my husband has just got a job offer in Hamilton, Bermuda and will be moving next month, we will join after the school year finished here in the UK in July, my question is can anyone recommend a good public international school, i understand we will pay for the education over there..i have 2 girls one who will be 2 in Sept and one who is 5 in May,
thnks

I am afraid to say that Bermudians who want their children to go to a good school send them overseas and many of them can find the money for this as it is an affluent island.

Hmm anyway, give me some time and I will make some enquiries, I know a couple of expats with primary school age children so I will ask. The Bermudans I am in touch with will tell you to send them to boarding school!

Thanks for your help... it's appreciated. I have a few more questions

I've been hearing that the rental rates in Bermuda are slowly declining are most landlords flexible / negotiable?

Thanks
B

I left Bermuda in July 2008, so don't know what the rental market is doing currently. However it is entirely conceivable that rents would be falling as Bermuda has not been immune to th eimpact of the global recession so it is possible ex pats are leaving.

In any case, whilst there was never an abundance of rental properties, there was always some room to negotiate. We negotiated our rent down from $10k per month to $9k quite easily when we arrived.

Just heard back from one of my friends in Bermuda. This is their reply:

State schools aren't good and are not available to expats. There are four private schools - Saltus boys only, Bermuda High School girls only, Warwick and Somersfield (Montessori) which are co-ed. They are all generally OK with Warwick being the most integrated between locals and expats. Somersfield seems to have quite a high turnover which may be a bad sign. My three are all at Warwick and the standard is equivalent to a good State primary in the UK. My 12 year old just got a place for a top UK secondary private school although we did get her some extra tuition.

just to correct you
state schools are open to all including expats and Saltus is a co-ed school

Well you are not correcting "me". I have no idea about education in Bermuda. I was grown up when I lived there with no children. Clearly I was quoting a Bermuda expat friend, although his wife is a teacher there so I am surprised they got facts wrong.

Anyway I don't know that the original poster ever read it anyway.

Sorry did not mean to offend

As far as rental market goes, currently, it is pretty good - it is a buyer's market. There are "lots" (for Bermuda) of apartments available at the moment.

Rule of thumb - a decent one bedroom place is probably going to be anywhere from $2,400 upwards. Two bedroom places are $3,500 up. Prices may be negotiable as there seem to be more than the usual number of places available at the moment.

A good website to look at is this one -

http://www.emoo.com/realestate.aspx?catId=39&idr=40

You can sign up for a daily email from them, which is quite helpful.