With a strong mother tongue language programme and many language-based extracurricular activities, the de Kams knew Overseas Family School would be the perfect one for their multilingual children.
Having lived in Taiwan for eight years, the de Kam family children grew up speaking English and Mandarin on top of their native Dutch. As such, parents Arnoud and Marlous hoped that their children could continue learning these three languages when they move to a new school in Singapore.
Seeing that Overseas Family School (OFS) offers a mother tongue programme (which included Dutch) on top of a foreign languages module, Arnoud and Marlous decided to enrol their three oldest children there. The school impressed them so much that it recently welcomed the youngest de Kam child to Pre-Kindergarten in November.
Read on to find out how this school became Arnoud and Marlous’ top choice for their trilingual children.
Hi Arnoud and Marlous, can you briefly tell us about your school-searching experience in Singapore?
It felt a little overwhelming in the beginning, as there are so many good schools in Singapore. OFS wasn’t in our shortlist of schools at first, until we saw it being mentioned in the online forums. We looked it up and were pleasantly surprised to see that it has a Dutch mother tongue programme with a native-speaking teacher! We decided to check it out as we’re looking for a school where our children can learn our native Dutch alongside English, and continue to learn Mandarin as they did when we were based in Taiwan. Since they can learn all three languages in OFS, we were happy to enrol them there.
How has your family’s experience with OFS been so far?
It’s been great! Our children attend OFS with a lot of joy and excitement. They enjoy their classes, which are taught in English, with daily Mandarin classes and Dutch once a week. The school has a warm and welcoming atmosphere. Everyone has a friendly word to say, and it’s not just the teachers and non-teaching staff, but the students too. I remember seeing the security guards giving high fives and fist bumps to the kids as they pass through the school gates. It’s just a really nice and lovely community.
Sounds amazing! We’re guessing that your children have felt welcomed since day one.
They did. Our son was excited and nervous for his first day of school at OFS, as he didn’t have any friends here yet. In just a week, we saw him brighten up and come back with happy stories of making new friends and how they offered to help him in his classes. Our children unanimously agree that OFS is their favourite school!
That’s lovely. And what do you value most about OFS?
The school’s mother tongue programme is on top of our list. One of the good things about these classes is that it’s not just about learning the language, but also learning about the cultural aspect and current issues in the Netherlands. Our children sometimes come home with interesting facts about the Netherlands, which make for fun family discussions.
Another thing we like is the elementary school’s musical that our daughter was part of. It was professionally done, and the children really impressed us with their performance.
Thanks for sharing with us, Arnoud and Marlous!
This post is in partnership with Overseas Family School.
