Picking a school in a new town is a big deal.
And the search is a mess.
Every website shows a different fee.
Half the schools hide their prices.
And nobody explains the exam names.
So we did the slow work for you.
On 25 July 2026 we opened each school’s own fee page, one by one.
We wrote down only what each school says itself.
If a school hides its fees, we say “not published”.
We don’t guess.
Fees change every year.
So use this page to shortlist, then ask each school for its latest numbers.
Start with one question: does the school go up to 18?
Ask this before you look at any fee.
Does the school take my child to the final exams at 18, or does it stop at 16?
Two schools on this list stop at 16.
That’s fine.
It just means you’ll pick a second school a few years later.
Better to know that today.
| School | Highest qualification | Finishes at |
|---|---|---|
| Sunway Iskandar Puteri (SISJ) | IB Diploma or IB Career-related | Age 18 |
| Marlborough College Malaysia | IB Diploma | Age 18 |
| Crescendo-HELP (CHIS) | Cambridge A-Levels | Age 18 |
| Forest City International (FCIS) | US diploma, with AP, A-Level and foundation pathways | Age 18 |
| Stellar International School | Cambridge IGCSE | Year 11, ~age 16 |
| Tenby, Setia Eco Gardens | Cambridge IGCSE | Year 11, ~age 16 |
Not sure what the exam names mean?
Here they are in plain words.
| The name | What it means |
|---|---|
| IGCSE | The big Cambridge exams at 16. Think of them as O-Levels. |
| A-Levels | Two more years after IGCSE, ending at 18. The classic road to university. |
| IB Diploma | A broad two-year course ending at 18. Accepted by universities worldwide. |
| AP / US diploma | The American road. High school ends at 18, with optional college-level classes. |
Two traps to watch.
Tenby does offer A-Levels. But only at its Shah Alam campus, near KL.
The Johor campus stops at Year 11. Its own fee table shows it.
Sunway’s Johor campus runs two systems side by side.
Its Canadian stream stops at Grade 11. No Grade 12 appears on any of its published pages.
In Johor, the road to 18 is the IB.
Want the full story on schools that stop at 16? Read our parent’s guide to Stellar.
How far is the school run?
You’ll drive this road twice a day. Every school day. For years.
So check it before you fall in love with a school. The distances below are measured from Medini; Medini location and transport has the road distances to both Singapore crossings and to the airport.
| School | Area | Distance from Medini |
|---|---|---|
| Sunway Iskandar Puteri | Sunway City Iskandar Puteri | In Medini, on Jalan Persiaran Medini 3 |
| Stellar International | Almas, Puteri Harbour | About 5 km; a new Medini campus is under construction |
| Marlborough College | Iskandar Puteri | About 5.5 km, own campus on Jalan Marlborough |
| Tenby | Setia Eco Gardens | About 15 km by road |
| Forest City International | Forest City | About 18 km by road |
| Crescendo-HELP | Ulu Tiram | 32–38 km by road, on the far side of Johor Bahru |
We measured these ourselves on Google Maps in July 2026.
Road distance beats straight-line distance.
And it’s often longer than you’d guess.
Crescendo-HELP is the odd one out.
It’s the cheapest road to A-Levels in Johor.
But from Medini, the drive crosses the whole city. About 45 minutes in traffic.
That’s a school you move near. Not one you drive to from here.
What the schools charge
Look at the picture first.
The gap is the story.
The priciest school here costs more per year than some others charge for a whole school life.
Here’s the same data as a table.
Each number is labelled with its source.
| School | Annual day fees | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Tenby, Setia Eco Gardens | RM19,500 – RM51,210 (Nursery to Year 11) | Official, 2026 |
| Crescendo-HELP | RM29,700 – RM42,030 (Years 1–11) | Official, 2025/26 |
| Marlborough College | RM63,000 – RM166,800, plus 6% SST | Official, 2026/27 |
| Forest City International | RM65,500 – RM83,500 all-in, some items plus 6% SST | Official, 2026/27 |
| Stellar International | Not published; directories list ~RM14,000–28,000 and disagree | Estimate only |
| Sunway Iskandar Puteri | Not published; directories list ~RM30,000–55,000, unconfirmed | Estimate only |
A few notes that matter.
