

I think it depends on the area where you'll be looking e-cbs. Your older kids will need to sit for the SG government exam and any exam for their specific school. NUS High School has a separate exam for their students, and I'm sure there are more.

Good luck--where are you coming from?

Thanks Boffenl

We're from Amsterdam, The Netherlands... as my location says actually.

Our youngest will go to the dutch school, so we will be looking at D21 to live.
For the 15 and and 17 year olds for sure looking at nearby schools, but a bit of travel won't hurt them so we're flexible when it comes to school location.

Hey Boffenl, your friends who got a spot - were they PRs or foreigners? The fact that we're not PRs seems to be the problem - a number of the schools said they have filled their foreigner quota and can't accommodate any more, even if we were on the wait list.

Will put our names down at a few in our area anyways. Couldn't hurt.

Hi,

One couple was a PR but the other two were foreigners. You're right that not being PR will significantly affect your chances.

Sorry e-cbs, I don't take location at face value anymore--been shocked to write something about US to find the person is already here or writing from Australia.

Will your youngest be working on their English at the Dutch School to facilitate a move to local schools? Why not start right away at a local schools?

Hi boffenl, we're actually working on english for all 3. We're not waisting time on that. And that will continue when we arrive, mainly for the youngest.

We have no intention or a plan to move out of Singapore, so it's sort of permanent. Therefor you would think it would be better to get her in a local school immediately, but I feel at her age it is too big of a step.

Getting used in a new world while for a year or 2 in a known school environment, we think is best, and after that when we are settled we'll get her in a local school.

( I guess with her strong character and daddies weak heart she's getting what she wants too... )

You know your child the best--and it sounds like you've done a lot of thinking about this. English will be a huge hurdle--even some of the African kids who speak English at home have trouble transitioning since the spoken English here does have some differences.

Once your child starts hearing English at school--and siblings speaking helps too!--I'm sure they'll be ready for local school. You may want to think about extra English classes in your neighborhood--It'll give your child a good exposure to local kids too. I signed my daughter up for Mandarin, ballet and art classes at our community center, some of those kids ended up being in her class at school.

Good luck!