Singapore schools - Dover Court, Dulwich, Tanglin???

[magicreality]

Moving out to Singapore with 6yo and 3yo and going round in circles with schools. Would really appreciate a frank list of pros and cons of Dover Court, Dulwich and Tanglin from those in the know! I know we may not have the luxury of choice (all three currently have waiting lists for one or both of our children), but I don't want to make a mistake and feel like we've gone for the wrong school.

6yo currently goes to an outstanding state primary school in the UK. We love the fact that it's a down to earth, friendly and inclusive school, with great teaching which stretches and motivates both the most and least able (my DC has had experience of both, being a top performer in some subject areas, and distinctly average in others - the school has done an amazing job at bringing him on in the areas where he is weaker). Would ideally like a school in Singapore which has the same characteristics - i.e. can stretch and challenge children, but not a hot-house / pressured environment. Decent outdoor space and sporting opportunities would also be a plus.

Dover Court instinctively seems to tick most of these boxes for us, but would really like to have a better understanding of what others thing are the good / not so good points of all the schools we're considering. Everyone seems to say Tanglin is amazing, but I can't get a good sense of why this is. And it seems like the shiny new facilities / Mandarin focus are a big selling point for Dulwich, but I don't have a sense beyond this of what the teaching / atmosphere / pastoral care at the school is really like. A little concerned that the sheer size of both schools could be a little overwhelming for small DC.

I'm unlikely to get a chance to do a recce before we have to opt for one school or another, so trying to glean as much advice as possible online first!

Oh, I'm really really glad we've had this much notice. I needed the first six months just to get my head around the idea, so I can only imagine how you're feeling right now! Are you expats already or is this your first move overseas? A year ago we were happily settled with kids in school (and me at uni) and moving half way round the world was the last thing we thought we'd do. But here we are, and I'm really excited about it now! We go at the end of July.

If you've got one dc into Dulwich, you should have sibling priority for the others, so hopefully you should be quite far up the waiting list. If you look back a few posts I gave a long rambling account of my thoughts on Dover, Dulwich and Tanglin (under feckityfeck).

DH is out there with work right now and is trying to find us somewhere to live, having to put a lot of trust in his opinions too :)

I'm a teacher at an International school. I have visited many over the years including Tanglin. If I were to choose a school for my kids to go to in Singapore, I would choose Tanglin. It is an excellent non-profit school. Dover and Dulwich are both businesses. My second choice would be Dulwich though.

mmgirish, are you teaching in Singapore or another country? Just out of interest, which Bangkok schools would you recommend?

I'm not in Singapore but in the SE Asian region. In Bangkok, I would recommend Pattana for British and NIST for PYP.

Mmgrish how would you rate SAS ( american school)
We may return to singapore and the youngest would happily slot back into tanglin but the eldest in middle school would more naturally go to SAS now for various reasons ( friends moved on abroad or UWC, sports and not great fan of IB)

Tks!

Hi feckity. I'm sorry I haven't got back to you sooner. Things have gone a bit crazy. I'm so pleased you got your kids into Dulwich - when do you move over? We have also applied for Dulwich and will hear next week whether they have a place or not. There is availability for my youngest son and we are being told they are holding a place for my eldest son so fingers crossed.
We move over on the 31st July. We don't have anywhere to live yet but my husband is going out there next week to look at places. Have you decided where you are going to live? Anyway thanks for getting in contact - it's nice to hear someone is in the same boat as me (nervous??)

sorry feckity i've just seen your other reply - for some reason my thread isn't updating! How did your husband get on with places to live? We are in the same boat - our kids are very settled at school here and we totally weren't expecting to be moving but hey ho, I'm excited now as I think it will be a great adventure for the family.

I've been reading the posts with GREAT interest. Today is day one of having been offered a position in Singapore (DH that is) and the sheer panic that follows.
I've heard (googled) a lot about schools and waiting lists. Would anyone know what a waiting list would look like in terms of numbers. I read one school had a waiting list of 500!
I have four children who as of September will be reception, yr 6, yr 7 & yr 9 so I'm worried about getting them all in.
Any advice would be great. I'm also going to start a new thread about how much is a good package too.

