IB Preschools in Singapore: Fees, Licence and IB Status

Ten preschool campuses in Singapore say on their own websites that they run the International Baccalaureate Primary Years Programme (IB PYP), and also publish a fee. They are EtonHouse Newton Pre-School, four Odyssey The Global Preschool campuses, the Australian International School, Chatsworth International School, EtonHouse International School Broadrick, One World International School’s Nanyang campus and Stamford American International School’s Early Learning Village.

For five full days a week, the six that print a fee by the year, term or semester charge S$24,158 to S$46,330 a year in tuition, as of 9 October 2026. The IB PYP is the early years and primary framework of the International Baccalaureate (IB), the body that authorises schools to teach it.

The bigger difference between the ten is the licence, not the fee. The Early Childhood Development Agency (ECDA), the government body that licenses preschools, lists five of them as childcare centres. A Singapore Citizen child at one of those five can get ECDA’s Basic Subsidy, government money towards the fee, of up to S$300 a month.

The other five are the early years of larger international schools. They have no record on ECDA’s list at their campus address, and ECDA ties the Basic Subsidy to its licensed centres. So “international” and “ECDA licensed” are not opposites.

Two IB PYP preschools with similar fees can cost a citizen family up to S$3,600 a year apart. That is twelve months of the S$300 Basic Subsidy, before any other subsidy.

Ten IB PYP preschool campuses, side by side

Every campus below says on its own website that it runs the IB PYP, and every one publishes a fee. They are grouped by licence, then listed alphabetically. This is not a ranking and not every IB school in Singapore.

Two of the figures are sums rather than published totals. EtonHouse Newton prints a termly fee and bills four terms a year, so its annual number is four terms added together. The Australian International School prints a fee per semester, two a year, so its annual numbers are two semesters added together.

Each school names its own year groups, such as Nursery 2, Pre-Kindergarten or Early Childhood 1, so the ages column says who each fee is for.

“No record” in the licence column means that on 9 October 2026, ECDA’s own list of active childcare centres and kindergartens had no centre at that campus’s postal code. It does not tell you what other registration the school holds.

The four Odyssey figures are printed exactly as the school prints them, with GST and with no period. Odyssey’s campus pages do not say whether the figure is per month or per term, and they give no fee year. Ask before you compare it with anything else on this page.

What sits on top of tuition

Tuition is not the whole first-year bill. Most of these campuses also charge to apply, to enrol or to hold the place, and some charge a yearly fee beside tuition. Each school names these fees its own way, and the table keeps the school’s words.

Two campuses charge more than S$8,000 in one-time fees in the first year. At Stamford American the application, enrolment and facility fees come to S$8,150. At the Australian International School they come to S$8,115.

Meals differ too. EtonHouse Newton, the Australian International School and Stamford American put food inside the fee. EtonHouse Broadrick does not, and its school meals add S$872 a year if you take them.

One World International School’s fee page shows a Building Fee of S$7,291 a year for Early Childhood 1 to 3, in a second table beside the tuition. The page covers three campuses and does not say which one that table is for. Ask the school, in writing, whether it applies at Nanyang before you compare it with anything else.

Same label, different licence

ECDA, the government body that licenses preschools in Singapore, issues three classes of licence: Class A for infant care, Class B for childcare and Class C for kindergarten. One preschool can hold more than one.

Our guide to the Early Childhood Development Agency and its services covers the rest of what ECDA does for parents.

There is no “international” class and no “IB” class. A school’s curriculum and its licence are two separate things, and a parent who mixes them up can pay thousands of dollars more a year than they need to.

EtonHouse Newton says it plainly on its own fee page. It is registered with ECDA as a childcare centre, it is guided by the Ministry of Education (MOE) curriculum framework for kindergartens, and the ECDA Basic Subsidy is available for Singapore Citizen children.

The same school says it has been an IB World School since May 2010. Both can be true at once.

That matters because of how ECDA ties the money to the licence. ECDA says every Singapore Citizen child at an ECDA-licensed infant care or childcare centre can get the Basic Subsidy, and its page sets no curriculum test.

For childcare, from 18 months to six years, the Basic Subsidy is S$300 a month when the main applicant works and S$150 when the main applicant does not.

By “main applicant” ECDA means the mother, or the single father if she is unavailable, for example after a divorce. A means-tested Additional Subsidy, which depends on household income, can sit on top.

Now look at one brand with two campuses. EtonHouse Newton is on ECDA’s list, and EtonHouse International School Broadrick has no record on that list at its address.

Their listed fees are close: S$35,247.60 for 2027 at Newton and S$36,251.02 for 2026/27 at Broadrick.

For a Singapore Citizen child with a working mother, Newton can come down by up to S$3,600 a year through the Basic Subsidy alone. Broadrick has no record on the list that the subsidy depends on.

“No record” on ECDA’s list does not mean a school holds no registration at all.

Two of the five international schools say what they are instead. Chatsworth’s fee page calls the school a Private Education Institution (PEI), which is a private school. It says the Skills and Workforce Development Agency (SWDA) requires its course fees to be insured.

EtonHouse Broadrick asks parents to sign an SWDA standard student contract, a set form of contract between the school and the family.

