My daughter is in K2 PM session (we only arrived in July last year so she never did K1). She loves it. Admin staff and the principal have been very attentive to various concerns we have had. Class structure is 1 teacher and 2 teaching aides to each class - they try to have classes of around no more than 25 to 28 children.
My daughter loves her teachers, and comes home every day talking about what she did with which teacher. They rotate in smaller groups for activities between the three 'teachers' at various times of the day/week. My daughter also loves the 'free-play'... she used to spend a lot of her time in the sand pit (which is in the K1 area), but now tends to spend more time in the 'piazza'.. a climbing frame like structure. I was concerned about my daughter not moving around in free play and experiencing different parts of the school, but the teachers guide the children in encouraging them not to stay in the one place for the whole 'free-play', which was a relief. The teachers have listened to our concerns in parent/teacher situations regarding our child and have thus far also provided good feedback for us on areas our daughter should be working on (eg organisational skills).
While numeracy and literacy are not formally taught, my daughters skills have improved drastically from the school... she is starting to spell and sound out words and can write all her letters from the alphabet (simplistically)... something she certainly wasn't doing a few months ago.
In terms of class structure, my daughter is 1/2 chinese, but does not speak cantonese or mandarin fluently at all. Her class is about 75% chinese students, and the rest are ex-pats (I consider her an ex-pat as we moved from Oz and our home language is english.).
In terms of socialising, my daughter is friends with a wide variety of kids in the school in both K1 and K2, boys and girls. The children only speak english in the school environment, and my daughters fluency hasn't suffered at all. However I suppose that would differ from child to child and the friends they hang around.
The kids go out once a week at this time of year to the local park for sports, play and excursions, and my daughter looks forward to this so much she often wants to get dressed for school at 8.30 am in the morning.
My dislikes about the school are: I find the books my daughter brings home from the library very disappointing. I don't know if it is her choice, or the selection the school has on offer, but often the stories in the books don't seem to serve a purpose or make sense despite the books being proper published stories. While I read the story to her once, I tend to supplement this with one of the books in her own collection when I am not happy with the book coming home from the library because books are one of my daughters favorite activities.
My other issue with the school is as a parent with 2 children and no helper, I feel a bit frustrated because my daughter misses out on some school activities because I don't have a helper, and some activities require a 1 adult to 1 child ratio (excluding teachers). Obviously the majority of people would not have this issue.
I was initially concerned with my perception of the quality of teaching my daughter would get from the school. Her main teacher did not 'impress' me when I first met her. However, my judgement has changed drastically from my first impression and I am happy with the schooling she is receiving.
The security of the school is excellent, and we use the bus services as well, and again... have no complaints.
Overall, I haven't had a day yet when my daughter hasn't wanted to go to school. In fact, she gets up quite often on a saturday and wants to go to school (and subsequently gets disappointed she isn't going).
She loves it, has lots of friends, and is definitely learning and growing from the experiences she is gaining there. We are happy with the education she is receiving.
I don't know how it compares to other schools, so this is just our personal experience and opinion. If you've got any questions please feel free to send me a message.
Good luck in your decision!
I know how hard it is to make a decision on what you think will be best for your child.
Regards
Lisa
