Parent's Review of British School in Seoul Foreign School in Seoul, Korea

What is the name of your child's school? (Please report on one school per survey.)

British School in Seoul Foreign School

In what town or city is this school located?

Seoul

How would you describe this school? (i.e. American, British, International, Local, etc.)

British

What grade levels are represented at this school?

Reception to Year 9

How do most children get to school everyday? (bus, train, walk, etc.)

Bus and car

How would you describe the facilities at this school? What extra-curricular activities are available?

Despite SFS being going for 100 years and the British Section for over 30, the school seems to spend its money (its not-for-profit) on continually updating its facilities.

As part of Seoul Foreign School, teh British School it has great facilities -swimming pool, three theatres (one seats over 700), large, spacious grounds, big cafeteria (it even has its own coffee shop with a barrista!); two big gyms, one smaller one located in the British School's building for the younger children. Max class size is 22.

They run a 1:1 laptop programme for Year 6 to Year 9 so be prepared to buy your child the latest model!

Extensive after school (over 100 at last count and Saturday morning activities (though there are charges for some of these, most only cost the registration fee)

What has this school done to help your child transition from the curriculum in your home country into the curriculum in your new country? Are there programs to prepare your child for repatriation?

We have a child in the lower primary and one in Key Stage 3. Both found it easy to settle - the atmosphere is one of trust and our children certainly responded to that! Good mix of international children, so our expat children increased their world-wide friends. PTA have a Transitions Team which helps mostly in August and January (biggest intake times). At other times, the Headteacher talks children through the transition; helpful as he aimed the talk at them, not us.

How would you describe the social activities available for parents through this school? Are there parent-teacher organizations?

Strong and very social divisional PTA (there are four, one for each of the sections of SFS), Organise monthly Meet The Head Coffee sessions, second hand uniform sales, start of year social, nice function at the residence of the British Ambassador whis is apparantly the honorary President of the British School (even though it is part of SFS). they also host quiz nights. Was contacted before arrival by the PTA and that was a nice touch!

What advice would you give to someone considering enrolling their child in this school?

Go for it! If your child has ESL or needs additional support there is a good team there to help. The stanrrads are higher than we expected but the children seem to love going to school and enjoy the learning. Great sporting competitions with other British schools in the region (Year 4 to Year 9 children travel for these - our kids love that part!). Our two kids say that the food in the cafeteria is good (for school food!). Children mostly move onto the High School (sort of international running IGCSE and IB - no A-levels, though).Other children move to other international schools. They don't do Mandarin, but do offer French, some Korean in primary but not KS3 (?) and Spanish. Sme parents have moved because of the Mandarin, but have heard that other school's programmes for this are variable - for us we preferred French and Spanish.

Good mix of good teachers mostly from the UK, but also NZ, Aus adn some US ('specialist' subjects).

Coming from the UK we have not really noticed any difference in the Christian nature - our kids came from a similar school in England - after school activities can include involvement in Christian groups if the your child wants to, but our two preferred the sports!

All in all a good school, not perfect, but our children are enjoying their tiem there and for us that is very important.

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