Private schools in taiwan

Hi, I am a Single Mom who will be coming to Taiwan with my 14year old daughter. Are there private English schools and if so are they very expensive. As an English speaker who knows no Mandarin she probably won’t fit into a public school? I am South African - are there any other SA parents there and how do you cope with school?

Hi Jennitravel

There are a few private schools in Taipei (assuming that’s where you’ll be staying). If you search on TAS and TES in this forum you’ll bring up a number of threads, which will also mention the Christian Academy (I think it’s Morrison’s?) and perhaps others. The international schools TAS and TES are very expensive, certainly the equivalent of private schools in the West in cost, though I don’t know how they compare with SA. These schools have English as the language of instruction.

There are also some private bilingual schools but I think your daughter would probably need a lot of additional support to cope with the Mandarin lessons. I wouldn’t advise placing her in a public school, not only because of the language barrier, but also the style of schooling here is extremely pressured and traditional by this age and I think she’d probably be unhappy. If you search on this forum for public schools you’ll see several discussions about them. Some people home school to get around this problem.

Best of luck with your move.

I’ve been told that a place in an international school is very difficult to come by, and very expensive. $250,000 a semester was mentioned, although I couldn’t vouch for the accuracy of that figure. I don’t know what you’ll be doing, but working as an English teacher isn’t going to cover that and your living expenses.

I don’t think it’s difficult to get a place in an international school if the child speaks English as first language and has a foreign passport. It’s only difficult if your child’s English isn’t good enough to cope with English being the language of instruction, but even then they have ESL classes (at an additional cost!). Certainly when we looked into it it wouldn’t have been a problem for us if we were prepared to pay the fees.

Petrichor, can you let me know of any private bilingual schools? And how is the education at these schools? Are they really blingual? And what is the tuition? I appreciate any help you or others can give.

Sure, here’s a post by aleegulotty on another thread:

The private bilingual school I was referring to is called Lih Jen International Private Elementary and Middle School. The website is: ljjhps.tp.edu.tw/

Other private schools to consider (usually only private schools offer bilingual or very rich English programs):

  1. Taipei Fuxing Private School (k-12) - ljjhps.tp.edu.tw/ - they offer a bilingual program. click on English Version on the home page.
  2. Guangren Catholic Elementary School and Kindergarten (k-6) - kjes.tp.edu.tw/index.phtml. has English version. my husband teaches there and says the school has a very strong English and music program.
  3. Huaxing Private Elementary School (also has middle school, not sure if it goes to 9th or 12th grade) - hhhs.tp.edu.tw/hwshin/k6/thisisindex.htm. I went inside the website and found the link for English learning as they don’t really have a link for English version on the home page so not sure you’d find it since it’s all in Chinese. They claim they’re a bilingual school (but why don’t they have an English site, I’m not sure…) and I’ve heard good things from other parents who either send their kids there or are thinking about it. I’m including contact info here (I translated it from Chinese as there doesn’t seem to be the English equivalent on the website): Address: Taipei City, Shilin District, Young-De Boulevard/Road, Sec. 1, No. 101. Tel: (02) 2831-6834.
    4.Taipei Wego Private School (k-12) - web.wgps.tp.edu.tw/ - excellent reputation, so I’ve heard. Either bilingual or has very strong English program.
  4. Taipei Kuei Shan School (k-12) - ksjh.tp.edu.tw/ - again, great reputation, either bilingual or strong English program. Knew of an expat who sent his daughter there rather than TES so she can also learn Chinese.
  5. Taipei Private Tsai Hsing School (k-12) - 210.71.64.9/ - school with a long history, excellent reputation. either bilingual or with a strong English program. Unfortunately the English version is not much to look at. Contact the school to arrange for a tour or find out more info: (02)2937-1119. They are located in the Wenshan district in Taipei City.
  6. Chingshing Elementary and Middle School (k-12) - chjhs.tp.edu.tw/ - for some reason, after clicking English, I couldn’t actually Enter the English website. It could just be my browser (I have a Mac and I use Safari). You may have to call to find out if they’re actually bilingual or just has a very strong English department.

There is also one public elementary school (may have preschool as well) in the Da’an district that I was told is a bilingual school. It’s located near the Da’an Forest Park. It might be Xinsheng Elementary, I’m not quite sure. The person who mentioned this was an expat who was considering sending his child there because it’s bilingual. Here’s the school’s website: snes.tp.edu.tw/

The thread is here: viewtopic.php?f=96&t=91584&p=1204423&hilit=bilingual+schools#p1204423

[quote=“Petrichor”]Sure, here’s a post by aleegulotty on another thread:

Other private schools to consider (usually only private schools offer bilingual or very rich English programs):

4.Taipei Wego Private School (k-12) - web.wgps.tp.edu.tw/ - excellent reputation, so I’ve heard. Either bilingual or has very strong English program.

The thread is here: forumosa.com/taiwan/viewtopi … s#p1204423[/quote]

About Wego mentioned above, an American friend of mine looked into it a couple of years ago for his kindergartner and really liked it, although at least at the kindergarten level, it wasn’t bilingual – it was all Chinese with an hour of English class every day. However, he really liked the school, and the only reason he didn’t send his daughter there was that he decided to send her to the same Montessori kindergarten that his son (who was too young for Wego) was going to attend. Here are his notes from his visit to Wego:

“K-12, K1 starts @4. Nice facility- great playground, outdoor full wall for mural painting (then wash away). music, woodworking specialists. integrated curriculum - clearly care in having art, music . 1hr english a day. 1hr montessori classroom a week. field trips. 10 classes per grade level @10 students each.”

Thank you Petrichor! I was expecting one or two recommendations and you provided eight. Awesome! I’ll provide some input as I start to look into these schools.

Don’t thank me, it was aleegulotty’s effort! I’d be interested to hear what you find out about the schools you contact. We only had time to see Xinsheng and Lih Jen, but they both seemed good. Then again it’s very hard to tell much from visiting a school. There’s a lack of information available so anything you can report would be of great use.

I can second the recommendation for Taipei Kuei Shan School (#5 on the list above). It does have a great reputation and they have a very strong English program with a lot of primary instruction in English. The head of the English language department is a sweet lady who is really on top of things. She used to be in charge of the ESL department at Bethany (see below). They have several foreign teachers, and the program seems quite thorough. It is a Christian school.

My eldest son attends Bethany (the Taipei campus of Morrison Academy). It’s a good school, but it’s not cheap, I’m afraid–yearly tuition will run over $300,000 NT. Cheaper than TAS or TES, for sure, but not an inexpensive option. But regardless, at 14 your daughter would be too old–Bethany only goes through grade 9, and then high school students transfer to Morrison’s main campus in Taizhong (or transfer to TAS, TES, etc.).

Good luck!