alternative/experimental elementary school in taipei in Chinese?

[sunfamily]

Hi,
I am looking for an alternative or experimental elementary school (up to grade 6 or beyond would be nice) in or around Taipei that is mainly in Chinese. Some English would be fine, however our home is bilingual and our kiddo already has full command of English, its the Chinese (particularly reading/writing) that I’d like to develop. I’ve done some searching around and a lot of them seem to be in mainly English and I’d love to hear other people’s experience. Thank you!

[GooseEgg]

Do you consider Waldorf (Steiner) Schools alternative? In addition to the full on Waldorf schools in Taichung and Yilan, there are Waldorf programs that rent space in public schools in Taipei. I know about this thru a friend who sends his two kids to such a program in Neihu. He told me that he and his wife had to sign a waiver from the Ministry of Education acknowledging that they were aware their kids would not be assigned homework until 9th grade (I recall he said in Taiwan, not being assigned homework is considered a form of “child abuse” at least as far as the MOEd is concerned )

Here is a relatively recent topic that mentions the Waldorf School in Yilan. They could probably guide you on what may be available in Taipei.

Any experience with these schools in Yilan, Sanzhi, and Taipei? Also, general advice on visiting schools in Taiwan?

We plan to move to Taiwan from California in the next year or two with our children, who are currently ages 4 and 5. We would like to enroll them in public school and have appreciated all the advice we’ve seen on this forum. Our children would be going into the school with very minimal Chinese language ability. We are looking at the following schools currently and would appreciate any insight on/experience with these schools, particularly whether they are welcoming to foreign students and the…

[nz]

There are two Montessori schools in Taipei-Songshan

• TIMES (Taipei International Montessori Experimental School) http://taiwanmontessori.net/
• TMIS (Taipei Montessori International School) https://tmis.org.tw/?lang=en

I’m pretty sure TIMES is English-only, but TMIS has a job posting looking specifically for teachers with experience in dual-language immersion. If you want your kids to have academic proficiency in both English and Mandarin, dual-immersion has been proven to be one of the best ways to achieve that. I am speaking from internet research only – I have no idea what level of dual-immersion takes place or how truly Montessori TMIS is, but it might be worth a look. It seems like both schools are expanding quickly into upper elementary and beyond.

[nz]

Since someone just liked this post, I will come here and say that in the four years that I have passed since I posted that, I do not recommend either of those schools for any reason. Just send your kids to a local school. Seriously. Please.

[msboba]

I see that this post was brought back from the grave. I’m sure your kid is in middle school by now, but if anyone else stumbles upon this post like I did, then I shamelessly recommend the school I am working at: Sunrise. We are a fully bilingual experimental school where everything is taught half in Chinese and half in English. Feel free to message me if you have any questions.

[hannes]

@msboba

I shamelessly recommend the school I am working at

I had a look at the website and IG. Looks like a lovely small school (probably not cheap…) and in Neihu, so out of our reach.

[msboba]

@hannes

I had a look at the website and IG. Looks like a lovely small school (probably not cheap…) and in Neihu, so out of our reach.

I genuinely appreciate the time you took to look through our website and IG! We are indeed a small school and very new, just trying to get the word out.

We understand tuition is a big consideration for many families, which is why we offer a tuition reduction program. Not sure if that would change things for your family. Location is not an easy predicament to resolve. We do have some families who live in Zhongzheng district, Songshan, Daan, and Xizhi. I personally live in Wenshan, and a few of my coworkers live in Shilin and Tucheng. We really believe in our school’s philosophy so we’re willing to commute here. But we know commute is especially tough on working parents when they have to go out of their way to send their child to school.

Thank you again for checking out our school and for thinking we’re lovely (I think so too because we have the sweetest students ). I hope you find a school that meets your child’s needs!