EtonHouse to open new international school in Tampines
Middleton International School a more affordable option for expat kids
Expatriates looking for more affordable schooling options for their children will have another choice next year.
Education group EtonHouse will be setting up an international school in Tampines that can take in up to 1,000 students.
The new school will take in students from nursery to Grade 12 and is a branch of the Middleton International School in Upper Bukit Timah, which is run by the EtonHouse group.
It will offer the International General Certificate of Secondary Education, the equivalent of the O levels, and the International A levels.
Fees will range from $15,000 for primary school pupils to $19,837 for Grade 12 students. The fees are nearly half of that charged by other international schools in Singapore. Classes will begin in May next year.
Middleton International School in Upper Bukit Timah, which opened in January, has a capacity of only 125 children at the primary levels and has a waiting list for most levels.
EtonHouse, which is expanding its footprint beyond pre-schools, said yesterday it had won the tender for a site in Tampines Street 92. The site, almost 292,000 sq ft, used to house one of the Institute of Technical Education campuses.
Mr Ng Yi Xian, executive director of EtonHouse International Education Group, said that given the size of the new campus - which includes three hard courts and a field - the school will offer a range of sports and co-curricular activities.
Mr Ng expects "strong demand" for places at the new school, given the overwhelming response to the first Middleton International School.
He said EtonHouse is able to keep fees lower than many other international schools, which charge above $30,000 a year.
He said: "We made it possible by developing economies of scale around our operations, sharing resources across our schools, running class sizes of 28, outsourcing or collaborating with external vendors for sports facilities and hiring a mix of local and expatriate teachers."
Besides the two branches of the Middleton International School, two other schools here offer education at under $20,000 a year for expatriate children.
The first to offer lower fees was Invictus International School. It was started by entrepreneur John Fearon.
It started small in Bukit Merah and has since moved to a bigger, 30,000 sq ft campus in Dempsey Hill, offering classes for Grades 1 to 6 to nearly 200 pupils.
One World International School will open a new campus in Jurong West in January next year for 1,200 students aged three to 18.
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