Crescendo-HELP’s A-Level course was last priced at RM35,000 for the whole two years.
Not per year. For the whole course.
But that price is from its 2024/25 brochure. Ask for the current one.
Marlborough’s boarding goes up to RM229,200 a year for the three-night plan. Full boarding is RM259,800.
Those replace the day fee. They don’t add to it.
Sunway publishes no fee at all, for tuition or for boarding. But its scholarship page gives away a floor: its IB Diploma entrance award is an annual tuition waiver worth up to RM34,000, with a Full Scholarship tier above that, so IBDP tuition there has to exceed RM34,000. Here is how we worked that floor out of the school’s own scholarship table.
Forest City advertises a grant of up to 50% on its own site.
So the sticker price and the real price may differ. Ask.
The costs the fee pages leave out
Tuition is never the whole bill.
Every school here charges money before your child sits in a chair.
Here’s what we could verify.
| One-time cost | Cheapest on this list | Highest on this list |
|---|---|---|
| Application fee | RM250 (Crescendo-HELP) | RM1,150 (Tenby) |
| Registration / enrolment | RM2,000 (Marlborough, Crescendo-HELP) | RM4,000–5,000 (Tenby) |
| Acceptance of a place | — | RM2,500–7,500 (Marlborough, by type) |
| Refundable deposit | RM5,000 (Crescendo-HELP, A-Level) | One full term’s fees (Marlborough) |
Then come the yearly extras. Most schools don’t publish them.
Uniforms. The school bus. Meals. Clubs. And the exam fees at the end.
Two real examples, so you know this is real money.
Marlborough guides RM3,500 to RM5,000 just for the IGCSE or IB exam sittings.
Forest City lists RM2,100 a year for learning resources, and RM6,000 for day-student meals. On top of tuition.
Does your child need extra English help? Ask the price.
Forest City charges RM4,000 to RM10,000 a year for its EAL classes.
The safe move is simple.
Ask each school for the full fee list, in writing, for your child’s exact year.
And ask what you get back if your plans change.
The 6% tax, in one minute
Malaysia has charged a 6% tax on private school fees since 1 July 2025.
It only kicks in when fees pass RM60,000 per child per year.
The Finance Ministry said in September 2025 that only 27 of Malaysia’s 569 private schools are affected.
On this list, that means Marlborough and Forest City. Both already show the tax on their fee pages.
Reports differ on whether Malaysian citizens are exempt.
If the tax changes your maths, ask the school.
The six schools, one by one
Sunway International School Iskandar Puteri
The school that’s actually in Medini.
It’s IB at the top end: MYP for Grades 6 to 10, then the IB Diploma or Career-related Programme to 18.
It also runs a Canadian, Ontario-curriculum stream alongside the IB one, and a parent has to choose between them.
Tuition is quote-on-request, and it always has been. No fee schedule for this campus has ever been published.
Its own scholarship table still sets a floor: IB Diploma tuition here has to be more than RM34,000 a year. See why Sunway’s own scholarship page gives the floor away.
If you live in Medini, this is the only school your child could nearly walk to.
Stellar International School
The affordable Cambridge day school. We covered it in full in our parent’s guide.
It runs from Almas, Puteri Harbour today. It ends at the IGCSE in Year 11.
A new 1,500-student campus is being built in Medini, announced in December 2025.
Completion is estimated around 2027. But no opening date is confirmed.
It publishes no fees. Directory guesses start around RM14,000, and they disagree with each other.
Ask the school for its schedule.
Marlborough College Malaysia
The grand British school of the area. Ages 3 to 18, day and boarding from Year 5.
It ends with the IB Diploma. Not A-Levels, despite the British name.
It’s also the only school here with every fee published for 2026/27: RM63,000 to RM166,800 a year, plus tax, for day pupils.
