“Digitally Futuristic School” To Open in 2023

One of Singapore’s leading providers of affordable education will open a new “digitally futuristic campus” in the north-east region. One World International School (OWIS) will open its third campus in September 2023, an all-through school for 1,500 students in in the Punggol Digital District (PDD).

OWIS Punggol's Digital Campus plans to be an International Baccalaureate school (subject to authorisation from the International Baccalaureate Organisation), so we can expect teaching to follow the IB Primary Years, Middle Years and Diploma Programmes. Typical of many international schools in Singapore, students in Grades 9-10 will also study IGCSEs.

Open from Kindergarten through to Grade 12, OWIS Punggol describes itself as a “new-age school” which will be “guided by kindness driven education programmes that promote compassion and a culture of inclusion”. The school will offer blended learning to give students the choice of in-classroom learning or virtual lessons. It will be a technology-driven school with digital lockers, CCTV and facial recognition systems for student attendance, Smartboards in every classroom, and Smart bus terminals.

This is the latest addition to the growing OWIS family of schools in Singapore, which includes the Nanyang campus in Jurong and the Mountbatten campus in the East Coast. OWIS is owned by the Global Schools Foundation (GSF), which is headquartered in Singapore. GSF manages the all-through GIIS SMART Campus, also located in the Punggol District, which is Singapore's largest SMART school for students aged three through to 18 years.

Julian Whiteley, GSF’s advisory board member said:

"Our education philosophy believes in the mindful use of technology, underpinned by values of kindness, and aims to provide holistic education to students to encourage them to be open-minded, global learners.

“This model promotes creativity and collaboration among students in a tech-savvy environment that will play a key role in their learning journey.”

OWIS is no stranger to opening schools in ‘out of town’ locations undergoing major redevelopment – and subsequently attracting a very international community of students. OWIS Nanyang, which opened in January 2018 in the up-and-coming western Jurong district, offers the IB Primary Years Programme, IGCSEs, and the IB Diploma Programme to more than 60 different nationalities. To ensure all nationalities are equally represented across the school it has a 30% nationality cap policy.

OWIS opened its second Mountbatten campus in eastern Singapore in January 2020, which offers an early years’ education for children aged three to six years of age.

Construction of the Punggol campus begins next month; pre-registration is currently open.

The school has not announced fees yet, but OWIS has a reputation for offering a more affordable education so we would expect the Punggol campus to have a similar fee structure. As a guide, annual fees at its Nanyang campus are $17,793 for KG to Grade 3; $ 17,793 for Grades 1 to 6; and $ 20,457 for Grades 7 to 12. With many international schools charging $24,000 – $47,000, this makes OWIS a much cheaper alternative for an IB education.