Moving to KL: looking for school and info about accommodation

Hi Marc,

There's only 2 british syllabus international school you should really consider in Malaysia.

Garden International School and Alice Smith. Both are really expensive and a lot of expats might not even be able to afford it.

Both offer quality education. The only difference between the 2 is the population make up. Garden School has a higher percent of local students, which is a good thing if you are planning to stay in Malaysia for a period of time. Your kids would not be saying farewell every year or so to their school mates. Alice Smith generally have a higher percentage of expats that come and go.

Distance is another factor. Garden is within the outer city ring. Alice Smith is pretty far away.

Good areas to stay for expats are ampang (certain parts), taman u-thant (expensive), mont kiara, damansara heights and bangsar.

Thanks for your reply Ganner. We just have one child and he is already 15 so he will only be at school for two more years... I agree that the school fees are expensive but the pain will be short.

Hi Marc,
Although British, our kids go to Australian school and love it there. At 15 though I'm guessing you'd rather stay in the British system. Garden International is a good school from what I hear....they do a lot of activites and competitions with AISM. Another good one is Nexus and of course Alice Smith.
Yes, the fees are steep but they get a quality education!

I have sent you a PM, perhaps you can reconsider what I have proposed in the message and reply if you are interested

Thanks Jo. I'll take a look at those schools too.

Thanks Daruleshan. I need to choose the school first before looking for a place to live: until then I don't know what area we will be living in.

Hi Marc,
Definately a good idea to know which school you will be using before choosing an area to live. Traffic (in some areas) can be a problem. Garden International is in Mont Kiara and has big traffic problems. Personally, i'm not into high-rise, so didn't want to live in Mont Kiara....that meant the school was off our list straight away because the traffic we witnessed just visiting the place, was enough to put us off the school run!
We don't live right by the school, but picked somewhere which has an easy school run, all the traffic going in the opposite direction, and is close to where I work. There are so many nice areas to live in KL, you will be spoilt for choice...and also consider some not so traditional expat areas