Tanglin Trust School opened in 1925 and is the oldest British school in Singapore, a single-campus, day-only school for ages 3 to 18. For a family relocating from Taipei, eligibility is not the obstacle it can be in Singapore: a family arriving on an Employment Pass, with a child on a Dependant's Pass, has open access, and a Taiwan passport counts as a foreign passport here. The residency rule bites on Singapore citizens, not on foreign families on the relevant pass.
What sets Tanglin apart from the other schools a relocating family weighs is what happens at sixteen. Most international schools run one senior pathway. Tanglin runs two: in Sixth Form a student chooses between British A Levels and the IB Diploma, and the school publishes strong results for each separately. That choice, made at the end of a British lower school that takes IGCSE and GCSE at Years 10 and 11, is the reason a family picks Tanglin over an all-IB school like UWCSEA or an American school. This guide sets out the eligibility rule, the fees the school publishes in full, and how the two Sixth Form pathways differ.
The Taipei families who ask us about Tanglin are usually relocating on a corporate posting and drawn to a British education, either because a parent knows the system or because they want the option to keep A Levels on the table rather than commit a child to the IB. The question they bring is what the British path looks like end to end, from an enhanced English National Curriculum in the lower school to the fork at Sixth Form, and whether their child is better suited to the depth of three or four A Level subjects or the breadth of the IB's six.
The other questions are the ones every Singapore school raises: whether the family can get a place at a heavily oversubscribed school, and what happens to a Mandarin-literate child in an English-medium British school. We work with relocating families remotely, the same way we teach families across roughly eight countries, and often before the move while the decision is open. What we see is the readiness the school assumes: age-appropriate English, since Tanglin has no support program for a child still learning it, the mathematics and writing that carry a child through a demanding British curriculum, and the Chinese that keeps a child's literacy alive when the school teaches Mandarin as a subject rather than a stream.
The orienting facts, each drawn from the school's own materials and checked in September 2026. Figures are the school's own, in Singapore dollars.
Tanglin is a not-for-profit British school, and its senior years are its distinctive feature: it is the school in Singapore that offers both A Levels and the IB Diploma. It is an IB World School for the Diploma, inspected under British Schools Overseas and rated Outstanding in 2025, and a member of FOBISIA. It teaches the British curriculum, not an American or Advanced Placement one, and it has no boarding. And, unusually for the region, it publishes its fees in full, which is why this guide can carry them.
Tanglin publishes a full fee schedule. The tables below are the school's own, in Singapore dollars, inclusive of GST, for the 2025 to 2026 year. A 2026 to 2027 schedule is also published, so confirm current-year figures with the school before relying on them.
The annual fee combines a tuition fee and a Building Fund, billed in three termly instalments, and it does not include a refundable debenture: unlike some Singapore schools, Tanglin's current schedule carries no refundable capital bond, only the one-time charges shown below. New students pay two terms' fees in advance before admission.
Inclusive of GST. Billed in three termly instalments.
| Year group | Annual fee |
|---|---|
| Nursery | S$34,770 |
| Reception | S$42,675 |
| Years 1 to 2 | S$43,530 |
| Years 3 to 6 | S$45,570 |
| Years 7 to 9 | S$51,375 |
| Years 10 to 11 | S$53,760 |
| Sixth Form, Years 12 to 13 | S$55,734 |
Source: Tanglin fee schedule 2025 to 2026. Checked September 2026. Each fee splits into a tuition fee and a Building Fund, which the school states finances lease renewal, construction, and facilities.
| Item | Amount | Applies to |
|---|---|---|
| Application fee | S$1,000 | Per application, non-refundable |
| Enrollment fee, one time | S$4,500 | On acceptance, non-refundable |
| Capital levy, one time | S$4,500 | Before the first term, non-refundable |
| Refundable debenture | None | Not in the current schedule |
| Examination fees | S$1,000 to S$2,500 | IGCSE, GCSE, A Level, IB years, by subjects and boards |
| Device | Family provides | Years 7 to 13, own device and stylus |
| Uniform, bus, food | Charged separately | As used |
For a new Sixth Form student in 2025 to 2026, the annual fee of S$55,734 plus the one-time application fee of S$1,000, enrollment fee of S$4,500, and capital levy of S$4,500 comes to S$65,734 before examination fees, a device, and uniform. These totals are Harland's arithmetic on the school's own figures, shown so a family can budget the real first year rather than the headline line.
