Hi


We are considering repatriation back to SG around mid 2023. My daughter would have finished up G10 in an IB school and we were initially considering between a local international school or taking the SPERs for JC in Sep/Oct.

However, we read Google reviews and found the local international schools unimpressive. And only one of them was willing to take our daughter midterm. If we were to wait to take SPERs and want to continue with the IB track, there’s only 2 local MOE IB schools and results of posting will only be known in Dec. We are worried that she might not get any of the 2 schools and we would be stuck, since she would have no school to go and there might not even be vacancies in the local international schools by then.

It seems like transition to a local international school would be better in terms of certainty and we wanted to find out more from parents about the 3 local international schools to get a better feel but can’t seem to find anything.

Wondering what would be the best choice here?

Hi


Has anyone sent their kids to any of the 3 local international schools as returning overseas Singaporeans? Could you please share your experience?
Thank you.

My kids have been away from SG since birth and so they have never been through mainstream school in SG, nor had formal Chinese lessons in school.


Thus, given our situation, I would have thought that it would be easier to get an exemption in Chinese.

To be honest, I am not sure if they are able to survive in local school. It will probably be a big culture shock compared to international school, especially the stress and academic load. But I do think if we are relocating back for good, it would make sense to send them to a local school to build up friendships in school that would make them feel connected to SG.

An alternative would be to find a way to delay the return till end of P6 and apply for the local international schools which would have a mix of both local and foreign students, provided that financially it works out.

Hi


I wrote to MOE and they said I could either opt to go the route of:
1. PSLE in
2. SPERs
3. DSA
for the year 2023.

This sounds like a typical textbook reply so I was wondering if anyone had actual experience dealing with this.

Hi


There is a possibility that we might return to SG in Oct next year, by which my son will be in P5.
The timing is pretty awkward and I am wondering if it is possible for us to opt for SPERs instead in the following year?

Hi


There is a possibility that we might return to SG end of next year, by which my son will be in P5.
The timing is pretty awkward and I am wondering if it is possible for us to opt for SPERs instead in the following year?

If you truly undestand how overseas international schools work, you would know the huge gap compared to the local standard. It is certainly not realistic to expect overseas returnees to take all subjects and be graded like all local students. Since the focus is to allow these students to ease back into the more rigorous local system, MOE has have its own consideration of using English and Maths alone as a good gauge of how well the students would fare. We should perhaps be more open minded towards this small percentage instead of deeming them as cheating the system

What’s the balloting history for Catholic High and Kuo Chuan Presbyterian in Phase 2C? We are within 1-2km of the school.


Also, any affiliation for sec school for Kuo Chuan?

We are currently overseas and would need to use our overseas address for registration. That would fall outside the 2km mark. We also do not have preferential treatment so we will definitely end up in Phase 2C. My strategy has always been to go to any school and when we do come back for good, transfer to a better school. My brother however suggested us going for balloting under the popular schools as there is nothing to lose. True but most spaces run out even before the 2km mark if there is any under Phase 2C. Any suggestions on popular schools where I might get a chance to even ballot?

Hi


I can totally relate to what you feel as my son was also diagnosed with myopia -4.75 at 3yo. Was totally shocked as my son has very little screen time. His only indulgence is reading and we have always been careful to not let him read when it’s too dark. I seriously have no idea on how his eyesight can be so bad too.