Studying in Indonesia offers international students a chance to experience a unique blend of academic excellence and cultural enrichment. With affordable education, diverse landscapes, and a warm and welcoming population, Indonesia provides a fulfilling environment for personal and academic growth.
In the long list of prominent educational institutions in the country, Singapore School Pantai Indah Kapuk comes as one of the topmost names.
The school’s vision is: For all learners to be offered world-class educational opportunities where they can benefit from a well-rounded and innovative education in order to achieve their full potential.
By this, the school aims to ensure that it is amongst the very best international schools in Jakarta and Southeast Asia, with a curriculum that fuses the world’s very best educational systems at each level – the holistic and rigorous Singapore Curriculum in Primary, and the respected Cambridge IGCSE programme, vocational British BTEC qualifications and the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme in High School.
Eye for Progression
The school aims for a progressive and innovative curriculum focusing on building students’ learning power, inculcating vital independent learning skills, and creative and critical thinking. The most important tenet of its mission is to ensure that each child reaches their own potential. This means each child at SIS-PIK has a bespoke curriculum, with tailored support for areas of weakness and many opportunities to develop their strengths. It understands that all children are different, and success looks different for each child. Some students thrive in a traditional exam-based environment; others excel through vocational assignment-based project work. Each child at SIS-PIK can choose a pathway that works for them – all leading to fantastic international university options.
It is the only school in Indonesia that offers a wide range of Cambridge IGCSE & IB Diploma subjects alongside International BTEC vocational qualifications in a huge range of subjects, including Engineering, Entrepreneurship, Applied Science, Art & Design, Creative Media, Sport, and Esports.
Instilling Evidence-Based Pedagogy
The school ensures that all its students (from Preschool Nursery to High school Grade 12) are trained in the ‘4Rs’ of independent learning: Reciprocity, Resourcefulness, Resilience, and Reflection. Teachers are trained in evidence-based pedagogy to develop these skills in all lessons, encouraging collaborative and active learning. These skills are all transferable and allow students to adapt to ever-changing situations. It establishes a strong knowledge-based curriculum through the Singaporean and Cambridge programmes but alongside developing 21st Century skills.
Changing Educational Landscape with Hands-on Experiences
It has a wide range of CCAs, including a variety of competitive and non-competitive sports at all levels and creative options, including performance, multi-media, public speaking, and cooking. Other opportunities for all students include a bespoke Harvard Leaders Programme, the World Scholar’s Cup (where dozens of its students were chosen to attend the Tournament of Champions at Yale University), a student-run professional Café, and a student-led charity, the YSPB, which is their own legally registered charity. Previous projects that students have led themselves include building a village school library and sports complex.
All students from Grades 5 to 12 use a Macbook for learning, and classes are managed through Google Classroom, with interactive e-books and platforms preferred over textbooks. The school uses Class VR headsets to bring learning to life, ensuring that teachers are fully trained in these possibilities, and virtual reality adds to learning rather than being a token. All students take lessons in coding and robotics, and every year, there are innovation weeks to challenge students to design solutions to world problems. For example, last year’s STEAM Festival saw Primary school students develop water filtration systems and recipes for candy made from food waste.
Bringing Communities Under One Roof
Inclusivity is at the heart of the school’s ‘Culture Mountain’ – its Student Council has introduced community boards to ensure students feel a sense of belonging, considered room design/table placements in common areas to reduce the possibility of isolation, and brought students of all faiths and nationalities together in formal celebrations of Chinese New Year, Christmas, the end of Ramadan, etc.
Every student receives weekly life skills lessons which support them in dealing with childhood and adolescent pressures such as social media. The school has a professional Emotional and Wellbeing Counsellor on staff who provides 1 to 1 support for students. The Student Council, alongside its Guidance Counsellor, have devised a peer-support system for counselling and well-being, where trained student counsellors are available for their peers to talk to. Students are trained on how to prioritize and improve their own well-being and that of others during ‘Well-being’ weeks each Semester.
Testimonies of Superiority
SIS-PIK’s 2022 valedictorian, Alexandra, struggled to achieve through traditional exams, and the IGCSE courses were not working for her. She suffered from exam anxiety, and her test scores were not representative of her abilities. For her final two years at school, she entered the first BTEC Vocational Cohort and achieved 3 BTECs (Applied Science, Creative Media, and Enterprise & Entrepreneurship), all at Distinction* Level, which is equivalent to the top scores at IBDP or A Level. Through these results, she obtained a scholarship for an International Business degree at the University of Nottingham, China. In the same year, her Co-Valedictorian, Rebecca, undertook the IB Diploma Programme and gained the highest possible grade of 45, going on to the University of Sydney.
This year’s valedictorian, Glenn, gained a full scholarship to NTU, Taiwan, but whilst studying for his IBDP, he managed to write a children’s book for preschool/lower Primary, challenging gender stereotypes and inspiring children to follow their own path to success.
Community Showcase
SIS-PIK holds regular coffee mornings as either a general opportunity to catch up with a specific agenda or for particular groups of parents. It holds regular workshops for parents, giving strategies on how to support their children at home. Each month the school publishes its ‘Community Showcase,’ which reports on the students’ activities and successes over the previous weeks.
Professional Development constitutes one of the school’s largest academic budgets, and it has a clear and fair policy to ensure teachers have access to all necessary courses from external providers such as the IB and Cambridge. However, we believe effective, lasting PD ‘begins at home’ and therefore training in both pedagogy and middle leadership occurs regularly throughout the year, ensuring instruction, coaching, feedback, and implementation. The school is building a team of confident ‘Teacher Champions’ who now run educational outreach to teachers of local and international schools in Jakarta.
Running Effective Courses
SIS-PIK believes in ‘Conditional Accountability,’ where it ensures that all necessary resources and conditions are in place to run effective courses and allow teachers to be successful. It is the presence of these conditions which the school makes accountable rather than focusing on specific student assessment outcomes such as grades. The school uses Cambridge CEM Baseline data to measure its ‘value added’ but, most importantly, to identify those students who need specific support and intervention for language or numeracy.
SIS-PIK advises parents to pick the school that is right for their child. Parents should consider their strengths. Whether the school has the resources and curriculum/extra-curricular options to play to these; and consider their weaknesses. It is also important to know if the school has the right diagnostics, interventions, and 1 to 1 support where necessary to unlock child’s learning where they struggle. Importantly, parents should consider the school’s values and ethos. International schools should have a very clear vision and mission, and parents will be partners with the school for many years on their child’s educational journey, so ensure these align.
