TLC International School

1. Initial enquiry and campus visit. Start by contacting the school to request a campus tour or information meeting so you can see the facilities and confirm the curriculum stream (American AERO program / the school's separate "小牛津书院" A‑Level pathway). The school encourages in-person visits and will provide an admissions contact for scheduling; make note of the school's published telephone numbers on the school's site when you contact them.

2. Complete the online application and pay the application fee. Parents must fill out the school's application form and pay a non‑refundable application fee (the school's online “Apply Now” page states an application fee of RMB 500, which is deducted from tuition on successful enrolment). Keep the payment receipt and confirm whether the fee is refundable or transferable — the school's page explicitly calls the fee non‑refundable.

3. Prepare and submit required documents. Most international schools (and TLC's affiliated listings) ask for standard documents such as the child's passport, parents' IDs, recent school reports, and up‑to‑date immunization records; the exact checklist is not fully listed on the public Apply page, so confirm the school's current document list with admissions before submitting original documents. Provide translated/notarized copies as requested, and bring originals to any in‑person meeting — missing or incorrectly formatted documents can delay processing.

4. Entrance assessment and interview. TLC's Apply Now page says all applicants take an age‑appropriate entrance assessment and interview; for the 小牛津书院 (the school's A‑Level/IGCSE pathway) published Q&A indicates testing includes English and mathematics (math may be set in Chinese for that track) and an English interview with the principal. Plan to allow time for both written testing and a separate interview; ask whether assessments are administered in English, whether there is an EFL placement track, and whether online testing is available if you are applying from abroad.

5. Offer, acceptance and payment steps. If the school offers a place, it will send an acceptance/offer with next steps and payment instructions; the school's public pages do not list a standard deposit/acceptance fee or exact payment schedule for every grade, so confirm the required deposit amount, payment methods (bank transfer / in‑person) and refund policies before accepting. Also ask about sibling discounts, payment deadlines, and whether the stated tuition includes textbooks, meals, bus service or other extras — third‑party listings show tuition figures but extras and payment schedules vary by year and grade.

6. Placement, EFL support and start‑of‑term formalities. After enrollment you may be asked to attend orientation and, for non‑native English speakers, an EFL/placement programme is available (the school publishes an EFL programme for younger grades and limited secondary EFL places). Clarify start‑of‑term requirements such as health checks, uniform orders, school‑provided insurance (if any), and the calendar for the academic year so you can arrange visas, travel and housing if relevant.

TLC's publicly available local listings and recent school‑affiliated announcements for the 小牛津书院 (the school's A‑Level/IGCSE pathway) describe a formal scholarship scheme that includes two main tiers: full tuition scholarships (tuition fully waived) and half‑tuition scholarships (50% tuition reduction). Those materials state that scholarship awards are based on entrance assessment performance and that the school re‑evaluates or stages assessments annually (scholarships are subject to periodic review and typically do not cover extras such as international exam fees or school trips unless explicitly stated). Scholarship details and eligibility (number of awards, selection rubric, renewal conditions and whether scholarships apply to all streams/grades) are described in third‑party summaries of the school's announcements — you should request the school's official scholarship policy and the current scholarship application/timetable from Admissions, because public summaries warn that exact amounts, the number of awards and renewal rules can change year to year.