JIS/BIS questions
Hello,
We will be moving in a few months with three school age kids. Communications recently with JIS and BIS have led us to believe that there may not be spaces for our children at either school. At the time, the assignment was not official so we were not at liberty to apply. It is now official and neither school has been back in contact to explain how we arrange a visit and if we should apply now or wait a few weeks til our visit.
I also asked their advice on schooling should our children NOT be placed for some reason.
Can anyone advise? Are there other schools we should be looking at or is this all just a game and we need not worry?
We are American and will have children who would be in Kindergarten, 2nd grade and 4th grade next school year. Though, I believe our would be kindergartener misses the cut off in Jakarta though not here in Michigan.
Thanks in advance for your advice!
Suzanne
I'd contact both schools again to be sure. But they may well be full. I'd get on the phone now. Also get back onto your new company and pressure them to help you as well.
Although they are probably the best two options for your children, there are many other decent international schools in Jakarta as well. Read some of the schools on this sites sister site for more info.
They aren't kidding. My son was "accepted" at BIS for three years straight but they never had a slot open for him in his grade because Americans are low on the priority list there.
As for JIS, a new employee of my husband's project just came to town and applied to KG or 1st grade for their daughter (I can't recall which). PEL, the elementary campus in Kebayoran Baru, had no slots, but that is pretty much to be expected as that is a small school and it rapidly fills up with the children of diplomats. More alarmingly, they were told that there was only ONE open slot at PIE, the larger JIS elementary school campus in Pondok Indah, and two applicants. They are now breathing a huge sigh of relief because their daughter got the slot! I guess that means that somewhere in Jakarta right now, some other family is trying to figure out what to do because their child didn't get it.
As a JIS parent myself, I can tell you that JIS instituted a new system this year that forces us to "put up or shut up" about whether our child will attend next school year. We had to pay a non-refundable $1,500 deposit to secure a slot for our son next fall. It's no problem for us, as we are as close to 100% certain as any expat can ever be that we will be here for school year 2011-12. However, I imagine many parents who aren't yet sure if they will be here in the fall must have complained a lot. That JIS would institute such a measure anyway suggests to me that they are having to pay very close attention to the availability of slots versus number of applicants.
Your children are young, so there are a lot of good alternative schools. Our son went to AIS for 5th grade and we thought it was fine, although as he is now in 7th grade I'm glad he is poised to attend high school at JIS.
Last edited by Puspawarna; 05-04-11 at 08:09. Reason: Lack of reading comprehension on my part
E-mail the BIS admissions office again and explain the situation. If you are definitely moving then start the application process as soon as possible - you should also of course visit the school on your visit to JakartaOriginally Posted by kingwilly
Some more thoughts:
They don't need to go after you, you need to persevere with them.
In my experience, schools in Jakarta are not very helpful in this regard. I asked the principal of PIE that very question when our son was not admitted in 2007, and she was extremely dismissive and had no useful advice. That may have been her and not the school; she's long since gone. Still, you are better off using resources like this site to research alternatives on your own.
In my experience, an email can be ignored...
Thanks for the advice. We have printed the applications to both schools and I will stay up a bit later tonight to make some phone calls first thing in the morning local time.
I have no problem submitting the applications now but if there aren't going to be spaces I'd just as soon save the application money.
Can someone chime in on alternative schools. Obviously our children speak English, so we are limited by that. We have no problem with them attending an australian school, for example. Any suggestions?
Suzanne,
out of interest, what was the outcome of your applications? The other alternative is the Australian International School.
Here is a list of other International schools. http://www.expat.or.id/orgs/schools.html
The challenge is to be yourself in a world that is trying to make you like everyone else.
My husband's company has been extremely slow in processing our paperwork and we were advised that until we had visited they would not reimburse our applications, so unfortunately we have NOT applied anywhere yet.
We will be there in a few weeks to look for housing and also to check out schools. AIS is on our list to look at.
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