You pay for the name, the campus and the pathway.
At least the school is open about exactly how much.
Crescendo-HELP International School
The value road to A-Levels.
Cambridge A-Levels to 18, with published day fees of RM29,700 to RM42,030.
And a two-year A-Level course last priced at RM35,000 in total.
The trade-off is the drive.
From Medini it crosses the whole city. This is a school you move near.
Tenby, Setia Eco Gardens
The mid-priced Cambridge option, with the clearest fee list of all: every year group is published.
From RM19,500 a year at Nursery to RM51,210 at Year 11.
It ends at the IGCSE at the Johor campus. The group’s A-Levels are in Shah Alam.
The same campus also runs Sekolah Sri Tenby, a Malaysian-curriculum school at roughly 40% of the fee.
Different school, different final exam. Don’t mix the two.
Forest City International School
The American option: Pre-K to Grade 12, ending in a US high school diploma.
At the top there are three roads: AP, A-Level, and a foundation year.
It joined the CATS Global Schools network in July 2024. It used to be Shattuck-St. Mary’s.
Fees are published for 2026/27: RM65,500 to RM83,500 all-in for day students, with boarding from RM30,000 on top.
One thing needs saying plainly, because the headlines confuse people.
A “Forest City school” was shut down in July 2026. That was Network School, an unrelated tech project.
It has nothing to do with FCIS.
FCIS published its 2026/27 calendar, hired a new Head in April 2026, and graduated its Class of 2026 as normal.
What the school-fee websites get wrong
We checked the popular fee websites against each school’s own pages.
The pattern was bad enough to warn you.
Tenby’s directory numbers were two fee cycles out of date.
Forest City’s most-quoted range counts the textbook charge twice. And it skips the tax.
Stellar’s two main listings differ by more than RM10,000 a year. Neither says which school year it means.
It’s not malice. Fees just change faster than these sites re-check.
But the lesson is clear.
Only budget on numbers from the school’s own fee page, dated to a school year.
And when a school publishes nothing, the honest answer is a phone call.
Questions to ask on the school visit
Print this list, or keep it on your phone.
- Is there a seat in my child’s year, or a waiting list? Popular years fill up, so ask early.
- What entry test will my child sit, and in which subjects? Most schools test maths and English. Mid-year entry is usually fine.
- The full fee list, in writing: tuition for my child’s year, application, registration, deposit. And what’s refundable.
- The yearly extras: uniforms, bus, meals, clubs, exam fees.
- The bus route from where we’d live, its cost, and the real pickup time at 7 a.m.
- Food: what’s on the menu, and are halal options available?
- Extra English help, if my child needs it, and what it costs.
- What happens after IGCSE, at Stellar and Tenby: where do your students go at 16?
- How do new kids settle in? Is there a buddy system? How soon can my child join clubs?
- For Stellar: a firm opening date for the Medini campus, if timing matters to you.
That’s the list for visit day.
We also put together a longer version, covering the whole decision, not just the visit.
Download the printable checklist (PDF, one page)
It adds what to check before you even shortlist, and what to confirm before you sign anything.
Will your child settle in?
This is the worry under all the others. So let’s say it out loud.
Most children find their feet within their first term.
These schools are full of kids who were once the new kid. Being new is normal here.
Clubs, sports and music speed it up more than anything.
That’s why the buddy question above matters.
And bring your child on the visit if you can.
Their gut feeling about a corridor full of kids is data too.
A note for families planning the move
Schools and homes are one choice, not two.
The school run shapes your family’s day. So pick the school and the address together.
Medini now has one school that goes to 18, and Stellar’s campus is on the way.
Everything else here, except Crescendo-HELP, is within about a 20-minute drive.
Bodaiju Residences is in Medini, in the same district as Sunway’s campus and Stellar’s future one.
If a home nearby is part of your plan, it’s there, and the three-bedroom is the layout the towers are built around.
But start with the school.
It’s the harder thing to change.