International School in Admiralty

May2468

Well, how to say, I just want to share my experiences and give parents another picture of the school. Other parents may have good experiences with the school and so please forgive me if I said anything which may hurt other parents who have good feelings and experiences. My son started his early education in international schools (he never joined any local nursery/school until now). He started his playgroup in Woodland (3 days a week) and Tutor Time (2 days a week) when he was 1.5 yrs old. After that he attended Woodland school for stepping stone and his kinder and Tutor Time for Summer School till he swapped to Starters for his kinder. Woodland follows the British curriculum while Tutor Time follows the American’s. They are both international schools. My experiences in these 2 schools are a bit different from Starters. For examples, my son did get sick during his school days in these 2 schools, but both school teachers called me when my son was sick for more than 2 days asking me about his condition. Both teachers are “guai lo”, one is Australian while the other one is an American. So it’s really depends on the teacher and the school style whether they take a rather responsive and open approach to parents. I agreed that it’s the parent’s responsibility to call the school when their kids fall sick, but my point is the heart of the teachers. Will they be aware their students are absent from schools for few days? Will they care & concern? International school = no need to care & concern? Of course, it’s not compulsory for the teachers to call, but as parent, I appreciate thei call, and I can also see whether the teachers have heart or no heart on the children.

Maybe I could give parents one more example, my son was bit by his classmate causing a blue teeth mark when he was in Tutor Time. When I fetch my son, the teacher gave me a very brief report of why & how it happened and felt sorry of its happening. I appreciate it so much. “No news is good news” is not true. They reported to me the “bad news” but I didn’t mind that biting case, coz small children are always like that. Biting would always happen, unless it happens continuously, I would intervene. But same case did happen on my son in Starters. My son got different blue teeth marks from school in different days. After several times like that, plus he learnt some bad behavior (just was there 2 months but learnt splitting saliva), I thus called the school to reflect. I was told by Winnie (who was told by Mrs. Malton) that they checked and could not see the teeth marks. She argued that my son got it from other places. But except going to the school, he was at home. He didn’t join any playgroups or activities. He is a single child in the family. Who bite him? I told them it’s already the third or forth time he got the bit marks before I reflected it to the School. My husband also took down the teeth marks in photos. It was so apparent even in photos and I don’t know why the teacher said she could not see. I could make the photos print for their reference. I am not sure if the behavior of splitting saliva + getting bite marks several times are really not a big deal (少少事?), which I over-reacted and disturbed the school? Yet, my heart arches when I saw my son who got bite marks more than few times. I didn’t ask to schedule a very formal meeting (as I also never did it in Woodland and Tutor Time). I just want to talk to the teacher when I fetch my son after school, reflect to her and let them aware on that. I always talk to Woodland and Tutor Time teachers when I send and fetch my son to and from school. So I thought it’s quite common and natural for parents to freely talk to the “guai lo” teachers in international schools. Maybe I am wrong.


As far as I remember, I did participate in the school picnics, Halloween parties, birthday parties, pajamas fashion show, beach party in both schools but never was invited by starters to their school activities. So, “most of the schools which welcome parents to help in some of the class activities in junior primary (? not kindergarten?)” is not true. My son is still a kindergarten student now, but I have particpated in many of his school activities.

I have to say the other 2 schools are not perfect. Like when my son moves up to upper class with another teachers now, I can feel some are a bit racists who act more nice and kind to the “guai lo” parents than we Chinese. I also don't like that. Yet, they still didn’t block the communication with us. Some “guai lo” parents talk to the teacher even more than us. Maybe I am that kind of Chinese parents as described by Horizon in the eyes of Starters. Yet, I am really Chinese ma…..."學校如覺得家長煩,真的希望小朋友早些退學" Oh, if it's really that the case, is that a good school? I am really scared. To me, it's the other way round. I just don't want to continue bother. You know, children are always on the teachers' hands.

YYFUNG

In fact I appreciate there is somebody sharing another side of the school (although we are much towards to choose Starters next year for K1).

I am not totally agreeing with "no news means good news". We are a family being brought up in San Francisco. My husband, my sister-in-law, and my nephews and nieces all being schooling there from kindergarten to university.

I share these strings of emails with them, they say " never ever a single parent would accept such situation ".
They all believe regular and open communication between family and school is critical - It facilitates the family doing the same/ similar principle as the school at home.

In fact we know Starters has pro and cons even before some mama shared their different view. We are still in "thinking process" in school selection.
From my side, I may probably let her start in April 2009 as a warm-up. Even it is bad, it may take 3 months only before a summer holiday.

Thank you,
Maria (Ava mama)

Gisele

Sorry to hear what happened to those children but it does not change my positive feeling of Starters, even we had done the afternoon sessions for months only.
In fact, we liked this school so much that at one time, we were thinking of switching my son to Starters' regular sessions and quit his local kindergarten.
But my son took a long time to build up his friends in the local school, he just could not leave them.

Honestly I wouldn’t like it if my child got bitten by his classmates. Likewise I wouldn’t like it if he picked up bad manners from them.
But I would let my son sort it out himself before took it to the teachers.
That is part of his life which he should try to learn and handle.
He may be too young to do anything meaningful but there is no harm in trying.


As I said before, when they noticed that my son had certain learning problem, the teacher were very quick to grab me and discuss what happened.
Probably, they thought that was what really matter.  And that is also what I think really matter.

For the toilet issue, Ms. Winnie let me take my son to the toilet the first few times because he was new to the school and he did not feel easy with strangers.
The toilet were clean, no smell, no water on the floor.
After my son got to know the school better, Ms. Winnie took him to the toilet and asked him to do it himself.
I think it is good for him because he should have learned to do this long ago.
Ms. Winnie would also let me take my son to the toilet when he wanted to poo poo because he did not manage to clean himself afterwards.


My friend who sent his son to the summer school (and who told me his son’s English improved a lot there) said his son was toilet-trained within a week, probably because she was not allowed to take her son to the toilet and the children there were taught to do it properly instead of relying on mummy or maid all the time.