Starting School

Future Family Portal

Once your enrollment to ISA is complete and you are waiting for the first day of school to arrive, preparations for onboarding can begin! It’s an exciting time, but there can always feel like there’s so much to plan for. To help keep everything organised and easy to double-check, we have created a Future Family Portal that becomes accessible on enrollment. This contains all the information you’ll need to get ready to join ISA, and you can use it to find helpful links like the ISA School Handbook and the forms to complete for our Nurse’s Office. You will be able to access this through your Admissions Portal after enrollment is complete.

Intake Interviews

Admitted students of all ages must have an intake interview with a counsellor prior to their first day at ISA. They will attend this intake along with at least one parent, and it’s an opportunity for the new family to attend to any final preparations before joining ISA, and for our counsellors to get to know new families. New students may not begin classes until this appointment has taken place. Your admissions officer will help you schedule your intake appointment after everything is confirmed with your enrollment, and it can take place any time up to three days prior to the first day of school. 

Supplies Lists

What do you need to get for your children for their first day of school? Check out the supplies list by grade level on the right-hand side of this page.

Assessments (Grade 6 – Grade 12)

Most students entering ISA in grades 6 through to 11 need to sit for assessments before their first day at school. These assessments are usually not for the purpose of determining admission to ISA, but rather to help evaluate which classes students should join for subjects like maths and languages. Your admissions officer will provide you with more information on which assessments will be required for your child, along with instructions for how to access the assessment papers, after enrollment is fully complete.

On some occasions, your admissions officer will request assessments be completed as part of the admissions process itself. This is an infrequent occurrence, but is most likely to happen for applicants to grades 10 and 11 where we will want to ensure a student’s English language proficiency will be strong enough for them to be successful at ISA.

Ambassadors (Grade 6 – Grade 12)

Almost all ISA students have experienced being “new” somewhere: battling culture shock, nerves, embarrassment and asking that key question “Will I fit in?” At ISA, we understand this and have developed a special student-led programme to welcome incoming Upper School students to the ISA community. Our Upper School Counselling team has created a Student Ambassador Programme to welcome all new students joining ISA in Grades 6 through to 12. One of our wonderful ISA ambassadors will welcome your child into our community by email, keep in touch with them as they get ready to start school here, and then be there to greet them and help with settling in from their first morning of classes onwards.

Orientation/First Morning of School

The two biggest cohorts of new students we have in each school year tend to be on the very first day of the school year in August, and then again in January after Winter Break has ended. For families joining at these times, there will be orientation mornings and information sessions happening to help make a great transition into the school. 

ISA also has new students starting on most other weeks during the school year. These students always join on Tuesday mornings, and these families will have a personalised welcome on their first day of school from their counsellors and new teachers. 

Our admissions team can advise you more about the dates, times and plans for your first day of school once they learn more about your relocation plans and targeted start dates. Please just ask if you have any questions about this; we deal with hundreds of new starting families each year, so we have plenty of experience with all the different quirks of international relocations!