The International Schools Review Forum

This is my first question on here. I was wondering if teachers at international schools get a discounted rate for their own children's schooling at their school? We are considering Singapore or Thailand as our choices to teach overseas and we will have a daughter starting kindergarten by the time we go. Any thoughts? Also...what are the best international schools to apply to in those countries?

My wife and I will be starting our first international post in September. Our daughter will start kindergarten at the school. Schooling is free, but we have to pay for flights.

It seems the better the school, the better the package. Many good schools will provide schooling and flights. I think if a school doesn't offer tuition, then they're not really interested in families.

Thanks for your reply....Are you teaching in Singapore or Thailand?

Any international school worth its salt will include tuition as part of its benefits package. If it doesn't then I would suggest you need to re-examine the entire package to make sure it meets your needs.

Tuition is not cheap and there are often other costs associated with schooling that you need to be aware of, including capital improvement fees, busing fees, and IB fees among others. I know that if we were forced to pay tuition at our present school I'm not sure it would be worth working here.

My husband and I will be teaching at a British school in Asia from August and the school pays for all our daughter's school fees, flights, medical etc. I would not work at a school that did not extend full benefits to my daughter.

We have worked at another international school in S.E Asia and they also paid for everything for up to two children.

Thank you for your input everyone.

As stated above be very careful if they won't offer free tuition. Be aware that there are lots of costs associated with schooling that free tuition does not cover. School bus? Lunches? In our case school athletic trips and academic excursions run well into several thousand dollars per child per year.

If they don't give you free school, flights and medical for kids (at least 1 kid per teacher) don't go. It is an indication that they are cheap or have other financial priorities. In some cases they can't take 3 kids due to housing or they can't afford 3 bd.

The norm at schools I've worked in has been tuition for two children; the unspoken half of this discussion is about benefits. In the ten years I've been overseas I've seen for-profit schools spout like mushrooms, and they typically seem to be quite stingy on their packages. Friends looked at a school in Vietnam and ended up turning it down because they would have to pay half of their childrens' tuition. My advice: go for a non-profit, well established school in either of those countries. If someone isn't going to pay your child's tuition, don't bother with them, because the odds are there are a host of other things they aren't willing to pay either.

Another thing to look at is the school's enrollment vs. capacity -- in some schools, faculty kids are "taking a seat away" from a paying student, while in others, like the small school I used to work at in China, had classes with only 7 or 8 kids. Putting a few more (faculty) kids in a class did not raise the school's cost much at all, while adding to the ethnic diversity of the student population. I was a single parent with two kids, and there were working couples with 4 kids at the school. Yes, larger accommodation cost more, but the school paid a generous housing allowance that allowed staff to trade off space against marble floors and nicer apartment entrances. I was quite happy with the arrangement.