Bukit Timah Primary School Review
Bukit Timah Primary School (BTPS) is a government-run local primary school that follows Singapore’s MOE curriculum. As well as being considerably cheaper than an international school, BTPS offers all the advantages of a local school: it immerses your child in the local culture, offers a world-class curriculum with an excellent reputation for maths and science, and embraces an English-based bilingual system where Mandarin is taught as a second language to international students.
Read more: Local vs international schools in Singapore
Located in the expat-friendly Bukit Timah district, it comes as no surprise that this local primary school has become popular with foreign students. As well as following the MOE curriculum, BTPS uses an Inquiry Based Learning (IBL) approach to learning; the mother tongue programme includes Chinese, Malay and Tamil.
The curriculum
The MOE curriculum focuses on English, maths, science, mother tongue languages, humanities and the arts, as well as lessons in PE, knowledge skills, and character and citizenship education. Students in Primary 1 through to 6 work towards the Primary School Leaving Examination (PSLE) at the end of Primary 6. After school, students can sign up to various co-curricular activities.
The school has a diverse Music for Everyone programme, and focuses on character and leadership development using activities such as camps, service projects and positive psychology classes. Also, BTPS has a Student Care Centre that offers after-school care including meals, homework supervision, games and tuition.
Admission and fees
All primary students must apply for a place through the Primary One Registration Exercise, which takes places from June to September every year. Also, all expats entering Primary 2-5 and Secondary 1-3 have to pass the Admissions Exercise for International Students (AEIS), which assesses English literacy, numeracy and reasoning abilities.
Read more: How to get into a top Singapore school
Annual tuition fees (2018-19) for international students from non-ASEAN countries are $7,800 for all local primary schools; additional costs include a miscellaneous fee, which the MOE says is “a contribution towards the cost of materials used by students”.
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