international school

It's been decided (I hope this time it's final) that H will be going to an international school. Despite our preference for him to have a solid foundation in Mandarin and a solid grounding in Asian values, i.e. to attend a public chinese primary school, we've decided on the next best option due for the following reasons:

1. A chinese school may not be conducive for a child like H. He's very inquisitive, he loves learning and is full of imagination (strengths) but he's also very shy and passive (weaknesses). We need an environment that will not stifle his strengths while developing his weaknesses.
2. We do not want to stagnate his learning. If we were to send him to a public school, it will be another 2 years (year 2015) before he enters primary one, just to start learning the things he already knows. He'll either be bored to death or lose interest in learning. The school we're considering implements Year 1 british curriculum for their reception year. This will be great for H since he won't have to repeat learning what he's already mastered.

Next step is to take H on a tour of the school and have him sit for the admission assessment. It's really really a last minute decision. Apparently the kids who've registered are already collecting their books, uniforms, etc this week and orientation is scheduled on the last day of December. Here we are still researching for schools. But just to prep H, we've told him that he will be going to a big boy school next year. He's pretty excited and asked if he can see the school, so that's a good sign. But I can't seem to stop worrying if it will be too much a culture shock for H to be in a big school. For starters, he has to start waking up early (much much earlier) as school starts at 8am and he can't be late (he used to be always late for school since we're not too bothered, it's only a preschool). Then he has to adapt to the long school hours since school only finishes at 2pm (he sometimes still naps after lunch so that has to change). Then of course he has to get used to the large school environment, being picked up and dropped off at the school entrance and making his own way to the classroom, etc.

Alternatively, we can just keep him at home as initially planned, and let him start Year 1 in Spetember 2013 instead of Reception in January 2013.