to brent or not to brent

For a backgrounder, read this first.

I never thought that school hunting will be this hard. For petes sake, we’re just talking of preschool here you know.

As I previously said, to this day, Jon and I are yet to come up with a decision on where to send Sophia this coming June. Although we have paid the reservation fee at Rosemont, we still haven’t disregarded the option of sending Sophia to Brent School South Campus which is a good ten minutes away from our house. Honestly speaking, we have been toying with the idea of sending Sophia into an International School before but we never really took it seriously. Well, not until now that we feel that the little girl is up for a bit of drilling and is ready for big school as she’s already 3.3 yo by June which will make her eligible for Nursery. She spent a great year at Toddlers Unlimited but I believe its time for her to move on.

When Jon and I were discussing, Brent School came up. Jon was convinced its the better choice. And after reading Apols post regarding the school and its International Baccalaureate System which means that if you graduate from an IB certified school (which Brent is) you won’t have to take an entrance exam when you go to college in US or in UK, I am almost convinced too. But not quite. I was deeply thinking about it and for some reasons, I have apprehensions of sending Sophia to Brent. I am worried that Sophia might not be able to adapt to the kind of environment they have there. I am afraid that she might be left out as most of her classmates will be foreigners (this I’m not sure naman and I have yet to see, haha). I am wondering if Sophia will thrive in the setting Brent School has to offer as my initial perception is kids there will have different lifestyles, values and beliefs from us. Maybe, opposite even. I have countless worries. Not to mention the sky rocketing tuition fees! I have all the figures actually as I already inquired. Costs start from $6,000 to $12,000 a year (Kinder to Grade 12). I told Jon about my concerns and he took them well. So well that for a while we haven’t brought Brent up again in any of our school discussions.

Not until today.

My FIL and MIL came to visit today. While in the middle of discussion, my FIL asked about where we’re sending Sophia this June. We told him of our indefinite plans and how we were not too keen on sending her to Brent anymore for personal reasons. What my FIL told us after (which I can’t clearly remember now) makes Jon and I rethink our plans for our little girl. He somewhat convinced us that we should not worry about small things as we shouldn’t underestimate what our daughter can do (smart daw ang apo niya, LOL!). We shouldn’t think so far ahead according to him too like sending Sophia to college in the US etc. Well, he could probably say this because sending a daughter to school in the US is not new to him. My SIL is currently studying in Florida thats why. We shouldn’t scrimp daw on education as it’s the best gift we can give Sophia. But in my mind, is Brent actually the best? In short, now we’re back to square one. We are again seriously considering Brent School for Sophia.

Now, I need your thoughts. First off, are my concerns valid or not? Am I really worrying too much? I’m not familiar with how International Schools are being run so I have no idea. And last but not the least, my question to all of you, If you have the means to send your kid to Brent or any International School for that matter, will you send him/her there? Why? I’m looking forward to hearing from you. I hope to get as much feedbacks as I could. Help us end our misery