大咖福利影院

Gravitas wrote:

Shamsokkary. First step is to work out what you can afford, as schooling can be very expensive in Malaysia. Another factor is where you intend to live. i.e. which schools are reasonably close or have bussing arrangements.

Then it might be worth discussing the options to find which will suit your family best. this link provides a lot of information

After cost I posted this before - checklist for comparison. I just checked UCSI website and no info on Principal or staff so you would have to ask. As an IB only school the demands on staff are far higher. I would say an IB only school really needs to be 80% expat most with prior IB experience (for PYP all classes should have an expat teacher). MYP is very demanding on teacher quality as it is a framework not a syllabus. Budget schools should stick to IGCSE IMHO ss they cannot afford decent IB staff. A Principal with a TEFL background and no prior experience (as one school I spotted had) is totally inadequate.

- Principal must be from the appropriate country that the school specialises or at least is from a similar standard of country and has lots of experience (basically US/UK/Australian Head who worked long time as Head in that country).
- Senior leaders/Head of Departments should mostly be expat qualified staff especially Maths/Science/English
- All English teachers should be certified teachers from English mother language countries (US/UK/Australia/Canada)
- at least 50% expat staff NOT counting Europeans/South Africans/Iranians/Pinoys without western teaching certs etc - even elite schools hire Indians for Chem/Physics due to world shortage (and often are good teachers in those subjects) but generally only count those from USA/Canada/UK/Australia who are certified teachers from that country. Europeans/South African with no certification don't count.... lots of these are a bad sign as employed for being white and no other reason! That is an old trick.
- exam results: though nearly all International schools fiddle these - even the elite ones. Ask how many in year group and a break down of how many A*/As - many schools pressure students to drop subjects. Do own percentages. Allow for entrance policies - eg Alice is very selective so should be getting 80% A*/A surely?
- If a school uses English 2nd Lang IGCSE a lot RUN AWAY FAST as that means they value stats over education
- if it claims to be a "Cambridge British curriculum" then that is silly marketing (minus factor)
- uses Cambridge checkpoint then not really British curriculum and designed for unqualified teachers so a negative factor in my opinion
- behavioural policies. Are these positive? or are students expelled for wrong socks!