Hello, I am currently in the same position as you were last year. I have a 3yo and 6yo and am currently trying to find out as much about possible schools in Singapore before making applications. Where did you end up sending your children and are you happy? Any up to date advice most welcome.

It may be that we cannot get any of the 'big three' but will need to send our children to either Chatsworth East or Nexus (certainly initially). Any advice welcome.

Thank you

Hey all, I just wanted to hop on this thread and see what happened next...

Feckity, FJaggar, MAgic Reality - where did you choose in the end? How did your children settle? In particular have you been impressed by the pastoral care and how the school has made your children feel safe and settled on joining?

I have a 6yo and a 3yo.

We are going over for a visit next week and looking at Dover and Tanglin.

Hi,
We have also been asked to move to Singapore with my husbands job and they want us to go in August this year (2017). However, most of the schools are telling us they have waiting lists. We have been told the best thing to do is to pay to get on the waiting lists but if we need to pull their names off to join another school (if the places become available) then we lose some of the money.
I have 3 children aged 8 and twins 5. Does anyone else have twins that have been kept together in classes?
I know some of the school threads are quite old so just wondered if there are any recent recommendations?
We are keen to stick to British schools as we only have a 2 year posting.
Any advice appreciated x

Hi wrenpen01 I wonder if you have done a trip to Singapore to look at schools yet? We are later this month for move in August and have 13 year old twins and 9 year old. 14 year old daughter will stay in England at boarding school, 14 year old son and 9 year old daughter will go to school in Singapore. We are looking at Tanglin, Dover Court, GESS (German European, as it gives us a chance to consider the IB middle school programme) and possibly Dulwich as well.
If it helps our twins were at the British School in Jakarta at the age your twins are now, they were in Reception together but then we asked for them to be split up so that they could form their own identities and friendship groups, it worked well for them.
We might only have a 2 year posting too, but if my children were younger I would have probably stuck to a British curriculum but chosen a school best suited to my older children knowing that the younger ones would likely adapt more easily and will be so young even returning to England that they will be ok. Our son was 8 when we returned to the UK (the first time our children had lived here) and he found the change difficult so thats why I say perhaps concentrate on your older child's needs. Your gut instinct having visited the schools is always worth noting, there is a chance that our children will end up in different schools as they have very different needs and are at such different stages of their education, we can't guarantee a place for both of them at the same school yet either which makes it tricky even before we begin!

Hi,
Thanks for the advice. We went out to Singapore and did have a look at schools. We went to view Dulwich College and Dover Court. We cancelled the visit to Tanglin as we were told in the 2 years, we would never get places due to waiting lists for the year groups.
We picked Dover Court as we felt it was better suited to our children. The campus was much smaller and we felt, more nurturing. Dulwich was very impressive but our children are in local education here and it seemed worlds away from what they are used to. Our children have never lived any where else so the fact Dover Court felt like a big family made our decision easier. (The Admission's officer had student hugs everywhere she went!)
Good luck with your search, we fly out in July so if you want me to answer anything just shout up!
xxx

Hi all,
We are moving to SNG from Sydney in July. Considering Dover court for year 6 and 7. Any latest news on this school? Do we put names down for waiting list or I am panicking for no reason?

Hi Sanj007,

I would definitely get in touch with them as we were on a waiting list to get in. It is completely dependant on the waiting lists for that year group though. We did find it really busy for the ages that we wanted but we did need two spaces in the same year group with the twins.
Good luck!

Hi Ladies, this is a really good thread. I must have read it more than 5 times since we decided late last year that we are moving to Singapore. My DD is 2.5 and she has been (in principle) offered a place at Tanglin nursery starting sep next year. We landed in Singapore a week back and it seems all my dh's colleagues/ friends are sending their Dd/DS to Dulwich which is making me nervous and confused. Any thoughts will be really helpful.
My daughter used to go to a small cosy nursery in London (not those alpha ones in west london) but at her age it is very difficult to say how she will feel with larger group. It isn't bad in Tanglin (20 kids). Wish life was easier with less choices!!!!

