Singapore International School, Mumbai

SIS has integrated the enquiry based curriculum of the Singapore education ministry within the framework of IBO’s celebrated PYP programme. Indrajit Dutta

Sited on a ten-acre campus in the Mumbai suburb of Dahisar, Singapore International School (SIS, estb. 2006) is the commercial capital’s first internationally-affiliated co-ed day-cum-boarding school. Affiliated with the International Baccalaureate Organisation, Geneva and Cambridge International Examinations, UK, the K-12 SIS which has 500 students including 200 boarders on its muster roll, is ranked among the country’s Top 10 international day-cum-boarding schools, #2 in Maharashtra and #1 in Mumbai in the EducationWorld India School Rankings 2014.

Founded in 2006 by Nilesh Hada, chairman of the Ahmedabad-based United Educare Foundation, SIS is the country’s first international school offering the much-acclaimed curriculum of the Singapore ministry of education to kindergarten-class VI children. The foundation has also promoted two SIS Prep (kindergarten) schools in Ahmedabad and Mumbai, and colleges/schools of dentistry, business, design and law in Ahmedabad.

“The objective of SIS is to offer internationally benchmarked education which enables our students to develop 21st century skills. Our affiliation with the education ministry of Singapore, which boasts Asia’s best school education system, empowers us to offer a rigorously researched enquiry-based curriculum — particularly in maths and science — invested with Asian values and cultural affinities. To ensure we build an excellent foundation for future learning, we have integrated the Singapore curriculum within the framework of IBO’s globally celebrated primary years programme,” says Kaiser Dopaishi, an alumnus of Bombay University and former vice principal/acting principal of the top-ranked Kodaikanal International School, who took charge as principal of SIS in 2011.

According to Dopaishi, the distinguishing feature of SIS is its 107 highly-qualified teachers with a minimum of five years teaching experience in IB and CIE-affiliated schools. “We have a collaboration agreement with the Singapore Teachers Union, under which our teachers can share best practices with their counterparts in Singapore. Moreover, SIS is a member of Round Square, College Board, and Reggio Emilia India Foundation,” says Dopaishi, also president of South Asia IB Schools Association.

Given the well-conceptualised and firm foundation on which SIS has been built over the past nine years since it was promoted in 2006, the school has quickly acquired an excellent academic reputation with its students excelling in CIE’s IGCSE class X as well as class XII school-leaving IB diploma exams. In 2014, of the 33 students who wrote the IGCSE examination, 58 percent passed with distinction. In the IB diploma exam 2014, a class XII student recorded the perfect score of 45. Unsurprisingly, SIS graduates have been admitted into some of the world’s top universities including Columbia, Cornell and Princeton (USA), and Oxford and London (UK).

On its large ten-acre campus in land-starved Mumbai, SIS offers state-of-the-art academic, sports and residential facilities. The school’s primary, middle and secondary buildings house 30 spacious classrooms (1,000 sq. ft each) fitted with electronic Smart boards and latest audio visual equipment, two labs with 48 Apple IMac computers, a science lab and amphitheatre. The school’s Resource and Information Centre stocks 15,000 print volumes and offers access to numerous online learning resources. Sports facilities include a swimming pool, badminton court, table tennis, two basketball courts, a lawn tennis court, two sprawling playing fields for football, hockey and touch rugby, and a matting pitch for cricket.

Given that SIS is Mumbai’s sole IBO-affiliated boarding school, the management has paid special attention to providing contemporary residential accommodation. Separate air-conditioned hostels for boys and girls offer well-furbished en suite accommodation with recreation areas equipped with TV and games facilities. Students can choose between weekly and full board options.

Uniquely, SIS places special emphasis on music education with all class IV-VIII students required to attain proficiency in one musical instrument. Seven specially trained music teachers develop the musical intelligence of students in four western and Indian classical music studios. Moreover, fine arts such as pottery, art and crafts, elocution,  drama, filmmaking and dance are enthusiastically practised.

“We also provide a well-designed life-skills programme to sharpen students’ public speaking, interview, and time management skills. Two qualified counsellors aid and advise students on foreign university placements with the school also offering coaching for SAT, PSAT and ACT exams. A broad-based curriculum and our wide menu of co-curricular and sports activities enables us to nurture students’ multiple intelligences and leadership skills, preparing them for further study in the world’s best universities,” says Dopaishi, adding that the school has recently signed an international student exchange programme with the Minnetonka High School, Minnesota, USA.

Looking ahead, the SIS management is developing plans to replicate the successful Mumbai model countrywide.