She is learning english at the local school. but her family wants her study to improve cause she is in the bottom class

.

I read about the American SAS in Pudong. would that be her best option?

To get into SAS she'd need to pass an English proficiency test - many friends told me their kids didn't pass it right away.

Also - have you looked up what the tuition is?

tnmom wrote:

She is learning english at the local school. but her family wants her study to improve cause she is in the bottom class

.

I read about the American SAS in Pudong. would that be her best option?

To get into SAS she'd need to pass an English proficiency test - many friends told me their kids didn't pass it right away.

Also - have you looked up what the tuition is?

what do you mean by the tuition? tuition fees? or curriculam?

tnmom wrote:http://www.saschina.org/?page=Tuition_and_Fees

tuition fees not a problem, but anyways, my sister can't get into sas because one of their requirements is that if they attended a full chinese school in shanghai, they are not allowed to enter SAS. The same with Cornodia, Cornodia sschool said that the level of english must be of native. THats going to be difficult for her, however we still gonna take a look at the school. Also we got an appointment with BISS School tomorrow, who by far was the most welcoming out of the three. God i love being British

Hopefully BISS don't have as much restricitions as other schools.

MissBelle wrote:Our family is moving the Shanghai in August. Our daughter is going to be in year one or two at SCIS. We have decided to live at Green Valley Villas in Hongqiao. ( near the Zoo) Our son has just turned 4 and I have found that most of the preschools and kindergartens only offer a 5 full day program which I think is too much of a transition from Australia where he is going two days only. The two places I have found that offer half day programs are Rainbow Bridge international school at the Zoo or Bright start academy.
I visited Rainbow bridge and did not find it overly inspiring although we only spent such a short time there and it was the first place we visited so had nothing to compare it to. Have not been to Bright Start yet but have heard good reviews on this forum. Is Bright Start a long distance from Green Valley Villas? Its hard to get a sense on the map of travelling time. I would love to hear some first hand experience from other parents about Rainbow Bridge and or Bright start if possible. One other question, if he was going to go to SCIS preschool campus do the students always have to attend the 5 full days? Or what happens if they only attend 3 out of the 5 days? !! Not very economical but just a thought!
thank you

MissBelle - our 4yo Aussie son currently attends Victoria Kindergarten. We have only been here 2 months but on the whole we are very happy with how he has progressed (would probably suggest it is a better Kindergarten than his previous Australian one.) Only negative is that in his class he is the only non-asian so he is having some trouble fitting in, but this seems to be only an issue in his particular class and the teachers are helping in this regard. Teacher contact is fantastic, especially given we are both working full time. We are considering now sending our 2yo there for 1/2 days from August onwards.

I am interested to find out why you chose SCIS for your daughter. We are now trying to decide on where our soon-to-be 5yo will go starting in August. Our concern about SCIS is the difference between US and UK curriculum and how well he will migrate back into the Aussie system on our return. The other alternative is Yew Chung (advantage here is that both boys could attend same school) but it is very hard to find any real feed-back on this school. The only info I have found seems to be out-dated negative reviews on administration issues. Any experiences from other people would be greatly appreciated.

HI Bjt
thanks for the reply! Sounds like you are in a similar situation with schools and kindergartens!
Does your son go to Victoria 5 full days? I haven't seen that kindergarten as yet so will look it up for sure.
We have another Australian family we know over there whose kids go to SCIS and they say its excellent.
American / British system? I am not sure if I should be more concerned about this. We just thought SCIS was a great school. Our son will go there next year maybe when he is 5... .
Re Yew Chung... the lady taking us around the school was extremely helpful , the best one of all the schools we went to however the layout, buildings, classrooms and facilities of the school in our opinion did not match up to SCIS. It really is hard to choose a school on a flying visit so I had to rely on observations,recommendations and gut feeling! Good luck !
Just a quick one - is Victoria kindergarten near HongQiao? We will be living at Green Valley Villas .
Cheers

British International School Shanghai - any campus but Pudong is certainly the biggest and the best. Website is bisspudong.com I believe. Great all round education, for all year groups with ECAs and fantastic facilities. Not up themselves either which alot of International Schools are..

