A Mandarin immersion boarding school in Malaysia

While most American parents probably wouldn’t want to send their kids to boarding school in Malaysia, it’s interesting to see what’s popular with parents on the other side of the globe.

Epsom International School is a “British-inspired” boarding school in Malaysia, founded in 2014 by a Malaysian businessman who had been educated at Epsom College in England, a boarding school founded in 1853 about 20 miles west of London.

The co-ed Malaysian school is a “sister school” to the one in the United Kingdom, with classes conducted in English and using English curriculum. It’s located about 45 miles south of the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur, and about 20 minutes from the city’s airport.

Of interest to Mandarin immersion parents is the newly-begun Mandarin immersion track at the school, which launched last year. It begins in what is known as the “prep school” section, for students ages 3 to 6. In these years, classes are 50% in English and 50% in Mandarin.

Then from age 7 to 13, students are integrated into the school’s standard program, with the option of additional Mandarin language classes. They will then be able to take standard international tests for both English and Mandarin proficiency. In English, that is the International General Certificate of Secondary Education, typically taken around. the age of 14. The Chinese test is the IGCSE Chinese First Language, typically taken by students whose first language is Chinese.

Interestingly, I heard about the program from a Sinagporean website. The school has a special week-day boarding program for students from that country, about 200 miles southeast of the school itself.

If nothing else, it’s interesting to see what other schools look like and imagine the lives children across the globe lead.