Holy Redeemer School, Khon Kaen

[thatguy]

We've got an 11 year old finishing up his last year of gradeschool there. Previously he had been in the local school here in the sticks.

My question is mostly about continuing on to their highschool program.

Does anyone have any knowledge or history here?

Another alternative is the highschool in the university grounds. I believe it's called the Khon Kaen Demonstration school.

I haven't a clue about either of them

Any ideas or info?

Thanks for any help

tg

[lost_in_isaan]

We've got an 11 year old finishing up his last year of gradeschool there. Previously he had been in the local school here in the sticks.

My question is mostly about continuing on to their highschool program.

Does anyone have any knowledge or history here?

Another alternative is the highschool in the university grounds. I believe it's called the Khon Kaen Demonstration school.

I haven't a clue about either of them

Any ideas or info?

Thanks for any help

tg

I don't know much about the Holy Redeemer School. However, I have heard a lot about KK Demonstration School which is very well regarded as a good school. It might not be very easy to transfer your child there as it is highly sought after public school though.

[thatguy]

thanks lost,

it's still a bit away timewise, but i've heard good things about KK Demonstration too.

i think i've got more homework to do than the kid.

[thedi]

I was myself looking for a good school for my daughter and was interested in Holly Redeemers School (Maha Tai school) in KKC.

I didn't like the big classes (50 and more kids). I didn't like the rather anonymous atmosphere. I liked the price (it is cheep) and that it is easily accessible with public transport.

I was talking with parents who took their kids from this school and two points were mentioned often:

• The school has a good name, but it is living on this name. They do not live up to expectations. They tend to promise more than they can do.
  
• Many complained, that kids have to take extra tuition. Those who don't, will be second class.
  

I finally decided for my daughter for Khon Kaen Vithes Sueksa (http://www.kkvs.ac.th/), a bilingual school. There I liked the friendly atmosphere and the small classes (my daughters class has just 17 students). I also liked that about 40% of the teachers are Kiwis, and 60% are Thais. The farang teachers speak only basic Thai, so the kids really learn English. On the other hand the price is rather high. 70K per term and this and that: it will come to more than 200K/year. I think the price is justified.

Regards

Thedi

PS: please feel free to contact me for more informations

[thatguy]

Thedi,

Their website looks good.

My wife assumed form the 70,000 Bt price that the students must live on campus. As you didn't mention this, I assume the price (and the fact that there are no dorms in the pictures in the website) is tuition only.

Yes it is quite expensive. Close to 6K US$ per year per student.

As we have a 9 year old facing the same decisions in a year or two, ouch.

I think we'll need to have some kind of genius surface in the little ones and hope they can pass the exams for the Demonstration school.

thanks for your help,

tg

[thedi]

The 70K/term is just for the school. Boarding is possible at 32K/term; the dormitory is not in the school itself, but near Sri Nakarind hospital (on the other side of town). This price includes food and transport to the school. There is a teacher there who helps the kids with their homework (if necessary). Our daughter stays in the dormitory Mon-Fry and comes home only on weekends (we live about 50 km from KKC).

There are school busses that pick up kids in Khon Kaen (also expensive: 6K/term). But there are no public busses to the school. It is located about 6km west of Khon Kaen city, in a big area were an expensive 'Moo Ban' was planed but never finished. Only the school is there in the middle of nowhere - 2km from the public road.

The price is really the only thing, that may speak against this school.

Regards

Thedi

[TerryLH]

Thatguy

Your son will be going to secondary school, not high school. At least not for several more years.

The high school at Holy Redeemer, M4-6, has reasonably small classes.

In M4 this year there are 105 five students in three rooms. There are two science rooms and one math room. If the kids GPA's drop below 2.5 they will be asked/told to transfer to another school. I have been told this actually happened to about 5 or 6 kids last year.

If your son is going there now you should be able to find out what you need to know about the secondary school program in time to make a decision.

