Help with Shanghai schools for British family

Shanghai is one huge city! What sub-dictrict will you be in? It will help others who want to respond.

Not sure yet, as was going to decide once we decided on the best school for our kids. We want a school that follows the British curriculum. I quite like the look of YCIS - which is "based on the English curriculum". Has anyone got any info regarding this school? Reviews seems to be quite old online?

YCIS may profile itself as a British school but basically it's a Chinese school following British curriculum. Most international schools in Shanghai have had to open for Chinese students as well so I think you'd be lucky to get a place somewhere. My youngest son (then 16) went to Dulwich for IB and I have quite a few students (I teach English) who have children that go to Dulwich and are very happy. Most of them are in DUCKS (kindergarten) or Junior school.
All in all Dulwich is an excellent school although communication with the parents could have been better in the time my son visited. But that was high school.
Dulwich College is situated in Green City, an excellent place to live. We have lived in Green Villas for over 5 years now and love it so much that, even after our youngest left for university, we decided to stay here rather than move to Puxi. It's green, it's relatively quiet and you've got shops, supermarkets and restaurants close by. It does depend on your budget though, rents throughout Green City vary from around 30,000 (apartment) to over 60,000 rmb per month for a detached villa with a garden. If you have any more questions, you can always ask me, I'm an old hand in Shanghai now! Dulwich is also building a campus in Puxi but that isn't ready yet, and I really have no idea when it will be finished. By the way, have you looked at Wellington? Beautiful campus in a very quiet area and fantastic facilities.

Thank-you so much for this, a great help. Green City sounds like a lovely place to live. My husband is going on a recce to Shsnghai in a couple of weeks, so will get him to look at Wellington too.
I have lots more Qs, but 3 kids on inset day and need to get them out before we all explode!

Good luck and by the way, since Shanghai is such an enormous city, you might want to take into account the place your husband's office or worksite will be. It's all great if you and the children are very close to a school but the commute from the suburb Jinqiao (where Green City is located) to Puxi (city) is very long and busy during rush hour (around 1 hour or more). Having said that, my husband's office is around 15 minutes drive from our house but also in Pudong. You will probably have a car and driver so he doesn't have to drive himself, but it still takes up quite a lot of time to the city with the horrible traffic here. An alternative is to take public transport but the buses' destination is only written in Chinese. The metro has English as well, though.
There's also another British school, used to be called British International School Shanghai but I think they changed the name to North Anglia International School, which has campuses in Pudong (the suburb Kangqiao, about 20 minutes from Jinqiao) and Puxi (I think the suburb is Minhang but I'm not sure). They also have a good reputation but not the posh of Dulwich or Wellington. Good luck with everything! Shanghai is an imposing city, what with 26 million inhabitants of which probably about 500,000 are non-Chinese. There are so many people everywhere, always, apart from some hard-to-find small parks or other areas. We have been here over 5 years and I still haven't seen everything of this city, not even close! There are a lot of bad things but a lot of good things, too. Should you have more questions, you can try to become a member of the facebook page 'trailing spouses Shanghai', it's some kind of forum where you can ask many questions and get them answered as well! I think any member can approve so it shouldn't be a problem

Hi Ally pally, there are several nice condominiums in the Lujiazui area (Pudong) which you can consider. It is very convenient with subway, shops, banks, etc., and somewhat central between the eastern and western part of greater Shanghai. Even if your kids go to Dulwich (I strongly recommend; my daughter is studying there) and your husband office is in the west (Puxi), you won't feel much inconvenience. YCIS was set up by HK businessman, YK Pao, so, it is not exactly a British school.
You can rent a nice apartment here for about CNY30-35,000 (however, I hear that rental increase this year is quite steep, so, please take note).

Feel free to contact me if you have any questions. Wish you all the best.


Cheers,
Jeff