Singapore Expats

International Schools in Singapore are overly priced. I would like to enrol my girl in a local school that has some international kids, hence may I ask any non-Citizen has or plan to enrol your child in a local school? May I know the name of school of your choice? Thank you.

I agree with your comments on International Schools - they look way over priced even compared to private preparatory schools back home.

There are a group of schools around the island called CHIJ that have a good rep. They are catholic schools for girls but do take all religions I think. In practice, its likely to be not so much the school of your choice, but the school where there is a space - I phoned 11 schools starting close to my home and gradually moving further out and have had no joy so far. Meanwhile my wife and daughter will have to stay back in Ireland until I can find something decent.

CHIJ are government schools but are single gender (female) convent schools (or were originally). It stands for Convent of the Holy Infant Jesus and there are several around the island. The most famous of the bunch used to be CHIJ Toa Payoh and they were known for their Chinese prowess as well as English. Not sure of their current standing however. My daughter went to CHIJ Toa Payoh from P1 through her O levels. But she has been out of school around 6 years now.

She is of mixed parentage (American Caucasian & Singapore Indian) but her second language is/was Mandarin from Kindergarten through her O's and she did reasonably well. It has helped her considerably ever since as she's never had any problems find a job in the media industry where her career is taking off big time.

If you have a girl, you can't go wrong if you manage to secure a place in CHIJ. I also understand that several of the other CHIJ's are doing rather well in their placings in the past couple of years. (I'm not really in favour of single gender schools even now, but each to their own I guess. It's only my personal feelings about it.

edited for typos

Thank you for the information. However, I agree that local schools do not base on choice but vacancy. It will be difficult to admit my girl in school that pick student via balloting. However I will try to find a place in CHIJ or St.Margaret. In the event that the school does not have vacancy, would you enrol your kid to a standard school such as, Stamford Primary, which is located next to Bugis Substation?

Hi sgdolphin,

Have you read through this link ?

Just a suggestion