The Path to Success

How Astor International School Became the

Best Affordable International School in Singapore

Since its launch in 2019, Astor International School has made great strides in becoming Singapore’s best and most affordable international school. Now, as we reflect on our path to success at the start of our sixth year of operation, three key things stand out for us:

Astor International School Principal Shannon de Winnaar with some of our students

1. Vision

From the outset, Astor International School’s mission was (and still is) extremely clear:

To change the face of international schools in Singapore by providing education that is engaging, relevant, flexible and affordable.

We wanted Astor International School to offer something different to our parents; to be reasonable, flexible and affordable; to get away from high-priced international primary schools where the parents have to pay for facilities their children do not use and where the students are lost in the anonymity of a huge, impersonal campus

Flexibility and affordability and the two cornerstones of our mission, and Astor International School has always embodied these two things. We bring flexibility to our parents by allowing them different fee choices, through our concentrated school day and with a large range of enrichment classes. Unlike many other schools in Singapore, Astor International School charges fees for ten months of the year only, and they are paid in nine instalments on fixed dates throughout the year. And with baseline tuition fees of SGD16,900 per year, Astor International School offers excellent value for money for parents of children under thirteen.

Learning is fun and creative at Astor International School

2. Leadership Team      

Elena Holloway was not the only person involved in establishment of Astor International School and Shannon de Winnaar was not its first School Principal. But a certain chemistry emerged when they began working together.

Shannon and Elena - the core leadership team of Astor International School, and the awards they have recently received

Elena had lots of skills relevant to a start-up. But she was not an educator, and she knew that she needed a specialist to bring to life her vision for an affordable, high quality international primary school that would be different to the other schools in Singapore. Shannon had years of experience as a primary school teacher - in Australia, UK and Singapore – and was fully versed in the inquiry-based teaching methods Elena wanted to see in her school. But she had never been a school principal before. They became the core of Astor’s leadership team - a first-time entrepreneur and a first-time Principal.

But their differences became the foundation of their success, their complementary abilities and skills combining to provide strategic direction to a business built on an outstanding educational model and highly-effective teaching staff. Astor International School’s student body has now grown to 100 and its full-time staff to 15. As we approach capacity in our Tanglin campus, we are looking to open new branches and a pre-school to add to the Astor brand.

And the success of Astor International School has garnered important industry awards. Shannon was named the Gold winner of Principal of the Year award by HoneyKids Asia for both 2023 and 2024 in the competitive International Primary School category (featuring many much larger and more established schools). And in the same month, Elena was named “Entrepreneur of the Year, 2023,” as part of the prestigious Entrepreneur 100 Award by the Association of Trade and Commerce Singapore. In January, 2025, she won the same award for 2024. 

3. Effectiveness

True long-term success comes only from doing the hard work repeatedly: by delivering value to your customers reliably; by honouring the promises of your brand, and by listening to the views of your stakeholders. Astor International School does this all day, every day, in these ways.

At Astor International School, we foster a love of nature. Here our students explore Singapore's wonderful natural environment.

• We have remained true to our vision. Astor International School remains affordable and flexible. Our school is small, student-centric and community-based and we have not sought to achieve growth for its own sake.

• Astor International School’s educational product is strong. We combine a strong academic focus on core subjects such as Mathematics, Literacy and English with an emphasis on creative endeavours in Arts, Music, Dance, Language and sports and a deep love and respect for nature

• Astor International School honours and respect its stakeholders. We hire and train the best teachers. We carefully choose and manage our external partners. We listen to our parents and try to make the school better in ways that matter to them.

Astor International School is grateful to all our stakeholders for helping us to our success and looking forward to continuing the journey forward.

Physical activity is critical to the well-being of students at Astor International School.