SSIS is a good option if your Childs English is reasonable, and you aren’t interested in your child learning Chinese. Their Chinese program isn’t very good and they don’t stream classes. They have a very limited program that gets kids to a vey basic level of English, and then dumps them into classes with native speakers. SSIS saps kids confidence by giving all kids the same standard tests. It also provides no additional support for kids struggling with English. So why accept kids with low English levels?
SSIS is also very regimented, compared to most other international schools I’ve heard of in Shanghai. The kids have very limited free time, and go from class to class with no break. It’s a very rigid system.
SSIS also seems to be struggling with its identity. It doesn’t seem to know if it’s a “Singaporean school” in Shanghai, or if it really is an international school. I’ve also heard its very authoritarian in management style, and it doesn’t use the talents of it’s teachers to improve the place, which is also a worry.
Again, it depends on your child and what you want from the school. If you are Singaporean, its probably a great choice. If you aren’t, I’m not sure I’d recommend it.
From my contact with various schools and teachers in Shanghai, amongst the lower fee schools in Shanghai, I think SMIC, SHSID and Xiehe are really good choices. These schools aren’t perfect by any means, but they seem to have a few strong points that would make them worth a look. As terrible as this sounds (why should money be messed up with schools?), these schools are also pretty reasonable “value for money”.
