Moving from UK to Singapore

[merryberries]

I wondered if anyone with experience of moving from the UK to Singapore could give me some advice.

My husband has just had a job offer and we are wondering whether to make the move either temporarily or permanently. I would plan to work too although part time should be possible.

We are both familiar with Singapore having visited many times so understand the differences in culture, general lifestyle, etc.

One of the main things I am concerned about is schooling for our 4 children and how they would fit in and settle.
We have two in senior school and two in primary so would need to look for several schools. I think we would need to send them privately, definitely the older two as they would be extremely behind the local children. I am also not a fan of the Singapore method of education in the main and I doubt that children who have been schooled in the UK would be very happy with the level of pressure. Obviously, we would have to contact and visit the individual schools but I wondered if anyone had any experience of the different options, the pros and cons of the individual schools, any advice about helping children to settle, etc. Also, thinking of the future, has anyone had a Singapore educated child attend a UK University and how did that work? I'm not sure how it would work with tuition fees so would need to check that.

The other thing that would be really useful to have some advice on is the practicalities of the move, i.e. how to find housing, buying furniture, moving things from UK, paperwork needed for work/ other things and how long that all took to organise.

Many thanks in advance to anyone who has a chance to reply!

If you do a search on here there are loads of Singapore threads which will give you some info.
Schools wise, your children could all go to the same school as most International Schools are from infant to year 13.

Tanglin, Dulwich and Dover Court are the main 'British' schools. But there are loads of others. UWC is very popular.

You would probably find it difficult to get your children into the local school system anyway as you would be bottom of the list after Singaporeans and PR (Permanent residents).

Settling in wise, I would suggest living in a condo, as they are usually quite sociable if you pick one with lots of families as at the weekends people congregate at the swimming pool.
When we went to Singapore (about 15 years ago) you needed lots of documents for your EP (Employment pass) to include all your school exam certs and Uni certs etc.

If you look at Property Guru online, you can see the rough price of the rental market. Depending on the school you pick then you can pick the area, but expat areas are usually around Orchard Rd, River Valley, Holland Village (to name a few).
Hope this helps!

You need to have proof of residence for three years before you can be considered a UK resident for university, currently I understand that council tax bills work so if you were paying council tax on a UK property that would work. The rules may be tightened up.

Thanks so much papooshka. That sounds like a lot of paperwork. I have absolutely no idea where by A level certificates might be, probably binned a long time ago!

I have emailed those three schools to ask about places and will contact some others too.

Thank you lakeshoreliving- I managed to find that on the uk.gov website. It seems a bit unfair as they have all been born and always lived there up to now and I think EU citizens and non British residents are eligible but good to know in advance.