Dear ntvirus, just saw your message from a couple of months back. I am sure you now feel very happy about your choice. You cannot go wrong with TTS. Anyway I put a longer comment on another thread (UWCSEA thread) you are are interested. It was more about the Junior and Senior school though. cheers.

Thanks Kim, I am now very well settled here and think why I did not do it earlier. Life is really easy esp if you are lucky to get a good helper ( which is a lot to do with being kind and empathetic to her i guess).

I still couldn’t decide between Tanglin and UWC esp the IB vs GCSE so have put my DD to EtonHouse Pre School to see how IB works. I have also visited UWC east campus which i like more than Tanglin but GCSE is a lot more structured than IB. So lets see...

Hi..I am in the same place now. Moving to Singapore with two kids, aged 10 and 5. TTS, Dover, East UWC and Dulwich. Waitlisted at Tanglin with slim chances for next term for 5 yr old. 10 yr old will be banking on sibling priority. So confused. Need guidance. Fee structure I believe is similar with very slim differences.

Hey seriousconfuison, can I suggest you start applying to some of the newer schools like GEMS, Nexus or Invictus? They are much more likely to have places available so your kids can start in school from your arrival. Another one to look at is GESS - the German European School - they do an English stream and have an amazing new campus. We have a few friends with children there and they are very happy. EtonHouse Broderick may also have places or the Canadian International School (the Katong school is cheaper).

You can then stay on the waiting list of your preferred school (eg TTS) and then swap the kids over once you get a place. Some people wait on those lists for a long time so you really need to start looking at other options, especially if you are only intending to be here for a short posting (eg 2 years).

International schooling in SG is very competitive and very good. Those other schools may not have the reps like Tanglin, Dulwich and UWC Dover but they are still very good schools.

Hello. I saw this thread and hopefully people still over there and can answer my questions.
We are potentially moving to Singapore the next academic year and I deliberating what school we can put our names down.....We would like British curriculum but open to IB....Options are Dulwich Tanglin Canadian School....
I really like Dulwich, but my main worry is that it looks very far for travelling on the bus (they will be 7yo and 4yo) and if we live nearby we will be far away from the center. Any experience with this? Where do you live if going to Dulwich? Are you happy with Dulwich @feckity?Any advice would be welcome...thanks

Ooh it’s weird looking at this thread. We’ve done our two years and now we’re back in the UK!

@anhembi Yes we were very happy with Dulwich. It was a long bus journey which they complained about occasionally, though mostly about the time they had to leave in the morning, rather than the journey itself.

We lived in Bukit Timah, which was a pretty good compromise on distance to school vs centre. If you’re close to an MRT or have a car, nowhere in Singapore is that far away!

@feckity....thanks a lot for your message! I saw your first one and didnt realised this tread is coming up for two years with answers up to october 2018!!

It really worries me the bus ride as one my kids suffers from travel sickness and also they seem small for that mainly my little one. she will be 4....

Thanks again and welcome more recommendations about schools please.
I am looking at UWC (any difference in the quality of teaching in the 2 campuses)? also GESS the german school.....also Canadian one (seems impressive the immersion in Chinese they do), all of them seem very far! like Dulwich.

Thanks again!!!

Mine were 5 and 7 when they started and went on the bus. It did feel strange, but each bus has a bus Auntie who looks after them, and there were younger kids on there too, a couple of pre-school aged kids got on our bus. It’s just one of those things that is totally normal once you’re there...

I don’t know about the travel sickness though, how is she on buses generally? I always found buses better than cars for travel sickness.

GESS is not as far out and have a great new campus, beautiful 50m pool! CIS is well regarded re it's bilingual program, but it's a huge school - 3,000 kids. Dulwich is great - we have many friends whose kids are very happy there. Wait lists may be a problem with Dulwich, Tanglin, Dover Court and UWC Dover. UWC East Coast generally has more places. Chatsworth just opened up s new campus in Bukit Timah which should have places.