Anglo-Chinese School (International) is a

Methodist Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related denominations of Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's b ...

private school Private or privates may refer to: Music * " In Private", by Dusty Springfield from the 1990 album ''Reputation'' * Private (band), a Denmark-based band * "Private" (Ryōko Hirosue song), from the 1999 album ''Private'', written and also recorde ...

, owned by the

Methodist Church in Singapore The Methodist Church in Singapore (MCS) is the church that Methodists in Singapore belong to. The Church has 46 churches island-wide with around 42,000 members, and is the largest mainline Protestant denomination in Singapore. Its current bishop a ...

. Students take a 6-year course, with the

IGCSE The International General Certificate of Secondary Education (IGCSE) is an English language based examination similar to GCSE and is recognised in the United Kingdom as being equivalent to the GCSE for the purposes of recognising prior attainm ...

in the fourth year and the

International Baccalaureate The International Baccalaureate (IB), formerly known as the International Baccalaureate Organization (IBO), is a nonprofit foundation headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, and founded in 1968. It offers four educational programmes: the IB Dip ...

in the sixth year. Before 2007, students took the International

A-Level The A-Level (Advanced Level) is a subject-based qualification conferred as part of the General Certificate of Education, as well as a school leaving qualification offered by the educational bodies in the United Kingdom and the educational aut ...

s. The school opened its doors in January 2005 with 150 students of 20 different nationalities, located in Holland Village on the former premises of the now defunct Buona Vista Secondary School at 61 Jalan Hitam Manis. The current principal is Mr. Gavin Kinch. The school need not seek permission from the

Ministry of Education An education ministry is a national or subnational government agency politically responsible for education. Various other names are commonly used to identify such agencies, such as Ministry of Education, Department of Education, and Ministry of Pub ...

of admitting Singaporean students as it follows several of the Ministry's policies such as the MOE's

bilingual Multilingualism is the use of more than one language, either by an individual speaker or by a group of speakers. It is believed that multilingual speakers outnumber monolingual speakers in the world's population. More than half of all E ...

policy and observe practices like singing the

National Anthem A national anthem is a patriotic musical composition symbolizing and evoking eulogies of the history and traditions of a country or nation. The majority of national anthems are marches or hymns in style. American, Central Asian, and European n ...

, while the school runs its own programme. On 12 April 2004, the school was approved as one of the two proposals submitted among five proposals. The school was approved based on the strength of the management team, range of curriculum offerings, and the quality of education they could provide to the students.

Academic programme

The school offers a six-year

secondary Secondary may refer to: Science and nature * Secondary emission, of particles ** Secondary electrons, electrons generated as ionization products * The secondary winding, or the electrical or electronic circuit connected to the secondary winding i ...

and

pre-university According to the International Standard Classification of Education (ISCED), basic education comprises the two stages primary education and lower secondary education. Universal basic education Basic education featured heavily in the 1997 ISCED ...

programme where they take the Cambridge IGCSE (examined by

University of Cambridge International Examinations Cambridge Assessment International Education (informally known as Cambridge International or simply Cambridge and formerly known as CIE, Cambridge International Examinations) is a provider of international qualifications, offering examinations ...

) in their fourth year and the

IB Diploma Programme The International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme (IBDP) is a two-year educational programme primarily aimed at 16-to-19-year-olds in 140 countries around the world. The programme provides an internationally accepted qualification for entry into ...

in the sixth year. Those need to improve their English proficiency or foundation knowledge related to courses would be recommended to take a bridging programme for around six months to a year where they will be taught English, mathematics, science, music, visual arts and a humanities subject. Students in the bridging programme would have separate form classes from the mainstream students. All Singaporean students are required to take their mother tongue as per requirements from the Ministry of Education, unless exempted. International students have to take a second language of their choice and are obliged to do so at IB level as part of the IB Diploma Programme.

Foundation IGCSE

In Years 1 and 2, students follow a general programme where they study English, a second language (Singaporeans take their

mother tongue A first language, native tongue, native language, mother tongue or L1 is the first language or dialect that a person has been exposed to from birth or within the critical period. In some countries, the term ''native language'' or ''mother tongu ...

unless exempted),

science Science is a systematic endeavor that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe. Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earliest archeological evidence for ...

history History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the History of writing#Inventions of writing, invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbr ...

geography Geography (from Greek: , ''geographia''. Combination of Greek words ‘Geo’ (The Earth) and ‘Graphien’ (to describe), literally "earth description") is a field of science devoted to the study of the lands, features, inhabitants, and ...

religious education In secular usage, religious education is the teaching of a particular religion (although in the United Kingdom the term ''religious instruction'' would refer to the teaching of a particular religion, with ''religious education'' referring to te ...

visual arts The visual arts are art forms such as painting, drawing, printmaking, sculpture, ceramics, photography, video, filmmaking, design, crafts and architecture. Many artistic disciplines such as performing arts, conceptual art, and textile arts al ...

