How to choose an International School in Singapore

With a selection of schooling options available, parents can get confused about the best school in Singapore for their child. Nobody wants to omit crucial details when choosing a primary or secondary school in Singapore because it plays a vital role in shaping your child. Shortlisting schools and narrowing in on one can become more accessible by getting answers to a few key questions(International School).

Getting into an international school has its perks. The international school community acts as an enriching opportunity for the student and family involved because it serves a global community spanning numerous nationalities. When selecting an international school, you must consider multiple factors; the most fundamental focus is student growth. Make inquiries based on your child’s goals, interests, and aptitude.

Ask the following questions to get the responses you need.

How is the school’s education facilitating learning among students?

The curriculum and course should have a more encompassing approach rather than focusing on pure academics. Students’ growth and development result from a balanced pedagogy highlighting great books, good habits, and guided discovery. Exploration and inquiry should form the foundation of learning activities. For instance, the students should think by being asked ‘WHY’ when introduced to a concept. Rather than filling them with facts, they should focus on deduction and rationale. They should use a discovery approach for students to reason, question, and explore. Mugging up and spewing is not the way of life – excellence and developing life-long positive habits is the goal.

What measures is the school taking to extend the learning outside the classroom?

A pure classroom-oriented environment cannot inculcate learning and growth. Education should be a more holistic approach to connecting students to the rest of the world through service and knowledge. See if the school has meaningful outreach opportunities, like traveling abroad and service projects. International schools preferably provide a range of co-curricular activities and global languages. They even teach practical life skills such as gardening, woodworking, culinary arts, and educational speaking opportunities on numerous levels.

Is the school the right fit for your child?

A parent once overheard a teacher introducing one of the students to a parent as “one of the slow students.” And such an environment may not be the right one for your kid. Look for a school that can cater to your child’s unique needs and teaches them how they can learn best. Choosing the right school means discovering the suitable fit for your child and your family. The child needs to be the primary focus – how do they learn?

What are their strengths and weaknesses? Are they better visual or auditory learners? How is your child – socially and emotionally? How would you define your child – energetic, introverted, outgoing, anxious, shy, rule-oriented, creative, rebellious, or quirky? What unique traits do they have? The more you know about your child, the more extensively you can question the school and figure out what is best suited to their pressing needs – academic, emotional, and social.

How does the school support high and low achievers?

Most children fall in the ‘average’ learning bracket and are in sync with the pace of imparted education in the school. However, your child may sometimes be exceptionally bright or have learning difficulties. For children who don’t fall in the average bracket as a parent, it is worth asking if they have extra classes for children or have means of paying more attention to bring them up to speed. Do they offer alternative teaching or bring additional adult support into the classroom?

Even if your kid does not require this kind of support, the answer to this question may give you some perspective on how the pedagogy caters to varying abilities and levels. Every individual does not have the same pace of learning, so at this time, you may even want to get clarity about the staff-to-child ratio. If the batch and classroom sizes are smaller, you will feel secure knowing that special attention, where needed, will be given to your child.

How are play and exploration reasonably incorporated into learning?

“Play is the work of the child”, which was cautioned way back by Plato. His exact words were, “Do not keep children at their studies by compulsion but by play.” It meant that children needed an environment conducive to their growth and exploration. They cannot be restricted to a classroom and must get room to discover the world through creativity, imagination, play, invention, observation, and discovery. Explore the school’s facilities for co-curricular and extracurricular activities and the weightage given to activities that make their way beyond the classroom.