Hi all
We're planning to move to Pudong, Shanghai this summer and I'm looking for a good bilingual school for my kids.They are fluent English speakers but their Chinese skills are close to zero. I'm looking into Pudong Xiehe (Shanghai United Bilingual School) , Pinghe school and Smic which we're waitlisted. Does anybody have experience to share? Or any other recommandations? Yew Chung was on my first wish list but tuition is a bit too pricey for us.

BISS is definitely impressed. The place reminds me of the UK school, but then, I can't really compare to chinese school. I think this would be a great option. Also they have EAL which my sister can use to improve english.. THey were also the most welcoming out of the others.

ANy idea on Dulwich? I am going to check that one out in a weeks time.

Romeolo888 wrote:BISS is definitely impressed. The place reminds me of the UK school, but then, I can't really compare to chinese school. I think this would be a great option. Also they have EAL which my sister can use to improve english.. THey were also the most welcoming out of the others.

ANy idea on Dulwich? I am going to check that one out in a weeks time.

Where does the girl live? I think it is pretty important to live not too far from the school. Dulwich is not so easy to get in, because their convenient location for many expats, i suppose.

MissBelle wrote:HI Bjt
thanks for the reply! Sounds like you are in a similar situation with schools and kindergartens!
Does your son go to Victoria 5 full days? I haven't seen that kindergarten as yet so will look it up for sure.
We have another Australian family we know over there whose kids go to SCIS and they say its excellent.
American / British system? I am not sure if I should be more concerned about this. We just thought SCIS was a great school. Our son will go there next year maybe when he is 5... .
Re Yew Chung... the lady taking us around the school was extremely helpful , the best one of all the schools we went to however the layout, buildings, classrooms and facilities of the school in our opinion did not match up to SCIS. It really is hard to choose a school on a flying visit so I had to rely on observations,recommendations and gut feeling! Good luck !
Just a quick one - is Victoria kindergarten near HongQiao? We will be living at Green Valley Villas .
Cheers

Hey MissBelle - yes our son goes to Victoria 5 full days (we was doing 3 days daycare and 2 days Kinda in Oz so he has no problem with this). Victoria in in Honqiao/Gubei area - quite close to the Hongmei restraunt strip.
We have decided to leave our son at Victoria for one more year - at this stage we think the smaller school environment will suit him better. Additionally his younger brother will be doing 1/2 days there as well so it is much easier for us logisitically. We agree that SCIS is certainly a much more impressive school in terms of facilities and that Yew Chung does a better job of selling itself. So many choices.... At least we have another year to decide. Please keep us posted on your experience with SCIS.

I have been reading and searching ALL day, really! And I have a better idea now than I did this morning, but I am still hazy as to what is the best solution for my two kids ages 11 and 9.

They are English mother tongue. But they have been schooled in French for the past three years, with an additional 6 hours of English each week. So they are first language English and French.

In order to get back into the French school that they are currently in (when we return in 3/4 years), they will have to have maintained both languages as first languages. And they will need to be speaking a third - Mandarin I hope. And they will need to have excellent grades!! Let's say they are able and willing, and knowing that they have to carry on in the british system (or french), does anyone have a strong opinion on where they should go, and why?

So many thanks and I look forward to some first hand advice. It's a really hard task being so far away and not understanding much about the way things work; the acronyms are enough to confuse me

Hi everyone,

I'm new in Shanghai and I just sent my 2 kids in SUIS in hongquiao ages 9 and 10.
But I'm planning to transfer them this coming school year to Shanghai Livingstone
American School. Can anybody help me and give me some thoughts on which has
better curriculum, better academic standard between SUIS and SLAS?

We're from the Philippines by the way.

Thanks.

baroan wrote:I'm new in Shanghai and I just sent my 2 kids in SUIS in hongquiao ages 9 and 10.
But I'm planning to transfer them this coming school year to Shanghai Livingstone
American School.

