Our two secondary aged children will be joining us here in Hong Kong and we are about to begin the process of choosing an international school for them. We are flexible about where we live and have had happy experiences of different national education systems. We are not asking you to recommend any particular school but would like advice on what criteria we should use when making our decision.
Teacher Adam Conway replies:
You are beginning the process in good time: many international schools' places fill up well in advance. I'm sure you have already considered fees - the cost does vary significantly between schools - and you say that you don't require your children to follow a specific country's curriculum, so the choice is broad - which is both a bonus and a challenge.
The headmaster of the first school I visited, starting out on my teaching career, advised me to look at its less glamorous, nitty-gritty facilities - not necessarily its most obvious features.
I strongly recommend that you arrange visits to any schools you are seriously considering applying to. And go as a family. This will be a joint decision, perhaps even led by your children.
How a school reacts to your request for a visit will tell you quite a bit. You cannot expect to walk in unannounced, and a popular, busy school needs to manage visits by prospective parents. So you will have to be flexible about a visit but you should certainly be made to feel welcome at every stage.
It is likely that you will be taken on a tour of the school, which may reveal a great deal. You should be given access to a senior member of staff responsible for admissions but students can be the best people to guide you around the site. It says a lot about a school if it trusts its students to take on this role as ambassadors; it will also impress you if they make an excellent job of it.