, music, and

physical education Physical education, often abbreviated to Phys Ed. or P.E., is a subject taught in schools around the world. It is usually taught during primary and secondary education, and encourages psychomotor learning by using a play and movement explorati ...

. They sit for an internal end of year examinations for all their subjects with the exception of physical education and would be promoted if they have met the minimum criteria. Science is divided into three modules, namely

biology Biology is the scientific study of life. It is a natural science with a broad scope but has several unifying themes that tie it together as a single, coherent field. For instance, all organisms are made up of cells that process hereditary i ...

physics Physics is the natural science that studies matter, its fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge which r ...

and

chemistry Chemistry is the science, scientific study of the properties and behavior of matter. It is a natural science that covers the Chemical element, elements that make up matter to the chemical compound, compounds made of atoms, molecules and ions ...

. Each module will minimally last for a term, leaving the last term for revision. History and geography are taken for a period of six months and will eventually have a changeover at the end of six months.

IGCSE

For students in Years 3 and 4, they will be able to select their subjects and take them at IGCSE level and at

Singaporean GCE 'O' Level The Singapore-Cambridge General Certificate of Education Ordinary Level (or Singapore-Cambridge GCE O-Level) is a GCE Ordinary Level examination held annually in Singapore and is jointly conducted by the Ministry of Education (MOE), Singapore Exam ...

for mother tongue subjects. They have to take a minimum of six subjects and a maximum of ten but most students usually do eight subjects at IGCSE including second language. All students have to take English as a first language or as a

second language A person's second language, or L2, is a language that is not the native language (first language or L1) of the speaker, but is learned later. A second language may be a neighbouring language, another language of the speaker's home country, or a fo ...

, as well as

English literature English literature is literature written in the English language from United Kingdom, its crown dependencies, the Republic of Ireland, the United States, and the countries of the former British Empire. ''The Encyclopaedia Britannica'' defines E ...

(in the case of students taking English as a first language). It is compulsory to take a second language where all

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...

an students have to take their mother tongue either at Express, Higher or Language 'B' level (Chinese,

Malay Malay may refer to: Languages * Malay language or Bahasa Melayu, a major Austronesian language spoken in Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei and Singapore ** History of the Malay language, the Malay language from the 4th to the 14th century ** Indonesi ...

and

Tamil Tamil may refer to: * Tamils, an ethnic group native to India and some other parts of Asia **Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka also called ilankai tamils **Tamil Malaysians, Tamil people native to Malaysia * Tamil language, nativ ...

) unless exempted in which they have to take the language at Mother Tongue 'B' Level or another language at

level. All other students would then take a second language at IGCSE level in French, Chinese, German, Spanish, Japanese,

Hindi Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been de ...

. All students take at least one science subject either biology, chemistry or physics and have the option to do two or all three sciences. Also, they have to take

mathematics Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in modern mathematics ...

and a

humanities Humanities are academic disciplines that study aspects of human society and culture. In the Renaissance, the term contrasted with divinity and referred to what is now called classics, the main area of secular study in universities at the t ...

subject where they can opt to do economics,

business studies Business studies, often simply called business, is a field of study that deals with the principles of business, management, and economics. It combines elements of accountancy, finance, marketing, organizational studies, human resource management, a ...

, music, and religious studies. Students with a stronger ability in mathematics are able to take

Additional Mathematics Additional Mathematics is a qualification in mathematics, commonly taken by students in high-school (or GCSE exam takers in the United Kingdom). It is applied to a range of problems set out in a different format and wider content to the standard Ma ...

at IGCSE level and those who do not wish to do additional science subjects are able to select one or two additional humanities subject. ACS (International) 8

Boarding facilities

For foreign students, accommodation is provided at Oldham Hall within

ACS (Barker Road) Anglo-Chinese School (Barker Road) is a government-aided boys' secondary school located at Barker Road in Newton, Singapore. It is a member of the Anglo-Chinese family of schools in Singapore. It offers the Singapore-Cambridge GCE Ordinary Level ...

Campus and ACS (Independent) Boarding School. International students who are not staying with their parents must spend a minimum of 1 year in either location, after which they will be allowed to leave and relocate to an approved

Homestay Homestay (also home stay and home-stay) is a form of hospitality and lodging whereby visitors share a residence with a local of the area (host) to which they are traveling. The length of stay can vary from one night to over a year and can be pr ...

. They must also have a local guardian appointed by their parents.

External links

ACS (International) Webpage

References