Which international schools in Singapore?

[Tasmaniandevil001]

Hi,

My husband has recently been offered a job in Singapore and we're looking at Tanglin and Dover Court. (We have two girls aged 5 and 3.) I have couple of questions:

1. Is Dover Court a good school? I know it has recently been taken over, so I wanted to know what people think of it.

2. We're thinking of living on the East coast. What is the commute like from there to Dover Court/ Tanglin (both look to be in the same part of town).

Also any advice and other school recommendations would be really welcomed.

Thanks!

Research the Haze! Up to 211 today. I had never even heard of it until we moved over last year and had two souls destroying months trapped indoors.
I didn't like Dover Court or Dulwich but liked Tanglin. Still happy with my choice.
Wish I had also looked at IB following UWC which is an outstanding school and has an East Coast campus. My Neighbour has a child at Tanglin and one at UWC and is planning on moving Tanglin child to UWC as soon as she can.
Best idea is to join FB groups: Real Singapore Expat Wives and East Coast Mums Support Group. Both v v v useful sources of information. And answer the kind of questions that are so important when you are moving to a new country but which are boringly common place to people who have lived here for ages (not me, tho' I am not great at getting around to answering questions)
Good luck and grab onto any offers of friendship/ help with both hands. And buy VOG anti haze masks!!

Thank you very much! Yes I will check out UWC and make sure we get Haze masks before we move. I was hoping its wasn't a common occurrence!

TTS also has a reputable long and well delivered IB program and is an equally well established school. It also delivers well rounded A level students with great connections to UK unis and is really well suited to families bound to return to the Uk in the short/medium term.
UWC has a slightly different population of long term expats and mixed asian/european or american/australian families aiming for top north american universities. It is a slightly different mindset but both are great schools with a very experienced faculty and great management and very driven supportive parent community.
Dover is just as good in primary years, very nurturing, if you are there for the long run, you can always move them when you get your feet on the ground and your head around all the hype! Your children are still very young. I would suggest visiting the schools and go with your gut instinct right now.

Thanks! I've read very good things about TTS but sounds like it's a hard place to get into. So I thought it would be good to have other options. Also, it's nice to get opinions from people who's children attend these schools.

Uwc admissions just as tricky. As mentioned before you have lots of quality options for the first couple of years while you play the waiting game. Dont be fooled by the big names. In early years, lots of other schools/pre schools deliver just as well. You just need to find the best fit for your family.

Our kids went to Dover court for a few years and adored it. We left 3 years ago when they were 4 and 8 and I'm sure it's changed (since been taken over by nord Anglia so more money has gone into facilities).

I do think that smaller children have very different needs in school than teens for example. We wanted small, nurturing environment where any learning support needs would be identified quickly and provided for, where our dcs would be in a very international environment and not overwhelmed by the size of the campus or student body. We would have switched to tts or uwc for senior school because by then our dcs would appreciate a bigger community, more competition and shiny climbing walls, theatres and kayaking pools (yes really).

I have friends whose dcs have gone through primary at nearly all the international schools in sgp but we loved Dover court and I don't know anyone who has been there and has a bad word to say about it.

Most kids take buses to school, you can always ask the schools about pickup times for various locations if your kids will take the bus or look at google maps at various times of the day for commute time if you'll drive.

Thank you very much ladies. In talks with Dover court re school bus etc.

We moved here in July (are Brits) and have 3 children at Dover Court. Reception (boy), year 2 (girl) and year 5(girl). We like the school. It has been very welcoming. The children have settled well. Nord Anglia are spending lots of money and are very invested in the school. The teachers are all lovely and they really do know how to make the new kids and parents feel welcome.
The school buses are run by an independent private business. They cost of the buses is based on how far you are from the school.
As a benchmark for you the bus to a condo called RiverPlace in River Valley (google map it) is currently $782 per child per term - the east coast would be a great deal more. We are slightly closer than that and it is $650/child/term.
Good luck. I recommend you visit Dover Court....they are a great bunch.

Hi, we are moving over to Singapore over Easter 2017 (planning starts now) and are visiting in November to check out schools. Currently we have applications in to Dover, Tanglin, Chatsworth East and Eton Broadrick. It seems that the decision comes down to East Coast and a small school or a bigge English Curriculum School over in Orchard/Holland area. Our childrn ar very young (pre-school and Year 2) and we are drawn to the idea of a smaller school hoping it will be more nurturing. The East Coast also seems a very friendly area to live. Any thoughts?

LAD - no idea re schools as my DCs chose to stay in their UK school and we just visit DH a lot! But as for where to live, Orchard is very much the Expat (Brit, Aussie, American, NZ) area so you could have the sort of home life that goes along with that. East Coast is much more local with a bit of Indian Expat area. My DH has lived in Singapore on a few occasions over the years and much prefers the East Coast precisely because it's not Expat. Also because of access to the East Coast Park (keen cyclist) and partly because your rental money goes a bit further there. The Brit guy who works for DH went over with his wife a year or so ago and they chose to live in Orchard as she was a couple of months off giving birth to first DD and she felt she wanted to be surrounded by a more familiar group as she was going to be spending a lot of time at home. Not that you can't make friends wherever you are of course, yes it is friendly (conversely Expat areas can be cliquey), but something to also consider as your DCs are so young.

There are loads of expats on the east coast, most of my expat friends living on the east coast had small kids but lots with older ones there due to the international schools in the area. It's a great place to live with kids as the beach and seafront are close by and you tend to get more for your money than say Bukit Timah and certainly more than Orchard. In your shoes, I'd live there (depending on dh's commute).