Prince of Wales Island International School (POWIIS)

Our son started Year 7 this year. It was a difficult decision choosing which school to send him to on the island. However we are feeling more confident it is the right one. So far teachers are very supportive, learning environment is challenging yet fun. Location is the downside yet worth it for the 'right' school.

Teachers are great. Food is awful. Everyone speaks mandarin on a daily basis. A lot of racism within the students, to some extent discrimination as well if they weren't Chinese. They bought a piano that is air conditioned 24/7 which costs more than my house, yet the football field has holes filled with sand. Basketball hoops that are broken take a couple of years to replace. Credit to them for finally replacing in it. Poor poor location, and the price of everything keeps rising yearly. A lot of smoking in the boarding house even as early as year 9! I studied here for 4 years and it was worse and worse each year. To anyone who feels the same, my advice is to focus on your academics so you have a good way out. The teachers were great, I loved all of mine. From my PE teachers, to all my math teachers, my science teachers, humanities, English teachers, they were all great. Use them wisely, they can help you a lot. Not to mention the school and its owners have decided to buy likes on facebook from indonesia to make themselves look good. Very money minded and would not recommend going there having studied there.

First for all as an experienced ex student in this school I don’t recommend studying in this school. 1.School meals, breakfast lunch and dinner doesn’t even look appetising and it is not delicious,most of the student rather bring their own meal to schoo or for boarders they are most likely to ask their friends to bring food for them.Sometimes the food is not even cooked properly and not healthy while some “people” assume it is healthy and has a balanced diet. 2.Boarding House,I don’t recommend to let your children to stay in the boarding house as the aircon temperature can only be on 24 degree which is not ur average room aircon temperature,even tho they supply every room a portable fan but it takes up the space in the room + noise pollution for the student and it is uncomfortable for them. 3.Still Boarding House, Full time boarding students are required to wake up on a Sunday for their breakfast,like seriously? Why can’t they just rest.Dont talk to me about the health of the student they are teenagers,they know when they are hungry.Besides that, some stupid activity that students are required to do which are compulsory are just a waste of time,they could have use the time to enjoy or do better things during the weekends. 4.Lunch Rules, Student are not allowed to bring their phone to the canteen.I agree with this but seriously? Why can’t student put their phone just on top of the table,what are the disadvantage to be scared of? Radioactive in the pants?I am angry about this because recently my friends were eating lunch and their phones was just on top of the table and not even using it but they got scolded for that and I find this action stupid.Besides that students are not allowed to be in the classrooms during lunch time,this is just stupid as they are not many place for student to rest during lunch times or maybe some student needs private place to study,don’t tell me about the library it’s just noisy as hell with the younger students running around in the library. 5.Social Media,I don’t think the school should interfere in this as this is their problem and they should know how to sort it out with their family.In addition recent years there is a case where teachers and students can’t be in a whatsapp group and I totally don’t support this because this is the modern world which how student and teachers should interact with each other,for example student can ask what homework or what daily task they should do in the group and every student can reply instantly.In addition what if there is an emergency for boarding students in the boarding house,it is the quickest way for them to inform the staff.Dont talk to me about email as email is just stressful to use and it will take a longer time to reply .I suggest the school should change perceptions about social media towards student and staff. 6.Year 11,as the school price are increasing year by year without any valid reason,I suggest that the school should make a graduation dinner for the year11’s as most of the student are their final year in the school.I don’t support the part where they have to stay in school until year13 to have the graduation dinner as it’s unfair for the students.As the price keep increasing but they seldom improve anything in the school which makes students and parents and staff curious about what is going on where did the money go? 7.Swimming Pool and Gym, I agree that when going to these places there should be a supervisor,however for boarding students,they recently felt furious about this as the boarding staff made a timetable where what time will the gym and swimming pool open but most of the time there is no one and students often have to ring the head of boarding doors to ask if there is teacher which will disturbs both students and teachers as students will feel annoyed and teachers might be resting after a long day in school.So I suggest the school should do a meeting about this who and when will take care of the pool and if the supervisor is not there I hope they can give a valid reason why? Overall education wise is good.

