Looking at which school to choose in Bali

Our next big task has been to look for a school for our kids to attend when we are in Bali.

We knew from the outset that it would be an expensive exercise as the only school that they are able to attend as foreigners are private school. These range from the reasonable to insanely ridiculous in pricing, with not a lot in between.

One of the most popular schools for expats, and one that is often talked about aspirationally, is the Green School. This is a school that is ‘green’ in every sense of the world. Amazing open air style classrooms, solar power, renewables, etc… Many people even treat it as a tourist attraction, just booking a tour to see how amazing the school facilities are. It is located in the lush jungle of Bali closer to Ubud so this would be a very different lifestyle option as it isn’t close to any beaches.

One other major consideration for us was not to have too much of a shock or disruption to the kids learning. Coming from Australia this presents some additional challenges as our school year operates on the calendar year (end of January to December), unlike Northern Hemisphere countries that operate around their summer and start the school year around August.

So if we went on a different calendar, our decision process was to consider putting them into the year ahead or have them partly repeat the year they were currently doing in Australia.

Alas our decision making process becoming a lot easier when we discovered the Australian Independent School (previously called Australian International School). This is a school with a number of campuses in South East Asia teaching the Australian school curriculum and operating on the Australian calendar year.

We have spoken the school principal and the parent representative for the Parent and Friends committee. The school seems wonderful and very attentive to students. It is much smaller than the school they currently attend, with only around 12 students in a classroom per year.

We decided to submit an application to the school last week, so fingers crossed that we get a quick response and can then really start to commit to other things for planning.

Having a school locked in was basically our main point where we would say we were going to travel for a year or not. Once we get the yes, looks like there is no turning back!