“Stamford American International School aims to cultivate a culture of optimism, excellence, and empowerment for everyone by developing the mind-set and skills to thrive in a complex world.”
The world of education is changing; and for good. In the newly emerging schooling systems knowledge is being made more practical, application-based, and is tailored differently for every child. The education sector is drifting away from the widely established ‘guideline of learning’, which is “what to study” and moving in the direction of “how to study”. This change will equip the children to cultivate the qualities of life-long learning and help them identify their strengths and weaknesses and likes and dislikes from the very start.
Stamford American International School is one of the pre-eminent international schools in Singapore that aims to inspire students to create their unique dreams; academically, socially, and as ecologically literate citizens in the culturally diverse world. It is the country’s first and the only school that offers the full International Baccalaureate (IB) and Advanced Placement (AP) courses. It renders the best start to the life of children, between the ages of 18 months to 18 years. Stamford is fully accredited by the IB World School, the Western Association Schools and Colleges (WASC), Council of International Schools (CIS) and Edutrust.
The school is centrally connected to the major expatriate area of Singapore. It has two purpose-built campuses- The Early Learning Village campus and the Woodleigh campus. Both the campuses are carefully designed to promote enhanced learning and provide exclusive facilities. Stamford is the home for a globally diverse student community of over 70 nationalities.
About the Superintendent
Dr. Eric Sands, Superintendent of Stamford is an experienced strategic education administration leader with more than two decades of experience in six international schools across four continents. Stating about the success statistics of the school, Eric asserts, “These results are a testament to the ability of our dedicated teaching staff in motivating and engaging our students to excel to the best they can be. We are also attentive to catering each student with their own graduation pathway, suited to their capabilities and interests. With support from both parents and school, our students are well equipped for the future. Together, we work on inspiring students on creating their unique future”.
Academia at Stamford
The school offers an Academic Field Studies Program, starting from Grade three. It explores the academic curriculum within fascinating and often challenging environments beyond the classroom. It demonstrates the importance of taking responsibility for one’s own life journey. Developed in consultation with experiential education market-leaders- ‘JUMP! Foundation’, this program aims to develop students as ecologically literate, compassionate, and engaged global citizens.
For children as young as 18 months, the early learning curriculum of the school is guided by the USA Head Start Early Learning Outcomes Framework. It starts at birth and outlines the skills, behaviors and developmentally appropriate milestones to foster the growth of young learners.
The “All-In-One” Curriculum
With an aim to develop its children to become bilingual and to excel in communication skills, Stamford has a World Language Program that offers three of the world’s most spoken languages- Mandarin, Spanish, and English. Additionally, it organizes a weekly and optional mother tongue program led by the parents. With more now different mother tongue languages offered in this, such as Swedish, Finnish, Dutch, French, Russian, Tagalog, Hindi, Hebrew, Norwegian, Portuguese, and Spanish, children are taught by native teachers and have access to classroom facilities, IT support, library and event space to host special activities.
Along with this, the school has introduced music from Pre-Nursery at 18 months with songs and dance, moving on to theory and technical aspects of music in the Elementary and Secondary school. This helps to foster creative development and emotional awareness in the children. Further, to nurture the students’ passion for drama, it has weekly drama classes in its curriculum for the children of age 5 to Grade 10. For those keen to pursue performing arts, Stamford offers an IB diploma in US or UK theatre.
At Stamford, all the students are required to engage into age-appropriate, grade level community services alongside optional co-curricular activities. This triggers students’ personal development and helps them understand and embrace their aspirations through a variety of services. These included activities from developing lesson plans and materials for the Cambodia Hope School, helping to provide rural and poor children better education and brighter life, to activities developed to support UN’s sustainable development goals, and many more. Additionally, its Global Mentor Program helps the students to interact with world’s most inspirational minds, industry leaders, artists, and athletes.
The school is committed to the “Sport for All” philosophy. To develop student athletes to reach their fullest potential, its competitive and recreational Sports Program supports various individual as well as team sports. This program promotes Stamford’s core values of growth, integrity, and caring by fostering the development of character, lifetime wellness skills, teamwork, sportsmanship, morality, and a sense of fairness and respect.
Some of its other exemplary parts of curriculum include Social Program, which is based on the award-winning Second Step methodology, to nurture the skills of learning, empathy, emotion management, conflict management as well as to proactively combat bullying. It also promotes Visual Arts, which includes three programs- PYP (Primary Year Program) to foster creativity and self-discovery in students from KG1 to Grade 5; MYP (Middle Year Program), for grade 6 to 10, to develop research, inspiration, ideation, creative thinking, and responding skills preparing them for visual art Diploma Program; and a thought-provoking course for students in Grade 11 &12, encouraging them to challenge their own creativity and cultural expectations and boundaries. Technology and Innovation is another part of Stamford’s curriculum. This is to teach students the importance and how to exploit technology and plant in them the roots of innovation. Its state-of-the-art tools and programs, coupled with world’s leading educators and an education technology coaching program, not only helps the students, but also the teachers to use the technology effectively.
Tailoring Special Educational Journey for Every Student
Catering to the theory of ‘no-one-size-fits-all’ approach in the journey of learning, every student at Stamford is guided towards a successful academic outcome, which is individually right for them. It is a non-selective school and offers course options to suit different proficiency levels and interests. This inclusive approach supports different student educational backgrounds and ambitions.
Stamford not only offers over 40 IB courses and 19 AP courses to select from, but also carries out pre-university testing from Grade 10 with SAT and ACT test center onsite. Its dedicated Academic & College counseling team works closely with EducationUSA on campus to provide the best advices for students and to prepare them for universities anywhere in the world.
Every Stamford student graduates with a US High School Diploma and at the same time has an opportunity to pursue the IB Diploma, AP International Diploma, aligned to their capabilities and interests.
Perfectly-Designed and State-of-the-Art Infrastructure
Stamford’s Elementary and Secondary Campus located at Woodleigh Lane, combines the best teaching and learning facilities – three swimming pools, two indoor sports arena, one outdoor sports field, a 500-seat professional theater, rock climbing walls, and classrooms designed to spark imagination and learning.
The Woodleigh campus has an Innovation Center, built with the aim of cultivating innovative mindset in the children and bringing technology into play. It is a great space for students from aged 6 to 18 years to explore their creative minds. The center allows them to learn with new technologies, collaborate with external partners and organizations who are leading entrepreneurs and leaders in their field. Being a purpose-designed area, it fully optimizes the contemporary ‘market-space’ concept. Unlike a standard classroom, the flexible space allows the students to play with emerging technologies and techniques, such as 3D printers, robots, electronics, textiles, and fashion.
Just ten minutes away from the main campus, is its ‘Early Learning Village’, which caters for children from 18 months to 6 years. Inspired by Reggio Emilia philosophy where the environment nurtures the child, the Village has purpose-built facilities with little learners in mind.
“Word of Trust”
“I enjoyed studying at Stamford as it allowed me to discover my interest for Math and cater the graduation pathway for me. I made some great friends along the way as well.”- Dong Hyun, an alumnus currently enrolled into University of California to study Mathematics.