My son started year 8 here in September. It's only been a couple months but so far things are going very well. All the teachers and school management have been great. My son likes the school and is even OK with the 40-min bus ride from the side of the island where we live.

It has a very nice boarding facility, and the boarders are looked after very well. But the cafeteria food is horrible according to many students' experience including my sons. The school is still quite new, has nice facilities, but besides academics, school mostly places emphasis on only music and performing art, quite disappointing about sports programs. As to the student demographics, majority is Malaysian-Chinese students, few students from overseas. Teachers must remind students to use English in school, but in vain. As soon as teacher leaves, Chinese is spoken. Except for its British curriculum, the school is almost like a Chinese school, not quite international.

My daughter has been in Powiis for 2 years and she likes it very much. The teachers and staffs are good and helpful. The only complain she has was the canteen food. She didn’t have any problems making friends although she doesn’t speak Mandarin. All her friends spoke good English. I have 2 more children in another international school and I am transferring them to Powiis. If this school was located in a more strategic place, it will be a very popular school.

a bit pricy but a good school. Good facilities, you pay for what you get. Fair management in dealing with problem. Much better than the school nearby with the "f' letter. we are happy to move here prior to pandemic.

I attended POWIIS from Year 7-Year 11. Not only is it insanely overpriced, but I feel like it was not worth the money at all. I have quite a few things to say so this review may be quite lengthy. -Most of the teachers (especially in the science department) are awful at teaching. I tried to mention my frustration with my physics teacher to another member of staff and they did not take into account anything I had to say. As teachers, you are supposed to care about what students have to say, and the least you could do is listen. May I also add that reading slide shows/making students take notes for the entirety of the lesson is not teaching. This is something quite a few POWIIS teachers do and it’s not an effective way to learn at all and it in fact feels like self study instead; or rather a complete waste of time. Teachers like this are really frustrating to have especially for older years such as students in IGCSE or A-Level because those are particularly important times for a student in which they need the teachers’ help as much as possible. (I’m aware that POWIIS has great results but speaking from experience I felt helpless.) -Some teachers were way too strict on uniform. I understand things like skirt length in order to maintain a sense of appropriateness in a school environment, however constantly nagging girls to tie their hair back is completely unnecessary as well as dictating how they can express themselves (piercings, hair dye, nail polish etc). These sorts of things don’t affect a student’s learning at all, but a lot of teachers here seem to make a massive deal out of it for no reason. There is also a number of unintelligent decisions being made by staff. -The general cleanliness of the school is quite bad. The bathrooms are filthy (especially the ones by the pool & outside the canteen) and I felt extremely uncomfortable everytime I entered one. The facilities are generally quite decent but the cleanliness of the school is something a lot of students in POWIIS have concerns with. As well as this, the school is pretty much located in the middle of nowhere (However I understand that Balik Pulau is still a developing township) but its location makes it difficult for students to travel there and back because a lot of students live quite far away. -The community; POWIIS mainly consists of Malaysian-Chinese students so the majority of the students there can speak Mandarin to the point where it’s basically a government school with an international curriculum. This also ostracises students who can’t speak Chinese. Speaking of ostracism, this school has a serious issue with racism. I often hear a lot of insulting things being said about Indians & Malays by the Chinese students and vice versa. I know a number of students who would partake in casual racism and the POWIIS community is generally quite divided. I feel like this school doesn’t take much action when it comes to serious matters but rather focuses their attention onto things that are less significant (I could name some instances but for privacy’s sake I won’t.) -Also POWIIS does not necessarily have a good sports program because most of their energy is put towards performing arts. This is something I’d love to see some work on in future because I believe athletics and sports is just as important for students to find out what they really love doing.It’s always good to have something for everybody to enjoy. All the negatives aside, the new counsellors/support team is very good. They are really kind, approachable and easy to talk to and I was helped a lot of times by them. Prioritising mental health is important for students during these challenging times and I’m very glad that POWIIS has a team of supportive people that understand and help. The pre covid house events were also enjoyable and I made some good friends here. but the wifi and food is awful and i’m glad i left, i really dont recommend. and forcing students to do triple science (i know this has been changed) for igcse was also unnecessary and made studies harder for a lot of people.