Singapore Expats

RichardIII its good to to hear everything worked out well for you. Your comments about checking the school very throughly is really a valid one, everyone assume one International School is pretty much the same as another just different twangs to the English being used. One parent I know had no end of trouble at an international school which ended up asking her kid to leave.

She enrolled in another and found the new school environment was more conducive to helping kids that have problems concentrating. Rather than saying the kid is disrupting the rest of the pupils they keep them in the class environment and bring in supplementary teachers to help when required.

Out of interest RichardIII which school was the offending party? should we be wary? I will be putting my 5 year old to a school when I get over, so need to avoid any potential issues! although I am looking for a local school potentially.

Richie, please check your pm´s ,happy to help. Thanks qrm,good to hear from you. Just to maybe make a enlightening experience out of this, usually the tendency is, in a case like this, is to place the burden of the problem on the kid, and declare yourself incompetent since you are dealing with, supossedly, educators. But truth be told, in this case when you ask the principal to recommend where to take the kid, and he says he doesn´t know, this is cause for investigation. In this case we are dealing with an incompetent principal and an even more incompetent teacher. I do not think that a boy that deserves to be expelled from one IB school, can spend a full year with no problems in a similar one. Of course I am not implying that my son is the epitome of good behavior, he can be quite a handful, but within normal parameters, maybe exacerbated by change, but then again thats what International Schools are all about, receiving kids that are victims of their parents nomadic jobs.
Now brace yourself for the next big debate, new private schools regulations, and reimbursement of the deposits. This is going to be interesting, but that will be another thread.
Regards and not to worry about me now, I am a happy man now!

Hi guys,

Sounds like a lot of unhappiness dealing with schools when one is from abroad. I was working in MOE in a primary school before and will like to offer some information here, hope it will be helpful! " )

The primary schools in Singapore are now equipped with a school counsellor (newly renamed Allied Educator for Counselling) and a special needs officer (newly renamed Allied Educator for Learning and Behavioural Support). Both the AEDs (Allied Educators) are trained, and the special needs officer (AED in LBS) is now trained to deal with dyslexia and children with ASD. In a school, the parent can typically inform the school of the child's needs when he/she first join the school, and often, the AED (LBS) and AED (Counselling) will help to support the child, may it be orientating the child on the first week of school, or weekly pullouts to help the child cope/learn behavioural skills (for ASD) or dyslexic interventions (phonics, etc) if the child is dyslexic. MOE also employs Education Psychologists (EPs) who are in charge of school clusters, and will come down to specific schools at a monthly basis or so. These people are the ones who will assess the child for IQ, dyslexia and maybe ASD. Case conferencing can be arranged so that the EP, AED(LBS) and/or AED (Counselling) can discuss on interventions to help the child.

On top of that, if the school is notified early, the child who have special needs may be placed in a class where the teachers are more experienced, and/or trained in handling children with special needs. Depending on the school, it may even arrange the child to have a mentor to help with his/her other issues.

AED (LBS) are sent to schools by the number of reported cases known for the schools, so if a school has many students who have ASD, there will be more than one AED (LBS). Some schools therefore have many AEDs while others have only one. Some richer (and more prestigious) schools in Singapore hire their own band of special needs teachers and counsellors to assist with their cases. Some others have a religious background so they have extra counsellors (Christian based counselling for example).

These are some of the information that may not be known/available to you guys, so hope it helps!

Hi hweebs:
Thanks for the post, thats exactly the kind of support I expected last year, but MOE deals only with local schools, they do not regulate International Schools. Reason why maybe next year I will investigate the posibility of transfering my two younger ones to the local system, problem is, its not easy finding a school for an expat kid, but the academics are great, you dont spend a ridiculous amount of money and you have a safety net in case your kid runs into trouble.
Thanks for the advise

Hi Richard III,

You're welcome! It may not be really difficult to get your children into a local school. The school I used to work in has many students who seemed to be from all parts of the world. I'm not sure how they managed to get in, but it could be related to how you and your wife volunteers at the school of choice. Maybe you will like to shortlist some schools that you are interested in and contact them for more details?

Hi Richard

Most of the regulars here like myself are parents too,

We are just trying to help whatever we can. Calm nerves do prevail.

QRM, RNT and the rest like myself are just trying to advise and help that is all.

I am not sure if you do need this but anyway. If you are PR you can get subsidy if you booked and make an appointment at Kandang Kerbau Hospital. They have a dedicated clinic for children. I think they do serve foreigners too. Go and check and see what they can do for your son

Here is the website www.kkh.com.sg/Services/Children/ChildDevelopment
Range of Services:
Child Development Programme:

* Assessment of children with developmental and behavioural concerns
* Multi-disciplinary intervention services
* Parental guidance on child development
* Counselling and support for families of children with developmental and behavioural problems
* Liaison with schools on children with learning problems
* Placement of children with special needs for training and education
* Collaboration with Primary Health and Community Services for early identification of children with developmental and behavioural problems, to facilitate early intervention

Take care
MS

Hi ms:
Thanks for the advice, I could have used it last year. Anyway now its posted in case someone else needs it. I reactivated the thread just to tell the outcome of the issue, to express my gratitude to those concerned and probably out of selfishness to tell everyone that it was not my sons problem but the school, since hes been in a similar school for a year now without any observations. The point was to raise awareness as of how you choose the school for your kids, and the complications that may arise should you select the wrong place.
best regards an thanks again!!!

and hweebs....appreciate the advise, I am doing my homework on that..

Richard III what i would advice you to do is to contact the school and ask them if it would be able for you (or someone that knows your child) to accompany during the half day of the classes. I would only do so and only do half days with the child and you can help the child, emotionally or language wise, or what ever the issues is. maybe as someone previously said the child is just uncomfortable with the new environemt, and needs a helping help. if you like the school i would definately do it.

unfortunatelly even the top schools here are very busy. teachers don't have time for individual students. it is just the reality. but i would definatelly insist on going for few hours together with the child so you make him comfortable in this new environment.

best of luck

hi layni;
thanks for the advice, but I my child is not an issue anymore. I reactivated the thread just to let everyone know how it turned out and to transmit the experience,

hi richard iii

i am moving to Singapore next month with my 4-year-old. now in the process of applying for schools. would really like to know the name of the school that banned your child. is it possible to PM me? that would really be a big help!!!!

tks in advance.

Hi togamei:
Check your PMs and let me know,
Best regards and good luck

Hi RichardIII
First of all I must commend you on how you've handled the situation and of course the unhelpful replies, glad you've all worked out your differences. Thank you for reopening the thread for people who might find themselves in the same situation

Reading your post scared me, I must say I never thought of this last year, we moved to the Netherlands, and my daugther was 6yrs, she spoke only english but was placed in a local school here, I never thought of any problem cause we've lived in asia all her life I guess she just dived into it.

Unfortunately we'll be moving to Singapore in June, my daughter now reads and speaks fluent dutch but her english is obviously not great as she translates dutch to english. Im worried now as she will be taught in english. thanks again for all the info in a way I feel like a bad parent, thinking times she acted in frustration even if we never got complains from the school.

Please pm me this school hopefully its not the one we are looking into Thanks

Hi foxy:
Please check your PMs and let me know.
Regards