International Schools in Kuala Lumpur

Hi Aditi,

Welcome to Expat-Blog

Thank you

Maximilien
Expat-blog Team

Your first step should be to contact each of your shortlisted schools to find out if there is a waiting list for the Class/Grade your child would be entering.

From what I have read on other Blogs only ISKL and MKIS come highly recommended as they are well established.

Not all the schools on your list will be easily accessible from Mont Kiara, e.g. Alice Smith is close to the city centre and sentral station area and the traffic is very busy always. Bussing arrangements the school provides are the next question after whether places are available or the fees are affordable.

Because Malaysian children now make up a large proportion of students at international schools, gaining a place can be very difficult.

There are numerous posts about schools on this forum which you could consult for others' opinions already given.

In addition to what Gravitas correctly mentioned, you should also think about budget. If your company is paying, perfect! If you need to pull out money from your own pocket, you might be reluctant to send your kid to MKIS or GIS. Absurd fees!

Every school says they have a waiting list, but you can push hard to get your son into the school of your choice.

Note - avoid Fairview like the plague. ELC is a good school but the facilities are rundown. The others are good Tier 1 schools and go for them if you can manage the costs.

The fee structures are available on the schools' website.

http://kualalumpur.angloinfo.com/af/250 … oling.html

Your question is often posed and the responses are incredibly varied.  So at the end of the day, as long as the curriculum is suitable to your end goals and potential reintegration later on in your child's education, then the best solution is to choose a school you can afford that is close to where you will live so your child has local friends to play with and a social life associated with the school. Even if you choose a good school you may be unlucky and get a teacher that your child does not get along with or does not inspire him. Life sends us challenges all the time. 

Friendships and things to do after school and at weekends are the basis of a happy school child who achieves educational goals along the way, at his own pace. Plus of course parents who support the school 100% and the child can feel this support around him too.

Nicely said Gravitas

Gravitas wrote:

Your question is often posed and the responses are incredibly varied.  So at the end of the day, as long as the curriculum is suitable to your end goals and potential reintegration later on in your child's education, then the best solution is to choose a school you can afford that is close to where you will live so your child has local friends to play with and a social life associated with the school. Even if you choose a good school you may be unlucky and get a teacher that your child does not get along with or does not inspire him. Life sends us challenges all the time. 

Friendships and things to do after school and at weekends are the basis of a happy school child who achieves educational goals along the way, at his own pace. Plus of course parents who support the school 100% and the child can feel this support around him too.

Dear all, Many thanks for your responses.
I agree with Gravitas too. When we shifted school from Mumbai, to Pune, we enrolled our son in a new and upcoming school, and are very happy with it.
Although our company is paying for it, MKIS is still probably out of our budget.
Fairview ; I have heard negative feedback on a lot of forums too.

We will be in KL from 22nd to 26th Sep, and are meeting all the schools. So will get a better idea then.

Thanks all again for the warm welcome, and the reassuring replies.

Hi Aditi,

I live in Mont Kiara and my son goes to the British International school in Bandar Utama. If you drive it will take 20 mins approx to the school but I send my son on the school bus. The school of course follows the british curriculum exactly the same as in UK schools. The school is very new and has excellent facilities including a swimming pool. Advantage of sending you child to BISKL is that all the teachers are British and also the teacher assistances. With regards to the fees it is more expense then Alice Smith and Garden however the enrolment fee is less, therefore there is not much price difference with all three schools.

With regards to Mont Kiara Int school, this is actually a North American school and follows the American curriculum. The disadvantage is kids don't start proper lessons  until the age of 6 or 7 as the British school age is 4 to 5 years therefore kids are far ahead.

It depends what curriculum you want to follow the British or American, once you know this it will be easier to make your selection. We actually did not see any schools and just went for BISKL and are very happy will this choice.

Good luck and hope all goes well with the move.

Rabiya

hi Aditi

One thing I did not see in the replies is mention of IB (International Baccalaureate). We moved our son from Alice Smith just over a year ago to ISKL because ISKL is not an American focused school as somebody mentioned below, but a truly international school that offers IB. If you are not sure where your child will end up doing tertiary education, then IB keeps the options open more than any other option. Alice Smith describes itself as "A British school in an international environment", therefore with A-levels, the recognition of your child's hard work in exams will be geo-limited. I checked with several universities globally, and IB's recognition scope compared to A-Levels is many multiples. We also found that many families of Indian origin (we are a half Indian family) found Alice Smith to be VERY cliquey - whereas like several A.S. families who moved to ISKL, we find the culture is truly multi-national, genuinely friendly and a real pleasure to be at. School culture takes a long time to get to know - please do a lot of research! you are welcome to contact my wife when u arrive. 

Best of luck with your school hunt. I just want to correct something stated by Ruby0075.

It is not true that kids at MKIS only start 'proper lessons' at age 6/7. My 6-year-old son is in Grade 1, his third year at MKIS, and he has being doing 'proper lessons' since age 4. He can read better than most 9-year-olds. His math and writing are pretty good too - thanks to MKIS:)
I also have two older children at the school. Though the curriculum might be considered North American - US currency and measurement units in Math, US spelling - the student body is very international with a high proportion of Scandinavian, Korean, Australian, Indian and Canadian children. My family is dual nationality, Northern European.
I'm sure whatever decision you make will be the right one for your child. I just didn't want you to be misinformed.

With regards to the comments made by Norwaynomad, I think you misunderstood.

I did not say MKIS is a bad school but just stating a fact kids in US start school at the age of 6/7 years old therefore I presume MKIS is following the same curriculum.

Its also a fact kids in the UK start full time school at the age of 4/5 years and this is when they start more structured lesson and the BISKL follow the same curriculum.


Good luck to all parents whatever school they decide, after all education is education.

I helped to set up an International school in Subang Jaya. It is UCSI international school, primary and secondary school. I am no longer affiliated with the school but it is good school that had grown from 53 students to 125 students in 9 months.

Crystal Lee, the girl who won the best actress at the Shanghai Film festival, is joining the school in January. The school is near Sunway Pyramid. The principal is Brendan Lanza, am American who speaks 6 languages.

The schools number is 03 56377109

Hi Aditi,

Fairview International School is actually the one and only school in Malaysia that offers International Baccalaureate programme from Primary, Middle year, and Diploma. Using UK national curriculum.

They have 4 campuses across Malaysia (Wangsa Maju KL, Subang, Penang, Johor Bahru) and they recently just open in Ipoh going to be an IB world school soon.