Yes, I’ve realised that recently. If those schools are small the normal sized ones must be massive compared to the UK. We live in a large village and we have two primary schools just for the children in the village, both of which are smaller than the small schools in Taiwan, but they’re normal sized for here.
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Actually, houses around “good” schools are highly coveted, as you are supposed to enroll in elementary school according to your area. Middle school is according to test scores and that’s where democracy breaks down. [/quote]
I’m more interested in a warm and welcoming environment than test scores. I don’t suppose there’s league table for that? 
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Maybe a bit of Mandarin while still at the Old Homeland would be appropiate, so he will not be as challenged for basic stuff. True, kids learn faster. But if he comes already mastering at least bopomofo -get him a Taiwanese tutor, shouldn’t be hard to find- it will make thinsg a lot easier.
Learning the stuff while he’s still in an English speaking environment will lower his affective filter: he will be in a familiar environment. When he comes here, he will make the connection and his learning will be highly improved and accelerated.
You should also be thinking about hiring a tutor here to help him with his homework, at least at the beginning. One or two hours a day. Parents here are very involved in teh homework process, and since your Chinese may be challenged, it would be good to have a stable person who points the way, at least at the beginning, and give you additional suppott when necessary. Again, this should not be difficult.[/quote]
Thanks for the good advice which I’ll follow. I bought a lot of children’s Mandarin language workbooks while I was in Taiwan last time, which we have worked through, but it’s a bit of a case of the blind leading the blind. We’ve also been watching some Mandarin language series on Youtube. I doubt I’ll find a Taiwanese person around here, though, let alone a tutor. We live out in the sticks. I’ll have to wait until we get there, but I completely agree it would be a very good idea to give him as much support in this area as we can. As soon as we’re settled in I’ll start looking around.