You might want to check out this experimental education institute. Just based on their website, they look progressive. Could be worth a tour. Good luck in your search!
Thanks! I will look into it.
In case the homeschooling route doesn’t work out… I have seen Taipei Kuei Shan School mentioned a few times but have not seen much detail. It is a private Christian school, but someone said they don’t push the religion as much as some schools, and their website seems to support that view. It does have an International Baccalaurete program that looks to be taught in English, which would be perfect if timing and availability work out. Lack of IB is my main concern about the homeschooling route. There are only 4 IB schools in Taipei, the others being TES, TAS, Kang Chiao. I have heard good things about some of these and mixed reviews one others, but really not much st all on Kuei Shan. Would be interested to hear if anyone has first or second hand experience with this school. TAS is supposed to be very good, but we would be averaging at least $35,000 per year for 2 years of high school if you include the 1-time fee of about $10,000.
it would cost around the same at the other schools you mentioned.
Thanks @wakethenight. Yeah, they are all pricey but seem to have a bit of a range. I might be misreading but, on just a quick look, annual tuition seems to be about $170,000 NT less at TES than at TAS for upper grades. TAS also has a $50,000 NT registration fee (not sure if annual or 1-time) and a 1-time capital fee of $350,000 NT, while I only saw a 1-time registration fee of $50,000 NT mentioned on the TES site. I didn’t see costs mentioned on the Kuei Shan site. We would rather not spend college-like tuition for high school, but we can figure out how to cover the costs if that is the only option. The biggest challenges are finding somewhere that has a solid IB program (or at least AP) with good teachers and admin, has space on short notice, would work for students who speak only English, and hopefully isn’t quite to Taiwan levels in terms of loading up the homework and after school classes.
What is the tuition like at this place? Is it in English? It definitely looks interesting.
The prices for international schools in Taiwan are ridiculous. And there isn’t really a middle option price-wise (like bilingual schools) for anything above grade 6 /primary, which is an option in most other countries. Even if I had the money, I would have major issues spending college level tuition costs on junior high school. I just don’t really get it, but that’s me.
It seems to be all English instruction on the last 2 years during the IB diploma years, which is what I was interested in. I have not found prices yet.
(一)繳交入學申請費：NTD $30,000 元整。
(二)繳交每學期學費(含學雜費)：NTD $250,000 元整。
(三)每學期代收代辦費：如教材費、實驗費、課後之社團與課外之教育研習、教育旅行費用等，
於開學依照實際情況收費。
From their 招生簡章
下載完整版VIS招生簡章
pdf file
So, $8000 US (approx) a semester? With 3 semesters? Not much different to Tas. Insane.
Thanks @tando Tando. I misread and thought Noel was asking about Kuei Shan.
VIS looks interesting, but all their AP classes are after school. Could make for a long day. We have a charter homeschooling program in California that might be an option, if we keep our California residency and pay tax here.
Is Kueishan much cheaper? And what is the situation there? I pretty much wrote off International/Private schools in Taiwan due to the price, and so far I haven’t been wrong. If there are more reasonable options, please let me know.
I can’t find their prices.
So far with the schools I have researched, you needed to email them, and they would tell you. I don’t get why it isn’t just in their websites.
學雜費每學期約14.4萬元，教科書每學年約2～3萬元
If your kid speaks English at a workable level and nothing else is wrong with them, you’ll get into Kueishan fairly easy. Tuition is slightly lower than TES, comparable to Kanqiao or AAIA. They just started the IB a few years back so not everything is ironed out like some of the more established IB schools.
I’ve been to VIS, the founder is a pretty lively fellow, learning is deeply individualised. They operate out of 2 floors of a high rise in Gongguan. Tuition is insane, but yeah, my friends’ kid is happy there.
Thanks for the information @Lao_Wang! Good to know Kuei Shan is on the super expensive rather than crazy insane price category 
Yes, English is her one and only language for now, except for a couple years of Spanish and hearing some Chinese now and then.
VIS looks really interesting, and I would like more of an exploratory approach. If they had an IB program or at least had AP classes as part of the normal day, I would look into it. I am steering away from TES because I have heard it piles on the work at the high school level, more so than TAS. All that is second hand of course.
Also thanks for mentioning AAIA. I had not found that one yet. Good to have more options, although that one is in the TES price range.
Sorry, TAS has more stress and work in high school as it has ‘shifted to the market’ of having majority Taiwanese parents. TES tries to stay authentically European in its approach. It doesn’t have more pressure in H3+4 than your average IB DP would. In younger years it is fairly relaxed compared to all the other international schools in Taipei.
TAS puts more work on students plates than TES.
Thanks @tando. My searches are not pulling up Chinese language pages, so I never would have found this very useful information on Kuei Shan. If all goes well we will be living in Tamsui, at least at first, so this would also be an easier commute than TES or TAS.