Epsom - Boarding Schools in Malaysia

[SueChan]

Our dd wants to try boarding school when we move back form the UK to Malaysia. Epsom College in Malaysia is opening a new school there, just like it's school in Surrey. Does anyone know anything about Epsom in Surrey or Malaysia? The website looks amazing for the KL school but any thoughts?

Epsom in Surrey is a good school, not the most selective, but I would have considered it for my daughter if she had moved for Year 9, although it did feel like a school for boys with girls there, rather than a true coed. My Chinese friends dismissed it out of hand after we turned a corner on the tour and found a couple snogging and there was also an interesting moment when the father pointed out to the Head that his boys looked "dumb". I think he meant scruffy and a bit dopey, no different to the boys in every other boarding school, adolescence isn't kind to boys, but it did give the Head pause for thought.

However the overseas ventures are not mirror copies of the schools in the UK. There were shenanigans in relation to the governance of the first one, the Dulwich International College in Phuket that led to Dulwich disowning it, but lessons will have been learnt. They obviously have to reflect different cohorts and a different cultural context but that is not necessarily a bad thing. You have to go and look, investigate governance etc as you would with any school. You wonder where the schools are proliferating these overseas ventures exactly how much control they can retain over quality and also where it is a first venture how far they understand the local context. I do know expats who have their DCs in these schools with mixed experiences.

Hi SueChan
We’re considering moving back to KL from London and I would really love to know how your family got on after you moved back- particularly with your children’s education, the readjustments culturally, and what you wish you had known before moving back. Many thanks