Value of Attending the Best Secondary Schools in Singapore

Living in Singapore allows your entire family to become immersed in the local culture. One significant benefit for your teens is the opportunity to attend exceptional local or international secondary schools that are world-renowned for their academic excellence. Here, students receive a high-quality education that provides a strong academic foundation and a well-rounded co-curricular and extracurricular programme. Your children gain the 21st-century skills they need to become global citizens. As you choose a school, consider all the value your children gain when they attend the best secondary schools in Singapore.

Prepare to Achieve Their Full Potential

Children aged 12-18 attend secondary school. During these years, your children undergo quite a bit of intellectual, social, physical and emotional development. In the best secondary schools, your children receive training in all of these areas and prepare to achieve their full potential.

Academic training starts in the classroom and extends to labs, experiments and practical applications in the real world. Your children go beyond rote memorisation as they analyse, evaluate and understand the material. Your children are prepared for advanced schooling and their future careers with a foundation in critical thinking and problem-solving.

The best secondary schools in Singapore also give your children opportunities to practice, learn and develop social, physical and emotional skills. Group projects, extracurricular activities and free time nurture your children’s ability to communicate, collaborate and listen as they interact with peers and teachers.

Students also learn compassion, technology and time management, among other skills, as they attend secondary school. OWIS focuses on nurturing and instilling kindness in every student, too. With these skills, your children can interact in today’s global economy as they pursue their personal and professional goals.

Access Excellent Academic Curriculum

An academically rigorous secondary school curriculum does more than stretch your child’s mind. The right classes lay the foundation for future study and prepare students to take the required standardised exams. Your children also hone their critical thinking, problem-solving and teamwork capabilities in secondary school.

Local secondary schools in Singapore offer two curriculum streams. Students in the Express Stream complete six to ten Singapore Cambridge GCE or O levels. Students in the Normal Stream take five to eight GCE subjects and complete the Normal GCE-N exam before their O levels. These rigorous curricula prepare children for future studies and careers.

Many international schools in Singapore offer an academically rigorous curriculum too. Some schools teach MYP, AP and the national curricula from Australia, France, India, and other countries. Other schools, including OWIS, offer the Cambridge IGCSE (International General Certificate of Secondary Education) for Grades 6-10 and the IBDP (International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme) for Grades 11-12. When studying these two curricula options, your children understand each subject’s facts and concepts and learn to apply their knowledge across subjects and real-world scenarios. This well-rounded and holistic curriculum nurtures your child’s intellectual, social, physical and emotional development. It also prepares your children to attend elite universities around the world.

Learn During Co-curricular and Extracurricular Activities

A teen’s learning only starts in the classroom. In many of the best secondary schools in Singapore, learning continues during co-curricular and extracurricular activities.

A variety of activities like arts, music, creative studies, languages, sports and hobbies allow your children to express their interests, develop their personalities and hone their talents while having fun. Activities may also include elements that tie into classwork and reinforce academic lessons.

When students take dance classes or instrument lessons, play sports, create video content, or volunteer in the community, they learn skills that boost their character and future options. Your children practise leadership skills, learn to communicate, exercise empathy and develop creativity. And as your children gain a deeper understanding of themselves and others, they build confidence and grow skills that help them learn and lead inside and outside the classroom.

Prepare for the 21st Century

Your teen children are training to be the leaders of tomorrow. In this position, they need to think outside the box as they find solutions to problems, navigate success and failure and support others around the world.

The best secondary schools in Singapore teach numerous competencies that prepare students for the 21st century. The essential 21st-century skills include flexibility and adaptability, compassion and empathy, inclusion, communication, innovation, collaboration, digital literacy, problem-solving and critical thinking, creativity, leadership and global citizenship. These skills transfer from the academic setting to everyday life.

How do your children learn these skills? Experiential classroom activities, co-curricular and extracurricular activities, and independent studies provide opportunities for your children to hone all the essential 21st-century skills they will need now and in the future. Your teens will learn these skills in diverse classrooms at OWIS as part of the curricula and via STEAM activities. Inquiry-led learning also prompts skill development as your children ask questions and work independently and in groups to creatively solve academic and interpersonal challenges.

Engage with an International Community

The interconnected world your children live in is shrinking and blending. Exposure to an international community prepares your children to interact and connect with people from various cultures as they form relationships across backgrounds.

With an emphasis on multiculturalism, the best secondary schools in Singapore bring together students from many cultures, backgrounds and traditions. Your children will learn from peers and teachers who have lived around the world. Besides appreciating their own culture, your children learn to appreciate other cultures, too.

Interactions in and out of the classroom also help your children develop empathy, compassion and understanding. Your children learn to better communicate with others, too. With these skills, your children become global citizens, an important outcome for students at OWIS. As global citizens, your children understand and embrace different perspectives and are prepared to collaborate, cooperate and lead a diverse group of people.

Train to Become a Leader

In today’s workplace, employers value leadership as an essential skill. Your children develop their leadership abilities at the best secondary schools in Singapore.

Leadership development starts in the classroom. Here, students learn to think for themselves, ask questions, communicate effectively, develop empathy and relate to others. Opportunities for group work with preferred and non-preferred peers teach children to collaborate, think creatively, problem solve and become leaders.

This essential skill is honed outside the classroom, too. Your children learn to collaborate, socialise and lead on the sports field, in the music room and the computer lab. Mentorship, community service and volunteer opportunities at OWIS provide further resources that teach your children what respectful interactions and good leadership look like.

Make Lifelong Connections

The friends your children make as teens influence their success today and into the future. Through peer interactions, your children develop skills, discover the world, and learn about their identity. While working in the classroom, participating in extracurricular activities and studying after school, your children and their peers forge strong relationships.

Peers also influence your teens in secondary school and beyond. Consider how these relationships can open doors to future collaborations, job opportunities and creative innovations. In the best secondary schools in Singapore, including OWIS, your children learn from, grow with and make lifelong connections with peers from around the world.

Give your teen a solid foundation for future success at the best secondary schools in Singapore. The value of the right school prepares your children intellectually, socially, physically and emotionally for their rigorous secondary and university education. Contact OWIS to discover the difference we can make in your child’s life today and tomorrow.