If you do not mind my asking, what is the reason for the transfer?

Hi Michael, you speak pretty highly about SSIS, so I thought I should take a look at it. Is your school's website:www.ssis.cn? It doesn't seem to work, maybe I got the website wrong?

Not Michael, but here's the website
http://www.ssis.asia/

jillstarr wrote:Not Michael, but here's the website
http://www.ssis.asia/

thank you, jillstarr. I tried to google it without success.

abbieq wrote:Hi Michael, you speak pretty highly about SSIS, so I thought I should take a look at it. Is your school's website:www.ssis.cn? It doesn't seem to work, maybe I got the website wrong?

That website has not been in use for some time. The new one is www.ssis.asia.

jillstarr wrote:Not Michael, but here's the website
http://www.ssis.asia/

Hahaha, thanks Jill!

Here are some thoughts from experience:

Ping He: Chinese track is extremely tough and rigorous. No space given to students (My son wished to go to Hogwarts because he noticed that they could talk at meal times there, and go outside unsupervised!!) The school's rationale is to get students to the best middle school - all and only academia

SMIC: looser atmosphere, albeit still a bracing curriculum. Chinese track follows the Shanghai c'culum. Some extra activities available. English track seemed reasonable. Chinese track is quite international in an Asian sense (Japanese, Koreans, Taiwanese mostly).

BISS: a rip-off. Note it is ultimately owned by a private equity group; so now charges as much as Dulwich, which was set up for profit. Kids had good Maths and Chinese, which was unappreciated and went into reverse. Morality in the school is loose and nobody cares. Extra activities deliver the minimum if that. there is not evena proper road to the Pudong campus. Everything still costs extra. If it were a comprehensive, I would understand. That is the feel, but at 190,000 plus plus plus

HIGHLY RECOMMEND considering YK PAO, which is set up for education and is a non-profit. Miraculous. Unfortunately age-wise it does not suit my kids now. Feel I missed the best option.
Bi-lingual through elementary. Secondary opens next year as a boarding school.

REGO - judging from their rigorous effort at rugby (my only experience), this has promise esp. for those on the West side

PS

Hear Xiehe is falling apart from friend who is taking his kid out of there. Major teacher problems incl. strike!

Shanghai high school, which has an elementary section, has favourable reviews from several other friends

So Big Jack....

how long have you been employed by YK PAO?

if you read back you will see that this forum is HIGHLY aware of newbie posters coming on and slating schools and then singing the praises of another.

my kids go to BISS and really enjoy and what you're saying is flat out untrue in large parts or irrelvant in others...BISS and Dulwich are for profit everyone knows that so making out that it's some kind of secret is plain silly frankly. Also suggesting that everything costs extra is (as you no doubt know) untrue. And as for the road...i'm sorry but that's laughable.

what really irritates me is the blatant nature of the way some schools wreck this forum and make it less useful for people who really want information...

what good schools are recommended to study Mandarin in Shanghai??

Shaina wrote:what good schools are recommended to study Mandarin in Shanghai??

At the risk of sounding silly - local schools?

Some points about BISS since one rather skeptical correspondent threw out a challenge:

My son's Maths was top half of his year in Chinese school. His Maths assessment at BISS was in English, in which language the Maths terms were new to him; so he only did moderately well in the test. Thereafter he was largely top of his middling class. No adjustment or review though thereafter, despite such a request.
Chinese fluent: yet now it is worse than at the start of the year, despite being in the top class.
Tae kwan do: previously red/blue belt. BISS could only accomodate starting from scratch in their ECA; so another reverse.

Trip to Beijing for the whole class year. Cost Rmb 5,500 for 4 and a half days!! Compare to another son at a UK prep (full boarding cheaper than BISS day school), who went to France for 4 days: cost GBP180.

Food at BISS - lunch up to Rmb50!!! More than mine; more than SMIC: Rmb9; more than UK prep - inclusive.

Lost named items: though reported at time of disappearance, school made no effort to recover. What is the school's view on theft?
Could go on about sexual (im)morality left unaddressed even amongst 10-11 year olds.

