Questions to ask school / property agent in Singapore

[Clueless2727]

Sorry bombarding you guys today. Hope you don't mind. Hoping to be moving to singapore summer time.
Hubbie is there at the moment and visiting a school monday morning (stamford american international school). Dd 7 so not too worried about fact they are still gaining accreditation and some things untested. If he likes it, he's got all the application forms to submit (we've done a lot of research on schools and really like this one best).
He's also been recommended a property agent so is going to see a few properties on the east coast to get an idea (i've always wanted to live walking distance to a beach).
What questions should he be asking school /property agent? Have Got a few but am sure have missed some fundamental ones

Hiya! Probably won't be a huge amount of help to you but didn't want to leave your post unanswered! All the international schools seem to have a pretty good rep here and all have pros and cons so I think it's mainly a case of you choosing the one you like. We have friends at sais and they really rate it, the new campus is very swish apparently. Equally though I've heard good things from friends about most of the others too..not much help that!
Property wise, you want to be checking location..near mrt or will you have to get car? Commute to dh work? Commute to school? Is school bus stopping nearby? Traffic can be bad here and school run can be a nightmare..
I don't know the east coast personally but I know a few people out there who really rate it. It can be a pain getting into town but proximity to beach etc probably outweighs that!
My brain is not functioning very well as its late here but will try and think of anything else feel free to shoot any other question my way I should be feeling more inspired in my answers in the morning ;0)

I would ask about class mixing, do they mix every year or after a few years? How much homework? What CCAs are available? How much are the children listened to reading? Is there streaming/setting in maths/languages? What languages are taught and how frequent are the lessons?

Property questions are all about whether you want condo/cluster housing/house. Number of rooms, facilities (type of oven, bath as well as showers, tumbledryer), outside facilities and transport links. As pickles says do you want to be able to walk to the shops? Do you want a bus stop or MRT nearby?

If you have any questions just fire away.

Thanks for replying. hubbie went to look at school and condos on monday. Loved sais, asked loads of questions and they volunteered lots of stuff. After liking east coast online, realised journey to school too long and not much in vicinity Now settled on 1500 sqm condos nr novena mrt so doing requi (sp?) was really useful. Agent should be able to find us good property quite quickly when we arrive.
Only point that hubbie said was fine, but i am really worried about is living in high rise with young children. Are windows and balconies really safe?

In high rises make sure you have window locks and balcony doors can be locked. Also check front door can't be opened from inside by just turning handle (ie no dead lock) as this can be a problem. One of mine opened the front door in the middle of the night and went down in the lift by herself. She was found and returned by security. We installed a dead lock after that but getting permission from the landlord took a long time.

we are in a high rise, and keep the balcony doors locked. The kids would have to push something high up to the edge and climb to get over anyway but we don't take any chances! Otherwise all the windows in ours are safe but you should check when you look around.
Really wouldn't worry about high rise otherwise, its is very safe, more so than a house in a lots of ways as you have so many security guards and access keys etc..

The front door deadlock is a good point tho, ours is ok but I have a number of friends whose little ones are able to escape out to the lift!

There are lots of options around novena and it is very central. Good luck finding somewhere!

We just put a burglar chain high up on our front door - didn't need to get permission. Do it, no landlord would penalise you for that.

Meant to say, you can get cupboard locks from ikea that stick on. We have lots of friends who use these on doors, no child can undo them and they don't need to be drilled. We used to use them on sliding doors that led to water features and they were great.

Didn't even think about the door. Thank you feel a bit better about windows now