Three new government-funded schools will open in Singapore for students with autism. To help meet a growing demand for places, the Ministry of Education has announced plans to set up three all-through schools, with the first one accepting pupils in 2021.
The first school, operated by the charity Metta Welfare Association, will enrol 300 students aged seven to 18 years old with moderate-to-severe special education needs. The new campus in Eastern Singapore will be ready in 2024. Until then, students will have lessons at the existing Metta School campus in Simei, from 2021.
The other two schools will follow the primary and secondary national curricula, as offer a post-primary programme for students who are unable to access the national secondary curriculum.
There are currently six local schools that enrol students with autism, including Pathlight School, AWWA School, Eden School, two Rainbow Centre Schools and St Andrew’s Autism School. In the international sector, schools include Melbourne Specialist International School and Dynamics International School.
Invictus International School plans to open its third Singapore campus, which will be a secondary school from Grades 7 to 12 (11-18 years). Subject to government approval, Invictus will open this centrally located campus in August 2020.
This means that Invictus will soon be able to offer students an all-through education. It currently has a primary school in Dempsey Hill that is open from Grades 1-6. It will open Grades 7-8 in January 2020, and teaching will follow the International Middle Years Curriculum (IMYC) and Singapore MOE curriculum for maths. In October 2019, the school opened a second Singapore campus, located in Sentosa, for Grades 1 and 2.
The low-cost school has annual fees of $17,000, making it one of the most affordable international schools in Singapore.
Read our review of Invictus here.
Repton Schoolhouse has opened its second campus in Singapore, a kindergarten for children aged 18 months to six years in Bukit Timah. Located in Bukit Tinggi Road, Repton Schoolhouse (Bukit Timah) offers a pre-school education based on British and Singaporean programmes. The curriculum also includes enrichment programmes in Chinese, coding and robotics, and ballet.
Repton Schoolhouse opened its first campus in the centrally located Alexandra Road in 2018, and was founded in Singapore in partnership with Repton School in the UK.