Dulwich college Singapore- Y1 lessons half in mandarin? And how does lunch work?

[caramelgirl]

Very specific queries, would be v v grateful if you have children there and can advise.

I viewed Dulwich in the easter holidays. Was told that half of all lessons are delivered in Mandarin for Y1, how does this work in practice? Total immersion during those lessons. Or is it a "good intention" rather than a strict guideline?
Also the tour guide was a bit vague as to the practicalities of lunchtime, sounded like y1 would take themselves to the cafe, choose their own food etc.. How much supervision is there?
Thank you very much in advance. Just realised it is 12 weeks until Move Day and we are still so vague on so much!

Hi, I think if we had put down deposits at Dulwich this Easter we would have been fine. I just hadn't appreciated how quickly it would fill (my dopey jetlagged fault).
Plus I was sold on Tanglin but DH v keen on bilingualism of Dulwich.
So, try to visit soon, get in contact with admissions and, depending on your circumstances, consider completing the form and giving the deposit anyway. Most of it is refundable if you don't take the place as far as I can understand d and it would have saved us SOOOOOO much hassle. Good luck!

Oh and short waiting lists mean different things depending if you are the HR dept at DH's work who think a Dulwich place is still a dead cert, vs Dulwich themselves who are not hopeful re: our chances....

I guess it could be somewhere in the middle - HR want you to feel happy and confident about the move and Dulwich don't want to make any promises. Hope it turns out HR are right for you though!

Did you visit the schools with your dc?

Ha, you are kinder to HR than I am.
Yes, visited Dover and Dulwich with hot, grumpy kids in tow. They looked around Dover, tho' guide wouldn't let us into any classrooms so was a quick "admire the pool and the pictures of the future library we will build", tho' I may just have scored a duff tour guide.
Dulwich have an air con playroom so kids all settled in there. They have tours on Weds at 10am so several families in one go. Tour guide was keen for them to look around but all kids stayed put in the end. My friend stayed with them so not alone.
Tanglin visit was at toddler's nap time so left them with the hotel housekeeper.
Would recommend asking in advance when you should expect to apply for and booking tours with plenty of notice of you can. Obvious, probably, but I failed to do either of these.

:) Probably just naive - we have all the joys of HR wrangling to come.

Thanks for letting me pick your brains about all of this :)

Turns out HR were right. Dulwich here we come...

Congrats caramelgirl! What years will your children go to? They told me that year 2 (current year 1) is so oversubscribed and we had no chances.. So we had to go with Dover! Now i am thinking that we pulled out too soon :(

Hi, I've just stumbled across this thread and it makes very familiar reading! I'm also going to be moving to singapore and I'm struggling between dover and dulwich and would appreciate any advice anyone can give in helping make a decision as I'm unfortunately not going to be able to visit.

I'm currently swaying towards dulwich but I'm slightly put off by it being that bit further out and I'm unsure of the logistics. I'm aware there is a school bus but does anyone know if the public transport is ok or what is traffic like to drive as we may get a car, although I'd prefer to manage without? We're hoping to live in and around Holland Village but not sure if this realistic with our 4yr old having to travel to Dulwich, in which case is Dover a better option?

Any help or advice would be appreciated.

Year 1. Tbf HR told us not to blink with the places, I thought we were doomed. We had started investigating GPR at Tanglin.
Dover wasn't for me but plenty of v happy parents have recommended it on here. In terms of visits, imagine Dulwich is a half constructed university campus size and facilities wise. Huge air conditioned gym, will have purpose built theatre etc.. But flashy. And Dover is like a really nice UK private primary. So much smaller but with eg big pool, but older and a bit tattier (by my high Singaporean standards at least, would blow our current East London Montessori out of the water!). Hard to judge at a disgance, but even hard with brief visit.
Good luck.

That's fab caramelgirl. Only just seen this.

DH is seeing HR on Monday so hopefully will know soon if we are headed that way too

Dammit. It's feckity on a namechange

Good luck!! Both with the move and getting straight answers out of HR! Yes, thanks, v relieved. Tho' about to start a v dull thread about school buses and uniform, yawnarama!