SIngapore anyone?

[geisha]

DH has been offered a job in Singapore. He is from that neck of the woods & we have two dd's - 5 and 3 yrs old.

Tell me about life in S'pore please!

Would like to know about where you school your dc, which areas are good to live etc.

Grateful for any info. Thank you!

[geisha]

Bumping, hoping anyone in S'pore might be mnetting!

[awayfromhome]

We were going to go to Singapore but it fell through due to the economic downturn.

Tanglin, Chatsworth and Dover Court are the main British schools.The most sought after seems to be Tanglin, which has enormous waiting lists at the pre-prep end but not at the nursery. It also runs some sort of debenture system whereby people whose companies pay a lot of money can skip the waiting list and get into the school.. worth seeing if your dh's company has these.

Chatsworth is another firm favourite with many, there are also many good international schools - the Canadian being very popular.

Good websites to look at are www.singaporeexpats.com/ and www.expatsingapore.com/.

Sinapore is divided up into districts, the most expensive being Central, Orchard etc. I think that there are lots of expats both there and in the east. It also depends a lot on the relocation package that you have secured and what it will buy you, rents when we looked were very expensive, I should imagine that they have come down a bit, but I'm not sure how much.

We have stayed in the Shangri-la service apartments just off orchard road, which were nice, good size and good pool. You had the facilites of the hotel and could get room service etc. It has a good central location just off Orchard Road and from memory wasn't too expensive either. We would have made this our base for the apartment/house search.

I also had a thread on this Moving to Singapore

I'm sure someone from Singapore will be along soon to give you much more upto date advice.

[geisha]

Thanks awayfromhome.

We haven't agreed a package as yet, so I just wanted to get a feel of what we would need to be able to have a similar or better standard of living as in the UK. We wouldn't consider going for anything less.

My biggest concern is schooling. In the UK my dd's go to good state schools and do well. I would want something comparable for them there. Thanks for the pointers, I will look at all of your links.

[rumbletum]

hi, we've lived in singapore for over four years, and we've really enjoyed our time here. the weather's fantastic, people are friendly and there's loads to things to do with the kids. I'm happy to answer questions, so ask away ...

[geisha]

hello rumble!

My first concern is finding a school for dd's. From what I have read, Tanglin feels like the best option. I am not sure whether the package would include the gpr/spr as the employer is a government hospital. Do you dc go to school and do you have any advice? My dd's are 3 and 5.

My second concern is housing. We live in a normal 4 bedroom house in UK with a small-medium garden. I accept that we are unlikely to be able to do the same in S'pore for the same sort of cost. Where do we start wih this?

I have lots more questions but don't want to bombard you all at once.....! Thanks.

[FleurDelacour]

Hi Geisha

We have been in Singapore for three years now.

Prices are very high here. We had a house in the UK but live in an appartment in a condo. The facilities are great (pool, tennis court, gym). Houses can be hard to find and you don't get the pool etc unless you pay big bucks (around 10K SGD per month).

Schools- look on expatsingapore and you'll see what a nightmare it is because of the waiting lists. Telephone the schools and find out about availability before setting your heart on one.

We have friends with children in TTS, UWC and Dover Court. All are very happy. The schools are not selective but the ex-pat children are lovely out here and do very well academically. The culture is to work hard. The results are on the school web-sites and are amazing for non-selective schools.

However the international school fees are expensive (similar cost to day fees in the UK) so you need to check your allowances, esp if you have more than one child.

Good luck and do ask any questions...

[geisha]

fleur - are your children in school? If so, where?

[Expectant]

geisha We have been in Singapore for 2 years. Unfortunately my DS is only 7 months (I had him here) so can't really help with schools. However I do have a couple of friends who are teachers. One who was at Tanglin (till maternity leave) and another at UWC. You may be lucky on waiting lists as a fair number of expats here (myself and DH included) are in financial services. So lots are currently being retrenched and so have to remove their kids from schools. I also thing companies are less likely to be paying to bump the kids up the waiting lists going forward so schools may have to have a policy re-think. Whether this happens before you get here is a different story.

There are also some big reductions in rent going on. Especially for new condos as many greedy persons bought off-plan to speculate on booming property prices in 2007 and now are having difficulty renting out or selling so you may be lucky although for a 4 bed house with garden I have to ditto what fleur said. We also have a condo with good facilities although it is older as they generally tend to have larger rooms.

Please feel free to ask any more questions and will try to answer.

[Ilivedthere]

Hi and congratulations on your opportunity. We lived there for four years.

A thought about condos with children 3 and 5. The whole playground/pool/lift etc issue can be quite something if you are several floors up, especially before you find help you can trust.

There are still some inexpensive black and white houses I think. The problem with those is that you or your company have to buy everything, white goods, air cons, the lot. But they usually have a good garden. A pool could be put in (then -- about six years ago) for about £3k and then you will recoup about half when you leave by selling on.

As Expectant says, older is better for condos I think as the rooms are SO much bigger and they are less high rise.

White Lodge is a great "nursery" if you are looking for that. I had children in Chatsworth and it was fine. They have enough facilities for small children but Tanglin simply has more! But we were also a Tanglin family and found it all a bit complacent tbh. Bonuses for Chatsworth are that it is on Orchard Road and across the road from California Fitness if you are a gym queen.

If you have a house without a pool I would consider joining a club. I always wanted to join the Dutch Club as it has diving boards, or used to. It's a sweet little place. The British Club is a bit brash.

