Australian International school?

daffodil27

Is there an Australian International school in Delhi?

I cant seem to find a website on google, does that mean there is not one? Do most Australian expat kids go to the British School?

brownboy66

um no - there is no australian school in Delhi. There's the american school and the british school (and of course - a fair amount of rivalry between the two), plus a lot of Indian international schools as well.

The american school is easily the better resourced of the two. Better facilities, more room, etc. Very impressive facility. It isn't an international school as such. The full title for the place is the The US Embassy school (primarily servicing the embassy first - and everyone else second), using a US curriculum or course. It does, however, also run an IB programme.

The British school is an international school. Runs IB and IGCSE - and the curriculum is probably a lot closer to what you find in Oz (certainly the case compared to NZ). Its a bit squeezed for space, but is currently embarking on a building programme. There has been a significant change in the management of the school - with a new director appointed last year from the British International school in Hong Kong (subsequently there has been a reasonably turn over of teachers, new performance measures introduced, etc).

Australian occupancy is probably split between the two. There are a fair number of senior students at the American school - and a reasonable number of primary students at the British school. In case your wondering - we have 3 kids at the British school, but we have friends (kiwis) with two kids at the American school. When comparing notes - their are good and bad points on both sides.

Your first priority though - will be simply getting a place at all. The American school has stopped taking applications from non-US citizens (sometimes they make exceptions but goodness knows how they decide it) and the British School has two places left for next year in its primary school (out of 250 places), and none in its senior school.

Sorry. Not trying to be the bearer of bad news - but get in touch with both of them and get on the waiting list. Good luck.

puchoo

post reding your question i also did some searching on Google and was unable to find anything as such, but i went through a lot of articles (outdated 2004/2005) which kept mentioning the Australian school having ties up with a school in Delhi and using their premises to hold classes.... now the articles are ofcourse old and this could be a dead deal , maybe its best if you can try and speak to the Autralian high comission (which im sure BB would have done when he came here) to satisfy yourself.

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Sidharth

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brownboy66

Puchoo - what was your mark in Geography! (i.e - sure, I could try talking to the aussy high comm - but I don't think they would talk to me, and would probably suggest I speak to the NZ high comm instead).

puchoo

Well to be honest i though the 2 countries might have similar education structures and hence you might have checked...

brownboy66

ahhhh.....I see. No - they would still shunt me off to the NZ High comm in any case.

There are similarities between the two countries (both are based on the British system - all part of the commonwealth eh what) - but each mission tends to assist its own rather than the other (for good reason - its a full time job dealing with your own nationals). The other thing is that the respective missions wont necessarily have all the figures as to who goes where anyway.

puchoo

right...think i got it! thanks!

daffodil27

wow ok - might have to put our son's name down at both schools for next year just in case (although we will be moving there if we like it - so hopefully Delhi sells itself to us when we go!)

thanks so much for you help and advice its really appreciated!

brownboy66

your welcome One thing I forgot to mention (a fairly important item too) - the american school is about 5 times more expensive than the british school - and the british school is probably about to put up its fees as well. Like all schools in Delhi - the result of too few places for too many students.

Also - looking at my previous post (with the slight hint of doom and gloom) - I should add that we are very happy with the schooling experience here. We've come across some great teachers - and the international flavour of the classroom experience is something you can't get from a text book (in my oldest sons class - their is a collection of 49 different languages). For their class trip - they went on a camp to the Ganges! There's a possibility they may go to the Himalayas next year.

So if you do decide to come to Delhi - get their names down as soon as possible.

daffodil27

thanks - we have just booked for 5 days from the 7th of May so will organise to se the schools then.
cheers

daffodil27

just another question - so say your cant get your child into either the British or the American school - what is the alternative???

puchoo

possibly one of the better Indian Public Schools like Vasant Valley...

brownboy66

hmmmm....as Puchoo said, you could try one of the public schools in Delhi (I have absolutely no idea how you would go about that - and what the policy is re foreigners).My daughter was on correspondence lessons from NZ for 8 months before a place became available for her here - I think we were both glad when she finally went to school.