I was lucky to have known a very competent form teacher who did a good job. That was a success, but about it.

As you will note, Pinggu, at least if you actually read my piece rather than getting all uppity and offensive, I have considerable experience of Shanghai schools and beyond. I am happy to pay top dollar for a school. But it better deliver - not just make the kids happy. My kid loved it - largely because he got no homework. Phew!

And obviously from my comments, I have no connection to YK Pao school, except admiration. It is expected to put education first at a school, normally, and not profit; really admirable to make that the sole motivation.

I hope other first time posters, who have something real to say are not put off doing so.

Big Jack

Jack...

the magic non existent road that teleports all 1100 students to BISS every day, that you mentinoed...it does'nt exist. It's a real road. I've been on it. Really.

your kid (?) lost some stuff at school. Oddly enough, so did i, and my dad, and his dad and his fathers before him back to the dawn of time. But shame on BISS

your kid (?) went to a chinese school and didn't do so well for a time in a British School and now you're taking him or her back (?) to a Chinese school and thought you'd have a go at BISS and Dulwich in the meantime....hmm clearly the schools fault...they should be ashamed.

your kid (?) had a new ASA made just for him...but they didn't make him top of the class, shame on them!

my kids love BISS, so do their (real) friends...I hope you enjoy YK Pao.

OR...carry on advertising and distorting the board to the detriment of real families who need real information to make a real choice.

I am moving my son and (once again) mortified with the price of school. I am not company sponsored and for now my partner is still stateside. I would love to know and feel free to PM to keep the secret under wraps, who was able to negotiate a deal/scholarship/discount at any of these schools. At this point it is my only hope, other than to ship my 7 year old back to the States. I will not name the school, but yesterday they proudly told me that their $30K tuition per year was more than worth it for my 4 year old daughter who only needs to be busy while I am at work and big bro is at school. This is insanity.

Actually, Pigu, I think I have given out quite a lot of specific information about a range of schools, which is what this forum appeared to seek, and have not emoted so temperamentally.

Again you have several facts about what I stated wrong.


I am very happy to discuss with anyone seeking information and views on a range of schools in Shanghai as above, and indeed one UK prep.

Particularly I expect a $30,000 school to deliver a good rounded education, and not just go through the motions - which was why I think it worth pointing out pertinent pitfalls to prospective parents.

Incidentally a minor point: the road to BISS Pudong is very narrow with pedestrians and bicycles abundant. Because there is traffic at pick-up time, this bottleneck regularly adds 5-10 mins to the journey, sometimes much more. Not a big issue maybe for those with one child; but for those who are picking up children from several schools at roughly the same time, it is an unnecessary nuisance. (There is a more accessible backdoor, from which BISS does not permit pick-ups).

And further - and particularly Pigu, please read this carefully - I decided not to send my children to YK Pao because their age does not fit right now. YK Pao has an elementary school, and will open a boarding school next year for ages 12 and up. This will be a new school, and will no doubt face certain difficulties of any start-up.
However my point has only ever been that those behind YK Pao are setting up schools not-for -profit, where a full, rounded education is the purpose. This is an excellent thing for any place, and it is happening here in Shanghai right now.
The same group set up a school in HK, which now has a thousand applicants for each place. Must be doing something right.
My only regret was that I did not discover it sooner so I could have started my kids in the primary school, which was why I mentioned it before to readers on this forum for their benefit.

(Disclaimer: I have no interest of any kind in the YKPAO Schools, except as described immediately above)

Kind regards,
Big Jack

??Pigu??

Oh Jack...you wrong me

Good day,

We are coming to Shanghai early 2011 with twin boys 6 years old. They speak fluent Dutch and Swedish and a little English. We come on an expat contract for two years, i.e. looking for an international school.

A few questions:
1. I will work in Jiading, (north Puxi), what area would you recommend for school and living?
2. I have seen on their website that Rego and SAS offers Dutch lessons - any experience with this?
3. What level of English is needed for admission? Is there any crash-course program?

Thanks a lot,
G&M