Good luck. Some of my advice could be out of date..

[LadyPenelope]

Lived there for 5 years and still have a lot of friends there.
Websites mentioned above will be good source and you'll find people to answer your more specific questions.
Condo living can be great way to meet friends when you first arrive - tenancy agreements are usually for 2 years and then you can move out.
We lived in low rise condo for first 2 years and then semi-d house ... Rents have been crazy in last 2 years but have come down, so you may be able to get a good deal.
Area may depend on your dh job, but areas to look at might include ... East Coast, Orchard Area, Holland Village, Jelita, and further out at Clementi etc. Areas off Coronation Road give lots of options for houses and a range of prices.
Schools - Tanglin is a great school and waiting lists were long, however, I know of several cases where people have got places recently, so think the financial crisis is biting. At 3 and 5, both kids could go to Tanglin. School buses take the kids from all over the island.
Being member of club is nice, especially if you live in house. If you are in condo, it's less important IMO.

[rumbletum]

hi, my kids are all at the german european school and v happy there. there's an english speaking section and german speaking section. the canadian school and australian school are also v popular. as others have brought up, there's a wide selection of schools here. people are definitely leaving cos of the financial crisis so waiting lists may well be smaller than previously.

as for housing, we also live in an (older) condo and it's worked well for us. i've met loads of people just living here and especially if your dh is going to be travelling a lot, you might not feel so lonely than if you were stuck in a house with the kids all the time. we live in bukit timah as it's near the school.

[geisha]

What are the implications of dc studying the IB as opposed to a British curriculum? Do the British universities accept the IB rather than A-levels? Have been in touch with admissions at TTS today and they have 69 and 90 children on the wait list for reception and year 1 respectively so without gpr there is no way we would get a place before 2010 or even after. Dh's job would be permanent so we know we would be there until he retires at least. Don't want to limit dd's options in terms of coming back for uni if that is what they so chose.

It's good to know about housing but if we cannot get school started, we wouldn't even consider coming.

[frannikin]

Brit universities do accept the IB and you may find your DDs want to study elsewhere in the world, in which case an IB will serve them better than A-levels. Plus the way A-levels/diplomas/post-16-education is turning into a bit of a soup a tried and tested qualification such as the IB is probably a good thing.

I'm a definitely convert to the IB system but you want to check how well the school delivers it. Some schools play a bit fast and loose with the fact there's no set curriculum in the lower years (it's referred to as a programme and it's more a method of teaching than a set of thing to acheive) and you can find some very strange cross-curricular links. The IB diploma, however, is excellent when delivered well.

[rumbletum]

i agree with this about the IB. Apparently the UWC has good IB programme, but long waiting lists...

[LadyPenelope]

Agree with what being said below about IB - very good reputation. Some schools do IB for primary years, GCSE (or IGCSE for middle years), and IB again for last couple of years (pre-uni). (Eg, UWC) A friend of mine has son at the The Overseas School (forgotten the proper name - sorry!), and is so happy with IB she is looking for IB when she moves back to UK. Also, re. British Cirriculum, my dd current school is doing IB while following a slightly modified British Cirriculum ... IB is a learning style, principles, ethos, rather than a curriculum.

If you are planning on being in Singapore for many years, over time the "British" angle may become less important as you take up the opportunities offered by the international/asian aspects. (Eg, opportunity to learn mandarin, understand asian geography, history etc). My dd's school study some Chinese history instead of doing Tudors for instance plus Mandarin. Makes perfect sense to me both to help her understand the local culture and the materials are more accessible in museums and in local city for field trips etc.

You may find the waiting list moves quicker than you expect, although the school won't necessarily say that. (Eg, Tanglin, UWC). There are 180 places per year in infants, and although it may not be likely that so many move, over the summer there will be movement and parents tend to have kids on lists for multiple schools. For little ones your kids ages, there will be options (eg Chatsworth, Dover, etc) to start with and you can move them after a few months. It's not ideal, but if you are planning on a longterm assignment, it might be worth the small disruption. Once you get one child into the school, the other will move up the priority list automatically. (Has the priority for British passport holders been removed at Tanglin - that used to help but I do remember they were talking about removing it.)Also, you are more likely to get a place if you are prepared to take a place mid year, or even mid term. Speaking for Tanglin, it's a v. friendly school and kids who moved into my dd's class mid term settled quickly.

Good luck with all the decisions. When we left Singapore I went through similar challenges to get a space at my dd's current school. I even reached the point of thinking I may have to home school for a term which would have been v. difficult for my v. sociable dd and very stressful for my nerves. We were fortunate that she did get a place a month before we arrived.

[slim22]

Hi!

Am in singapore with DS (5) at Tanglin and had DD (10 months) here.

Concur with what's been said before:
Opt for a condo, you'll soon meet lots of like minded expats with little kids. Makes the transition easy.
Older condos will give you better value. But generally prices ARE dipping. I could tell you, I am an estate/relocation agent.

As for schools yes I can confirm waiting lists now move quickly.

Which hospital? I can help you triangulate with work/school and find a good area to look for housing.
you can contact me on [email protected]

Sorry have to rush, but will be back so fire away if you have specific questions

[geisha]

hi slim will be in touch.

Have enquired with TTS - couldn't offer a place until 2010 to either dd's, even then not guaranteed.

[geisha]

ladyp thanks for that. need to get my head around the IB, I think.