| Ages served | 3 to 18, Nursery to Year 13, on one campus |
|---|---|
| Enrollment | Around 2,800, the school's own approximate figure. A precise dated count is not published |
| Curriculum | Enhanced English National Curriculum, IGCSE and GCSE at Years 10 to 11, then a choice of A Levels or the IB Diploma in Sixth Form. British, not AP |
| Sixth Form pathways | A Levels, usually three subjects, or the IB Diploma, six subjects. The school publishes results for each |
| New senior entry | Year 12, the start of Sixth Form. No new entry into Year 11 or Year 13, the second years of the exam courses |
| Accreditation | IB World School for the Diploma. Inspected by British Schools Overseas, rated Outstanding 2025. Member of FOBISIA |
| Admissions | Year-round applications, an applicant pool reviewed annually rather than a chronological waitlist. Heavily oversubscribed beyond Nursery |
| English support | None. The school has no program for a child not yet fluent in English, and one parent must be English-speaking |
| Eligibility | Foreign pass holders open. Citizens need an MOE waiver, which Tanglin applies for only in limited priority cases |
| Boarding | None. A day-only school |
| Chinese, character variant | Not published by the school. Confirm with admissions |
Where a row reads "not published," the fact does not appear on any page the school publishes. Directory sites carry precise enrollment and faculty figures the school does not state on its own pages, and this guide follows the school.
Tanglin is not just old for an international school. It is a century-old British institution that submits to the same inspection a school in Britain would, which is rare in the region.
The school opened in 1925 to educate the children of the British community in Singapore, and it marked its centenary in 2025, making it the oldest British school in Southeast Asia. It is a not-for-profit, governed by a Board of Governors that directs all fee income back into the school rather than to shareholders, and it sits on a single leafy campus on Portsdown Road in the one-north district, about fifteen minutes from the city center.
What distinguishes Tanglin among Singapore's British schools is its inspection. It is the only international school in Singapore to undergo British Schools Overseas inspection, the UK government framework for British schools abroad, and at its 2025 inspection it was rated Outstanding in every category. It is an IB World School for the Diploma, a member of the Federation of British International Schools in Asia, and registered with the Cambridge and Edexcel examination boards. That combination, a British curriculum held to a British inspection standard while also offering the IB, is the school's particular position, and it is what a family choosing the British route in Singapore is choosing.
Tanglin follows the English National Curriculum, enhanced for an international setting, from Nursery through the senior school, taking IGCSE and GCSE at sixteen. Then comes the fork that no other Singapore school offers in the same way, and it is the heart of the decision.
Through the Infant and Junior schools the curriculum is the English National Curriculum, enriched to reflect the school's international community. At Years 10 and 11 students take IGCSE and GCSE examinations across a range of subjects and boards. The distinctive choice arrives in Sixth Form, Years 12 and 13: a student chooses either A Levels, the intensive study of usually three subjects, occasionally four for a strong student, or the IB Diploma, six subjects across three higher and three standard levels that must include a language and a science. Both sit within the school's own "Tanglin Core," with the Creativity, Activity, Service program and, for A Level students, the Extended Project Qualification, and for IB students the Extended Essay and Theory of Knowledge. The school guides the choice through talks from Year 9 and an options fair, and it publishes results for each pathway separately, so a family can see how each performs.
Two things matter underneath the pathway choice. Tanglin is a British-curriculum school, not an American or Advanced Placement one, so a family arriving from an AP-based school in Taipei, or weighing an American school like Singapore American School, is choosing a different system with different examinations and a different university-application rhythm. And on Chinese, which matters most to this audience, Mandarin is taught as a curriculum subject from Nursery, twice a week in the early years and building to a couple of hours a week in the junior years, ability-grouped with enrichment for native and near-native speakers, and it can be carried to IGCSE and to A Level or IB. But Tanglin is an English-medium British school, not a bilingual one, there is no immersion stream, and it does not run any program to teach English to a child who does not yet have it, so a family whose child needs to build English will not find support here. The school does not state whether it teaches simplified or traditional characters, which for a family bringing a child literate in traditional characters is the question to put to admissions, since Singapore uses simplified.
