 SFMS Singapore opens Chennai office
 St. Francis Methodist School (SFMS), a leading private academic school owned by the Methodist Church in Singapore, that offers quality class education to overseas as well as Singaporean students, has opened its admissions office for the India region in
Chennai.
SFMS, a not-for-profit organisation, has been serving the student community since 1960 with its key focus being education for the general good of society. Since inception, the school has been responsible for providing secondary schooling and pre-university courses and related services that are of a high quality and in a challenging and multi-cultural learning environment.
Singapore: Hub for international education
 Being truly multi-cultural and a safe country with quality class education, Singapore has made the rest of the world look at it as the hub for international education. Singapore-educated students are welcome all over the world, including the US, UK and Australia both for higher education as well as for employment. The very fact that the student community in Singapore comprises students from over 40 nationalities is proof enough of this.
Schooling in Singapore:
While other overseas education destinations are more for
post graduation and to an extent for under-graduation, Singapore as an education destination is right from the schooling stage. The
truly multi-cultural and absolutely safe environment enables the parents and students to even pursue schooling at Singapore.
The international acceptance of the Singapore schooling system (Singapore - Cambridge system) and the fact that Singapore schools also offer Australian (AUSMAT) and British school syllabus (IGCSE) make it a very popular overseas education destination for international schooling.
Courses offered by SFMS:
 St Francis Methodist School offers Lower Secondary, O levels (equivalent of class X in Indian system) & A levels (equivalent of class XII /+2 in Indian system) AUSMAT (Australian pattern), IGCSE (British pattern).
It also offers pre-university programmes such as the St Francis Baccalaureate porgramme, which is a broad-based liberal arts programme endorsed by the South-Western College in Kansas, US. Students who complete this programme at St Francis can proceed to South- Western College in the US and complete their studies in a specialist field or a general field.
BTEC Higher National Diploma in Business is another pre-university programme. This business education-based programme is in partnership with the Bradford Business School (UK). Students who complete this programme at St Francis get an assured placement in the third year of the business degree programme offered by the Bradford University in UK. These students also can take advance standing in several other UK, US and Australian universities.
SFMS runs the English Academic Programme for overseas students which enhances their English language skills so as to take up international education in the English medium.
Advantage SFMS:
 SFMS students come from different nationalities; with over 65 per cent of the total student strength being overseas students, SFMS is truly international in flavour. The infrastructure of SFMS is excellent and includes a library with over 7,000 books, 29 well-furnished and comfortable classrooms and over 100 computers. To ensure better individual attention, the student:teacher ratio is small and the strength of each class is kept low.
A lot of importance and attention is given to enhancing students’ communication, personality, discipline and improving their individual strengths and abilities.
SFMS provides excellent co-curricular and sports activities. Community service, debate, drama club, percussions, photography, Christian fellowship, mathematics club, art club, music, dance, basketball, cricket, snooker, soccer, bowling, aerobics, swimming, badminton and board games are some of the activities available at the school.
The faculty of SFMS is well-qualified, experienced and trained. They come from different nationalities and the people developer certification of SFMS implies that there is continuous training and development of the faculty.
SFMS makes necessary arrangements for the accommodation of the overseas students’ right from the pick-up service at the airport. The Methodist Church that owns the school also provides for partial scholarships for students based on merit and need.
SFMS being a top private school in Singapore, with about 65 per cent international students, has several distinctions. SFMS has the Singapore Quality Class, a quality certification awarded by the Singapore Standards Board - SPRING, which recognises the quality processes of the private schools. SFMS was among the early schools to get this certification which was only introduced in 2003.
SFMS is Case Trust Approved and has a Student Protection Scheme (SPS) in place. This is a scheme that protects the interest of the students and parents especially overseas. For any Singapore institute to recruit overseas students, it is now mandatory for them to have this SPS, which is available at SFMS and means the interest of the current and prospective students and parents is protected.
SFMS has all the necessary approvals for running a private school in Singapore from the Ministry of Education in Singapore. It also has an ISO quality certification, Innovation Class certification and People Developer certification in place, all of which guarantee a high quality system in both administration as well as faculty development.
For overseas students, SFMS enjoys ‘Green Lane’ processing which means that the processing time for a student pass is only 2 weeks, against the normal 4-6 weeks, the security deposit with the immigration office is waived and the student pass is valid for the entire duration of the course and does not warrant periodic renewals.
Second Chance.
 SFMS likes to create opportunities popularly known as providing a second chance for local and overseas students who are unable to enter or succeed in the mainstream schools.
Several students who have failed in the mainstream have joined SFMS and passed these exams with flying colours and thereafter joined good colleges/universities and having a successful career.
SFMS is known for providing such second chances and several press reports and interviews of such students are testimony to this.
India Office.
To facilitate the admissions to St Francis Methodist School in Singapore, an admission office has been opened in Chennai. V A Sekkappan would be the resident-representative who would assist prospective students and parents in their admission process.
He can be contacted over E-mail: Sekkappan@sfms.edu.sg
Phone 044 52048046 / (0) 94443095656
The website address of the school is www.sfms.edu.sg
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