Dover Court, Singapore - honest opinions please!

[S999]

We are considering putting our kids for two terms in Dover court, with a view to starting in UWC, Tanglin or St Josephs in August 2013. Is this a terrible idea?

DD is going to year 2 and DS to Reception at central london prep schools. Its already a big enough upheaval relocating and then to make them change schools twice in a year?! Also, DD is in gifted and talented group and DS various issues - OT, sensory processing disorder, overactive bladder...

We are moving with DH's job, ideally they want us to be there in Jan. We have put in applications for Tanglin, UWC and St Josephs, we will hear back from them by Oct apparently.

Thank you so much.

The schools you have mentioned in the years you are looking for are very, very oversubscribed with 2-3 (or more) year wait lists. I think UWC does applications a year in advance now so you may get a place there for Aug 2013, the other two, very unlikely. Unless you buy a debenture at Tanglin to move up the wait list.

If there were to be spaces for Aug 2013, most children are fine when they move. There is a lot of movement in the schools here, relocation overseas or 'home', changing school because spaces come up, and the classes tend to get mixed every year, so it's not the like the village primary in the UK where you are with the same 25 kids all through school.

Dover Court is a lovely school for small children, and very good at settling them in, very good at supporting any special needs. The school is small by international standards so the children very quickly know one another and all the teachers. It is less good (in terms of academic rigour, facilities) for older children, so people do tend to move on to the other school through junior school as places become available.

Also, think quite carefully about the school you choose if your child needs some extra support - the system here does not automatically make provision for that. Dover Court does have a special needs unit and therapists, not sure about the others but anecdotally, I have heard Tanglin is not great for children who need a little more one-to-one support. Others may have more info on that, I am sure you will have lots of responses soon .

Thank you so much for your advice.

I think we will probably go for Dover Court and we might even stick with it for my DS.

I get a similar impression about Tanglin. Our first choice would be St josephs, but a long long shot on the waiting list front, more so for Year 2. How do the wait lists work for that school? Seems to depend on birth year?

It seemed likely we would get a place at UWC for August.

Where are your kids?

My daughter has been at Dover from nursery aged 3 and will go into P3 aged 7 in a few weeks time. My youngest is now 3 and will start in nursery at Dover court at the same time. We love the school, our eldest is very happy there and our youngest can't wait to start. The selling point of the school for us is the teachers, all excellent with lots of creative thinking and kindness and encouragement. DD1 is doing very well and looking at friends in the uk, she seems to be well on track compared to their kids at school. All the teachers know all the kids by name and older ones are encouraged to help with younger ones. There is lots of acceptance and consideration of different nationalities and abilities with integration of special needs children in pe, outings, assemblies etc although academic subjects are taught separately.

We are very happy with the school and wouldn't hesitate to recommend it. I have friends with teenagers doing gcse's at Dover who are on track for excellent results. Most kids head for tanglin or uwc for senior school as they have better reputations for academic excellence. We find that the difference however is in the facilities, which at the other 2 schools are way beyond most uk universities (3 climbing walls, kayaking pool anyone?) and it's that opportunity that we feel Dover court doesn't offer to older students. However, for the next 3 years or so we will definitely be staying put..

Hi there, thanks for your message. Wow, this is all so positive.
I'm hoping to visit later this month but in the meantime will apply this week. We had an email saying january was a high possibility for places. Fingers crossed.
Does anyone have any info on st josephs please?