Because Tanglin runs two senior pathways, it publishes two sets of results, and both are strong. That transparency is itself useful: a family can see how the A Level and the IB cohorts each perform rather than take a single blended figure.
For 2025, the school reports A Level results with 63 percent of grades at A* or A and 87 percent at A* to B, and an IB Diploma average of 39.6 points against a global average in the low thirties, with 36 percent of the IB cohort scoring between 42 and 45. At IGCSE, 80 percent of grades were A* or A. Those are the school's own figures, published year by year. On destinations, the school states that a majority of its graduates go to universities in the United Kingdom, with growing numbers to North America, continental Europe, and Australasia, and it publishes a year-labelled senior profile for universities.
Two honest notes. The results tables are published by qualification but not split by A Level-versus-IB destination, so a family cannot read from them which pathway leads where, and the school's guidance team is the place to ask. And the more specific destination figures that circulate, precise offer rates and counts of places at highly selective universities, appear in the school's promotional senior profile and on third-party sites rather than on its plain results pages, so this guide gives the qualification results the school publishes directly and treats the rest as the school's own marketing rather than confirmed record.
Beyond eligibility, the defining fact about Tanglin admissions is scarcity. Nursery is the main intake, with around 160 places, and the school strongly encourages applying early. Beyond Nursery, places depend on withdrawals, and the school states plainly that demand exceeds availability in most year groups. Tanglin no longer keeps a chronological waitlist. It runs an applicant pool reviewed annually by the head of school and the head of admissions, with priority for siblings of current students, and admission from the pool is not guaranteed. Applications are accepted year-round and may be made up to three years ahead, with most offers from March for an August start and some earlier offers at the school's discretion.
Two practical points shape a relocating family's plan. Entry age is constrained: because Year 11 and Year 13 are the second years of the two-year IGCSE and A Level or IB courses, the school does not admit new students into either, so a teenager relocating mid-course enters at Year 12 for Sixth Form or waits. And readiness is assumed: assessment fits the age, from a play-based session for the youngest to diagnostic papers and interviews for older applicants, and because there is no English support program, an applicant needs age-appropriate English and one English-speaking parent resident with the child. The child's immigration pass must be in hand for enrollment to complete.
Harland is not a school and does not replace Tanglin. We are a 1-on-1 tutoring academy, and we work with relocating families remotely, often before the move, in the three places the schooling decision creates real work for a family: getting in, the years of the curriculum, and the choice at Sixth Form.
A foreign family on an Employment Pass, with a child on a Dependant's Pass or a Student's Pass, can enroll, and a Taiwan passport is a foreign passport for this. Non-citizens must hold a valid pass, which the school states is a condition of enrollment. Singapore citizens need a Ministry of Education waiver, and Tanglin can only apply for one for children of staff, siblings of enrolled waiver-holders, and children of alumni.
Both. Tanglin is the school in Singapore that lets Sixth Form students choose between A Levels and the IB Diploma, and it publishes results for each pathway separately. Before Sixth Form, students take IGCSE and GCSE at Years 10 and 11. It is a British-curriculum school, not American or AP.
For 2025 to 2026, annual fees run from S$34,770 in Nursery to S$55,734 in Sixth Form, inclusive of GST. On top there is a one-time application fee of S$1,000, an enrollment fee of S$4,500, and a capital levy of S$4,500. There is no refundable debenture in the current schedule. All figures are the school's own, in Singapore dollars.
Beyond Nursery, which is the main intake, places depend on withdrawals and demand exceeds supply in most year groups. Tanglin runs an applicant pool reviewed annually rather than a chronological waitlist, with sibling priority. It does not admit new students into Year 11 or Year 13, the second years of the two-year exam courses.
Mandarin is taught as a curriculum subject from Nursery, ability-grouped, running to IGCSE and A Level or IB, but Tanglin is an English-medium British school, not a bilingual one, and it has no EAL program for a child who is not yet fluent in English. It is a day-only school with no boarding.
Our Student Coordinator speaks with relocating families regularly, often before the move, and can help you think through eligibility, the A Level or IB choice, and how to prepare a child for an oversubscribed school that assumes readiness. We work with families remotely. We start by listening.