Going abroad with my husband and children temporarily

[AmyMciverScouse]

My husband (and father of our children) has a 6 month job opportunity in Singapore. It would be a wonderful experience for us to go with him.

My children are 7 and 11.

Can you tell me are there anything i need to put in place before we make this temporary move?

We have insurances in place. I'm not too concerned about schooling as i believe a few months travelling will be far more educational than school (in the long run). We also plan to move when we get back so we will be most likely be changing schools anyways to our new area.

Are there any legal steps i need to do ? Do i just inform the school we leaving? Anything else ?

Thanks x

There is a useful page on the uk government website about moving to Singapore.

There is legislation around children having compulsory education over there, including children who aren’t citizens, so definitely check that out so you don’t get prosecuted! You can apply to home school kids over there but I believe it’s more complex than in the uk.

www.gov.uk/guidance/living-in-singapore

Thankyou ... we will definately be getting some form of private tutoring whilst in Singapore.

My main concern is from the UK side - do we have to inform any authorities or put things into place?

Singapore has some amazing international schools - if your husband is going with a company why not see if they are willing to pay for one for your children

You just tell the school they are going to live abroad. The school takes them off the roll and you reapply as an in-year application when you get back.

You will need to inform hmrc if you become non resident and any benefits offices like CB . If you keep your property you may be able to claim a council tax discount, but should also inform mortgage company and house insurer if property is left empty.

Bear in mind if your DC are at an oversubscribed school they may not get back in. They may end up at a different school.

"You just tell the school they are going to live abroad."

Do i have to fill any forms or give them advance notice ? Is the process straighforard?

"Bear in mind if your DC are at an oversubscribed school they may not get back in. They may end up at a different school"

Thanks - we will be moving to a different area when we get back, so will definately be changing schools anyways.

"Singapore has some amazing international schools - if your husband is going with a company why not see if they are willing to pay for one for your children"

Unfortunately my husbands company will only pay for our accomodation and travel insurance. The international schooling does look lovely, but astonishingly crazy expensive ! One school, following the British curicculum was charging £13,000 a term for one child !!!

So we plan to get some tuition from private teachers during the week.

OP have you negoiated at all and tried to get anything else - having your children just having private tuition in the week could be quite isolating for them

There must be facebook groups etc as well where you can get advice

"having your children just having private tuition in the week could be quite isolating for them"

Yes definately agree. Will try to plan to get them involved in some groups. My eldest loves sports, football, cricket, etc - so will try to research some groups.

So do we have to give the school notice, or is it pretty easy - pop in, tell them, fill in a few forms, and thats it?

No, you don't have to give them notice although it would be more polite to do so and will give them a chance to say bye to your children.

With respect OP you seem to be focused on removing from school which is quite easy to do but actually seem to have not research what life in Singapore is like

The todo list at both ends is long. Leaving school is one of the easier things!

Adhoc tuition is unlikely to come cheap. Plus resources to homeschool. Are there really no schools more reasonably priced? Do you have a relocation agent to research this?

It's easy to leave a school in the U.K. (we didn't even have to fill in any forms) I literally just spoke to the office and said that we wouldn't be back for the next term. Schooling in Singapore is a whole other ball game though so that is where I would spend my efforts researching and sorting schooling if I were you.

There's no requirement for foreigners to educate their children in Singapore.

If I were you I would speak to people who have made the move about the realities of living in Singapore before pulling your children out of school or giving up your home. I know it sounds like a great opportunity, and on paper it is, but in reality unless you already know people out there it has the potential to be incredibly isolating, your husband will be working a lot so it will just be you and the children in a foreign country where there's very little in the way of familiar comforts. The entire culture is different, everything is different.

Your husband going alone is always an option.

To pull kids out of school because you're moving abroad you literally just tell the school. You might have to put it in writing. It's easy.

Good luck.

We did this, but had a preschooler.

Practicalities to bear in mind- the heat is hard work. Really hard work. It will take time to acclimatise.

Other westerners may be on a much better package, and so have maids and clubs and private schools. It may feel hard to keep up/make friends when people's means are different. Check how your deal compares with others.

Health- you will go private for everything. Insurance will cover big situations, but the everyday things like checking a rash, has DC got a chest infection, ear ache etc, can be pretty costly and actually I found it hard to trust doctors that were paid to diagnose and prescribe. Children definitely had more medication than in U.K.

Thanks for the advice guys !