I think large classes come with the low cost, wherever you might look.

I've heard it's very difficult and also very costly to get a kid into the demo school.

[Neeranam]

Mahathai is a very good school that I plan to send my daughters. I believe that it's gone downhill since say 15 years ago.

Sa Athit(demonstration school) is expensive and you need some 'connections' to get in.

Be very careful with some schools in KK with a so-called English program. I know that a few have some very unqualified, poor teachers.

[TerryLH]

There are two Mahathai (Holy Redeemer) schools.

Both are on the same road. The road that runs alongside Khon Kaen Hospital. The schools are South of the intersection that is next to the hospital

There is a girls only school that goes from P1 to M3.

The boys school, (co-ed for about 4 years), goes thru high school, M6. This is the school I mentioned earlier.

Both have English programs.

There are actually two more Mahathai schools in KK. One is near VechPrasit Hospital, near the South entrance to KK Uni. It may only go up to 6th grade. I don't think they have an English program.

There is another Mahathai school in Ban Phe. I don't have any info on that school.

There are a number of Mahathai schools (I've heard 22) throughout Thailand. I do know there are a number of kids in the M4 class at the 'boys' school who came here from mahathai, Loei.

I have two nieces at the 'girls' school, and until this year my daughter studied there. I have been satisfied with the school and the education they got/are getting.

Terry

Edited July 3, 2007 by TerryLH

[sheepshank]

I have personal experience of the Holy Redeemer School in Khon Kaen so I'd better add my 2 baht worth to the mix. This is a long post, so please bear with me, and note that my family home is in a small village in Chaiyaphum Province. I am currently renting accommodation in Khon Kaen City.

I have two step daughters both of whom I entered for Holy Redeemer School last Songkran; one for M5 and the other for M2. The girls were graded 3.8 at the end of the last academic year in their previous high school in Chaiyaphum province, thus they were no slouches academically, in fact they were top of their respective years.

They were acepted by HR School and I stumped up the fees for this semester, including an additional fee so that they could undertake 4 weeks of "extra-learn" during the Songkran holiday. The aim being to slot them into the appropriate stream this semester.

After just TWO DAYS of "extra learn", the elder girl (who is on track to become a medical student) advised me that the standard of teaching is not up to their previous school (Kaeng Khro Wittaya, Chaiyaphum province). My wife and I respect her views and decided to pull her from the school, despite the loss of approx 17K baht in fees. She returned to our home in the village and she continues to thrive at her previous (state) school.

The younger daughter was also displeased with the quality of her education (50 students to a room and being in a class which, by large margin, under-performs her) but unfortunately she has little choice because she needs more parental support at this stage of her life. So, despite her protests, she remains at HR School. But only until I deem her sufficiently "grown up" to return to our village and resume her education at Kaeng Khro Wittaya. In the mean time she will get all the parental support she needs and, to fill the gaps in her education, I send her to a "crammer" in Khon Kaen City on Sat/Sun mornings.

You may wonder why my Thai step daughters' education is causing me such grief. It is because I've recently enrolled my 5 year old Luek Krueng daughter into the KK Vithes Suksa Bilingual School and, rather than have a 5 year old girl boarding (remember our family home is in Chaiyaphum), I decided to move my family, lock-stock-and-barrel, to Khon Kaen city. We are all "boarding" so that my youngest can be a day pupil! I would have had no problems entering all three girls for KKVS but unfortunately my step daughters' grasp of English is so poor that they would not have benefitted from a bi-lingual education, despite the fact that they were both No 1 in their year in English.

So, where is this all leading us to? IMO, for all farang papas (and mamas where appropriate), it is imperative that we make whatever sacrifices necessary to ensure that our offspring receive the best education it is in our power to provide. The sacrifices I made to ensure my first family were properly educated were richly rewarded and je n'regret rien (BTW: my French is apalling). I am now doing whatever is needed to ensure my second, and hopefully last, family gives me the same pride as my first.