We are a family of four, 2 adults and 2 kids (5 & 7). We plan to move from US to Taiwan in Nov/Dec 2020. My husband is going to continue working for his current US company remotely. I was wondering is it possible to start school in Jan/Feb? My kids speak Chinese fluently but reading and writing part probably a lot behind compare with the local children. Is it possible to get into public school without Taiwanese employers?
Thank you!
if you are on any kind of ARC, yes, no problem to get into public school, except for kindergarten. Depending on areas, public kindergarten may be full. There are plenty of private kindergartens.
Grave dig?? I was lurking because I’m looking for a new proper school job…
Most private schools don’t post their tuition because they want to drag you in and make sure you know what your child will be missing out on first, then let you know how many mortgages you’ll need to take out to afford it. Last week I watched our office manager give one foreign family the whole tour, then bring up with cost of tuition with as much confidence and smile as he could muster. The couple literally said “thanks for your time. Is this the exit?” and let themselves out. It makes no sense to me, since you need to waste the time of admin giving tours. Even as a teacher, I like to know what socioeconomic group I’d be teaching before applying to a school (my target is middle to lower class, as true “upper class” children are at about the same level of inner city, true poverty children when it comes to motivations to do anything). I also think that, since TAS and TES are the only schools that post their tuition, there’s something of a vicious cycle – no one else is posting their tuition, so why should I? It’s not like it’s proprietary information, but it took me about a month of working at my current school before I found out just how much they charge for tuition. At which point I realized that TAS will probably double their tuition rates soon, considering what’s basically a cram school barely charges anything less…
As I look to escape the racist and leftist indoctrination of TAS, every school I’ve looked at lists their fees: TES, Dominican, TAAS, and Morrison.
So, schools that hope to actually attract foreign students, as opposed to the ones that charge 4x the average TW salary for tuition because their sole goal is profit
This thread is about international schools, no?
Do your kids speak Chinese? have you considered Kuei Shan?
I have actually considered them a lot, but there are couple of issues. 1. I would prefer an American curriculum; 2. My kids’ Chinese isn’t great…especially reading traditional Chinese.
I’ve also heard that the academics will be very hard and long compared to TAS, which still has barely any homework and doesn’t really challenge kids.
If you have any experience or information about KueiShan, I’d be happy to hear about it, though. For me the biggest plus (other than escaping TAS) is the biggest risk: forcing my kids to truly learn Chinese.
Friends of mine send their kids there, from what i saw the kids are happy. You are right though that the academic rigor is much more than TAS or TES, 5th graders get ~3 hours of homework a day.
Chinese - manageable for lower years, kids can pick it up. My friends kids joined at first grade after speaking only English at home and managed just fine. I think that after grade 5 or 6 it will be impossible to catch up with out a strong foundation from home.
Hi Andrew. Where can I get more information on the elite youth leagues? I have a 12-year-old who lives for baseball; he’s playing up for his age, so I would think he could at least keep up with the local kids.
Hi zhoul. I know this thread is old, did you find some competitive baseball for your kids?