Overseas Family School vs. SJI International

[michellewmarin]

Hi,
I'm relocating to Singapore and both OFS and SJI International offer an IB program. However, I've heard both positive and negatives about both schools and still haven't decided what school to enrol my children in.

I have several questions that I'd appreciate if you could respond to.

Have you had any experience in either of these schools?
How are these schools like?
Which school do you recommend?
How are the facilities of each school?
What type of universities do graduates get accepted into?

Thank You for your help.

[offshoreoildude]

OFS is a sub par school in my purely personal opinion. I have no opinion on the other. Why do IB tho?

[scarbowl]

OFS is a large school about which I hear few complaints. It does seem they have a lot of kids in a smallish space. The fact that they attract so many students says something about them, though. Their population is almost all expatriates from 60+ countries.

SJI is a higher performing school with a large Chinese population. the academics are strong but your child may feel more out of place there. Most students there also receive extra tuition (tutors) outside of school hours. The pressure to perform would be high. They offer fewer arts, sports, non-academic programs than you will be accustomed to. It's a grind but perhaps that is what you are looking for.

[offshoreoildude]

OFS is a large school about which I hear few complaints. It does seem they have a lot of kids in a smallish space. The fact that they attract so many students says something about them, though. Their population is almost all expatriates from 60+ countries.

SJI is a higher performing school with a large Chinese population. the academics are strong but your child may feel more out of place there. Most students there also receive extra tuition (tutors) outside of school hours. The pressure to perform would be high. They offer fewer arts, sports, non-academic programs than you will be accustomed to. It's a grind but perhaps that is what you are looking for.

OFS is a the slightly lower cost scale and pretty much accepts all comers - hence the no. of students. I know teachers who have worked there and their comments are that it's a school for profit and acts exactly like one.

SJI is not an expatriate school in the sense that OFS is.

[freshmeat]

We visited OFS and felt the school was too crowded. There is less classroom space for students when compared to other school.

I also heard good things on SJI but couldn't get an appointment scheduled. The wait list is pretty long.

[movingtospore]

Be careful about assuming that the number of student = quality. People have no other choice here - if they can't get in at local school, or one of the better International Schools, they still have to go somewhere...