We will most likely send our kids (8 and 5 years old) to a local public school in Taipei. I understand foreigners can register for local schools in the district they live in, so I’m wondering which districts have the best schools? By best, I mean good teachers, a good parent community and not very much homework (if these are even possible). 
1 Like
I also have the same question! Curious if anyone has some ideas for 2024?
Additionally, where is somewhere where the local kids DON’T really speak English yet?
I had a friend come back to taiwan with her kids (8 and 10 years old) and then stayed for 1 year. By the end of the year, her kids still weren’t really speaking Chinese, because the school was full of rich kids who had been learning English since 2years old… and her kids found they needn’t actually speak Chinese with their friends…!
So I kinda want to avoid that… I would even try another city near Taipei (eg: Yilan) if it would avoid this experience. Just want nice local kids, nice teachers, and supportive learning but not toooo much pressure, at a public school.
Sanxia.
Longpu Elementary
or
BeiDa Elementary
not Taipei though…New Taipei City
1 Like
This shouldn’t be a problem in Wenshan or Wanhua Districts. For example, Wanfang or Bojia Elementary schools should be fine. A friend sent his daughter to Gongguan Elemenatry school in Da’an. Her Mandarin was perfect.
Outside Taipei, you might consider Fulong elementary school or even Shuangxi. The Taiwanese kids in these schools are ordinary kids who will speak very little English.
1 Like
Thanks for the reply! Wow Shuangxi Elementary - is this the one?
Taipei Municipal Shuangxi Elementary School
https://maps.google.com?q=Taipei+Municipal+Shuangxi+Elementary+School,+No.+66,+Section+2,+Zhongshe+Rd,+Shilin+District,+Taipei+City,+Taiwan+111&ftid=0x3442ac4beff83195:0x70e60c50eea4dcfc&hl=en-NZ&gl=nz&entry=gps&lucs=s2se&g_ep=EgY1LjcyLjUYAEICTlo%3D&shorturl=1
It looks super cool, with tree climbing and lots of good reviews, on google at least. Have you known anyone who went there? Curious how big the school is?
Thanks so much 
Oh! Or are you meaning Shuangxi in Chiayi? shuang xi elementary school
Actually no. But that one looks like a real find. I meant one of the elementary schools in or around Shuangxi, New Taipei City. Like these:
Shuangxi is an old-fashioned market town that despite being quite close to Taipei is like somewhere down south. Almost no tourism. No rich kids. Your children would be able to walk or ride a bicycle to school.
1 Like
Oh - cool, I like the sound of an old fashioned town that’s like down south! Thanks, I’ll definitely have a good pan around there 
But yeah my accidental other shuangxi find is also cool! And don’t have to go very far out of the city to get to it. Feels good to at least have some options to check out, thanks for the reply !
For people who really want to be in Taipei, Wanfang and Bojia elecmentary schools in Wenshan make a lot of sense.
Wanfang is in Wanfang Community, which is a planned community built in the 1980s. It’s very green, has slightly better air than other parts of Taipei, and yet has an MRT stop nearby. It’s also inexpensive and, for Taipei, there are a lot of families with kids. There is not going to be a problem with English-speaking children from wealthy families.
Wanfang Community has a few foreigners living there with kids. So Wanfang Elementary School has dealt with students with different backgrounds in the past. Your kids would be able to walk to school there.
Bojia Elementary (博嘉國民小學) is nearby. It has the possible plus of being an experimental school (lab school), which is Taiwan usually means that it has a more progressive (= less homework and testing) curriculum.
1 Like
Awesome tips, thanks for the ideas, I will add them to the list to check out
By the way, are all experimental schools private? Bojia looks interesting, do you know anyone who has gone there, or what the cost might be…?
Some are private, some are not. Bojia is public. I’m not sure if there are any additional fees. I kind of doubt it.
I believe that another poster in a similar thread here ended up with his child at Bojia. I thought that this blogger had sent her son to Bojia but I now see that he at least started at Gonguan. Maybe she changed later. She had a number of posts about her son’s experience including good and bad that might be a useful reference for you. She posted here as Petrichor for a while. You could try DMing her.
Hi all,
Just in case anyone comes later to check out this thread, I’d like to report that we ended up at a fantastic little public school by the seaside in Yilan! My kids are loving it, have made some nice friends, and we are so happy with our decision not to join the rat race in Taipei.
If anyone wants details please message me - I’d rather not put our whole story online publicly (for privacy reasons) but happy to share via messages 1 to 1, to pay it forward for the amazingly kind parents who helped advise me during our research
3 Likes
That’s great to hear. I hope other parents returning/coming to Taiwan will be encouraged by your example. There are alternatives out there.
Very generally, how are your kids progressing with Mandarin/Chinese in their school? Is it working??
Thank you. The mandarin progress is going amazingly, there’s only a few other kids in the school that speak English, so my kids basically have to speak Mandarin all day. (This is a positive to me - another reason we were avoiding Taipei was because of the cram school culture where many kids have learnt pretty passable English by 8-10 years old already).
Also because there’s no cram school culture at our school, my kids have basically caught up with the class and are able to keep up, AND have free time to play after school / weekends. They are just grades 1 and 2, it may have been more challenging if they were in higher grades.
Another hack - my oldest should actually be grade 3, but I asked if she could start from grade 2 so she didn’t get too overwhelmed, the principal said no problem, and it makes sense.
Another school I asked said this wasn’t possible from day 1, need to make a case to the govt to hold the child back 1 year after there is evidence they’re failing (!). So our school just seems really supportive and flexible, we love it.
Glad to hear that things are going well. The second grade hack sounds really useful. One of the best things that ever happened to me when learning Chinese was when the Mandarin Training Center placed me in a class below my level. I ended up exceling instead of being frustrated all the time. And learning a lot more joyfully.
1 Like
Absolutely, getting some early confidence being the big fish in the small sea is worth its weight in gold!