IB World School, candidate or “IB-inspired”: check the campus, not the brand

Only a school the IB has authorised may offer the IB PYP. One World International School prints the IB’s own notice on its page: “Only schools authorised by the IB Organization can offer any of its four academic programmes”, and “Candidate status gives no guarantee that authorisation will be granted.” Odyssey prints the same notice in a shorter form.

So the words on a school’s page are worth reading closely. Three kinds of claim turn up.

IB World School

A school the IB has authorised to run the IB PYP. EtonHouse Newton says it has been one since May 2010, and Odyssey says its Fourth Avenue and Wilkinson campuses are authorised to run the IB PYP.

IB candidate school

A school that is working towards authorisation and does not have it yet. One World International School says its Newton campus is a candidate school for the IB PYP, while its Nanyang campus is accredited.

“Follows”, “rooted in” or “inspired by” the IB PYP

Wording that describes the teaching, not the school’s status with the IB. Several pages in our table use it. Ask the school which of the first two it is.

IB status belongs to one campus, not to a brand. Odyssey has six campuses on ECDA’s list, and its own site names four of them as IB World Schools for the IB PYP: Fourth Avenue, Wilkinson, Loyang and Still Road. Orchard and Dempsey are not in that list.

EtonHouse’s Upper Bukit Timah pre-school says Singaporeans there can get ECDA subsidies, and gives the IB World School status to a different campus, Broadrick. One World International School has an accredited campus and a candidate campus under one name.

Every entry in the IB column is the school’s own claim, in its own words, so confirm it on ibo.org before you pay a deposit. Global Indian International School is not in the table. Its kindergarten page describes a Montessori programme in its text and lists the IB PYP for the same ages in its menu, so its own page does not settle which one its early years runs.

The IB PYP at three, beside Montessori and an MOE Kindergarten

An MOE Kindergarten is a Ministry of Education kindergarten that teaches Kindergarten 1 (K1) and Kindergarten 2 (K2).

At three, the IB PYP is a way of organising the day around questions rather than subjects. EtonHouse Broadrick says its pre-schoolers work through four or six units of inquiry a year. A unit of inquiry is one topic studied across subjects, and the school says these cover English, mathematics and science.

Chatsworth calls the IB PYP an inquiry-based curriculum, with teachers acting as mentors and facilitators.

It is rarely the only thing a school uses at this age. Stamford American builds its youngest classes on what it calls a Reggio-inspired approach, play-based exploration that leads into the IB PYP, which it introduces formally at Pre-Kindergarten, ages three to four.

EtonHouse Broadrick follows the developmental stages of the Early Years Foundation Stage, the United Kingdom’s framework for the early years, alongside the IB PYP. EtonHouse Newton is guided by MOE’s kindergarten framework as well.

None of the ten campuses in our table calls itself Montessori on its fee or programme pages. If a Montessori school is on your shortlist too, our profile of Maria Montessori and her child-centred method covers where that method came from.

The gap in price is wide. A full day at an MOE Kindergarten, with the Kindergarten Care cap, comes to S$7,020 a year for a citizen child. The cheapest yearly IB fee in our table is more than three times that.

What happens at Primary 1

A preschool year at an IB school does not close any door by itself, because compulsory education begins at Primary 1, the first year of primary school. MOE says a Singapore Citizen child living in Singapore, above six and under fifteen, must attend a national primary school, which it defines as a government or government-aided school, or a special education school funded by the government or the community. An international school is not one of those.

The real choice comes at six. An ECDA-licensed IB centre ends there, and your child moves on to a primary school like any other preschool child.

The early years of an international school lead into that school’s own primary years, and the Australian International School and One World International School both run the IB PYP to Year 5 or Grade 5.

For a citizen child, staying on past six means an exemption from MOE, its permission to skip a national primary school. Our guide to international kindergartens and the move to Primary 1 covers that route.

How to check a school yourself

Five minutes per school is enough to confirm what a school’s own page cannot: its IB status on the IB’s own site, and the fee terms in writing. Here is the order we’d do it in.

1. Look up the campus by name, not the brand, on ibo.org, the IB’s own website. Check it is shown as authorised for the IB PYP, not as a candidate.
2. Look the campus up in the Preschool Search in the LifeSG app, which ECDA points parents to. If it is an ECDA-licensed centre, the licence and how long it runs will show there. ECDA licences run for 6, 12, 24 or 36 months, and a longer one means the centre has met the rules more consistently. A licensed centre must also display its licence where you can see it when you visit.
3. Ask what period the fee covers, a month, a term or a year, and which year it is for. Four of the ten fees on this page do not say.
4. Ask for every fee beside tuition in writing: registration, deposit, enrolment, facility or building fees, insurance and meals.
5. If your child is a Singapore Citizen, ask whether the ECDA Basic Subsidy applies at that campus, and get the answer before you pay a deposit.
6. Ask what happens at Primary 1, and whether the school takes Singapore Citizen children past Kindergarten 2 (K2), the last kindergarten year.

Then read the two guides that sit beside this one, on what happens at Primary 1 after an international kindergarten and on what a government-supported preschool place costs after subsidies. Put that second number beside the IB PYP fee before you pay the deposit, not after. Our preschool section covers the rest of the years before Primary 1.

Common questions

Wei Chun

Founder & Editor

A Singapore parent writing the guide he wished he'd had — practical, calm, and grounded in what actually works.

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