Help needed with selecting kindergarten

Hi! My family is relocating to Taipei from
Singapore around mid-year due to my husband’s job. Due to COVID, it’s made it a lot more challenging for us to hunt for a kindergarten (my son is 4 turning 5 this year). I wanted to seek advise on the following:

  1. what are some of the best kindergartens available? I’m open to good private Chinese kindergartens as well as Chinese language is pretty important to our family and Singapore curriculum as well. (My sons native language is English but he can speak pigeon mandarin)
  2. The company has recommended TAS/ TES. I’m worried the curriculum does not have the same academic rigour as singapore’s education system. Does TAS/ TES have a good Chinese learning program ie at least one lesson each day plus a dedicated Chinese teacher in the class? Would they be learning say addition subtraction this year as we do here?

I’m in a dilemma as I’m not sure which school focuses on learning through fun activities at the same time inculcating some discipline and academic rigour at the same time. I’m just worried he might not be able to cope going from an international school and back to the local singapore system should we be repatriated back in a few years
I would really appreciate some advice on this! Thank you very much in advance!

If you want your kids’ Chinese to be great, don’t send then to TES or TAS. I work around Tianmu, and have seen lots of TAS/TES kids in restaurants trying to order food. Their Chinese is appalling, even the ones who look ethnically Chinese and should have more opportunities to practice Chinese can’t speak very well.

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there is no academic rigor in TAS or TES, and Chinese is poor.
These schools are for parents who do not want the pressure of Chinese education.

They are also probably some of the rudest kids I’ve ever seen in Taiwan or in the west. Locals in Tianmu hate them because they are always causing trouble.

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anyway, if your son goes back to SG in elementary school age, it shouldn’t be a problem for him to adjust back. the switch will be harder the closer he gets to middle school.

my son played soccer against TAS and they are snotty little shites. the TES ones are more ok, but have their share of obnoxious kids.

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I would suggest a local (public) elementary school in the area you’re planning on living in, or a private bilingual school. Location is important.

Thank you for the feedback. My husband’s office is in Neihu, would you have any recommendations on a private kindergarten around there? Some names so I can do some research? Thank you so much.

Pm sent

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Fyi

You may search basic information of kindergartens in a certain area here.

https://ap.ece.moe.edu.tw/webecems/pubSearch.aspx

https://www.ece.moe.edu.tw/ch/

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Hi there, we are also looking at relocating back to Taiwan, Neihu specifically, at some point later this year (from London). My kids are 4 and 5.5 and don’t speak Chinese at all; the older one understands the basics. I would be really interested in any kindergartens you find in your research that ends up on your consideration list. I’ll pm you a shortlist of the ones I’ve found so far.