Nursery Schools (english)

[Rags]

I thought about posting the following query in the "Teaching in Thailand" section, but have placed it here as I would appreciate feedback from both teachers and parents!

My wife and I are looking for an international (English) nursery school for our 2 1/2yr old son. We live in the Bang Na area, and are currently considering either Charterhouse (Srinakarin Rd) or St. Andrews (Sukhumvit 107).

To be honest these schools are already more expensive than we were anticipating, but if we do not hear any horror stories, then we will probably be selecting one of them shortly. By the way we have already excluded Bangkok Patana as the term fees and 'joining fee' quoted are way above our budget!!!

Any comments on the standard of teaching in these schools, or recommendations for other schools in the Bang Na area would be appreciated.

Thanks

Rags

[Neeranam]

Looks like posting in the other section might have been better.

You haven't said if your son is Thai or what? If he is English, as I suspect, I think you are wasting your money putting him to an international school already.

For less money, you could get a maid/tutors/baby-sitters, and take him to Smart Kids or whatever they are called in Central Office Tower, Bang Na.

Have you thought of teaching him yourself?

1 hour a day is what I try to do. that is plenty IMO at this age. Plus time with both parents.

It is important for mine(I think) to mix with other kids too, Thai and farang.

I know some kids who go to and have gone to Pattana, they are 1/2 Thai/Farang.

They are certainly not a good advert for this school. They have lost ALL concept of where they come from.

I have a couple of friends who put their young kids there as they were too busy themselves to look after them, and maybe more importantly, have too much money.

St. Andrews is a good school.

[Rags]

Yep, I think you are right about the choice of forum section - not the level of response that I was hoping for.

As I mentioned in my original post, I didn't place the query in the Teacher's forum as I thought it would go unnoticed by the majority of parents, as it turns out it appears to have gone unnoticed by both sides ...!!

Anyway, thanks for your response.

To answer your question, I am English and my wife is Thai. Our son speaks both languages to a reasonable level for his age, although whilst I am at work the balance tends to swing in the Thai direction.

We are keen that he continues to speak both languages, however if one language has to become dominant then we both want this to be English - hence the idea of placing him in an English nursery school at a relatively early age.

Unfortunately "having too much money" is not a problem for us , so we are still considering our options. As you suggest, maybe expanding my bedtime reading routine together with the "Smart Kids" idea might be a good compromise without costing a fortune - I will check out the programme at Central, Bang Na.

Does anyone have experience of "Smart Kids" or similar centres in the Bang Na area?

[wasisdn]

I have same problem right now. My daughter is 2 years and I was searching the Internet for an international school at Bangna-Trad area. Bangkok Patana is over my budged too, more then 400,000 bath per year at the beginning. Another problemis that my wife is Thai and I’m German. It’s difficult to teach English for us. It would be very helpful, if someone know an international or English teaching school in Bangpakong/Chonburi area.

[Neeranam]

To answer your question, I am English and my wife is Thai. Our son speaks both languages to a reasonable level for his age, although whilst I am at work the balance tends to swing in the Thai direction.

I have a 2 year old too. When I am at work, I expect the balance to swing in the Thai direction, and in fact want it to. My wife can't speak English well, and I don't want her teaching bad grammar/pronunciation. Same with me and Thai.

Kids should be spoken to in your native language, always. Some of my friends come round and speak pigeon Thai to the kids, I say" <deleted> are you doing?"

We are keen that he continues to speak both languages, however if one language has to become dominant then we both want this to be English - hence the idea of placing him in an English nursery school at a relatively early age.

If you stay in Thailand, there is absolutely no danger of your son not speaking Thai. No matter how hard you try, you may not be able to stop Thai becoming the dominant one. What language do the kids(Thai or mixed) at the best International schools like Pattana/Harrow speak in the playground? Thai.

[jennscoot]

hello, it's most likely too far for you to travel but ... www.montessoripattaya.com

Edited March 30, 2005 by jennscoot

[Jockstar]

To answer your question, I am English and my wife is Thai. Our son speaks both languages to a reasonable level for his age, although whilst I am at work the balance tends to swing in the Thai direction.

I have a 2 year old too. When I am at work, I expect the balance to swing in the Thai direction, and in fact want it to. My wife can't speak English well, and I don't want her teaching bad grammar/pronunciation. Same with me and Thai.

Kids should be spoken to in your native language, always. Some of my friends come round and speak pigeon Thai to the kids, I say" <deleted> are you doing?"

We are keen that he continues to speak both languages, however if one language has to become dominant then we both want this to be English - hence the idea of placing him in an English nursery school at a relatively early age.

If you stay in Thailand, there is absolutely no danger of your son not speaking Thai. No matter how hard you try, you may not be able to stop Thai becoming the dominant one. What language do the kids(Thai or mixed) at the best International schools like Pattana/Harrow speak in the playground? Thai.

Not too sure on this neeranam. But my missus reckons that alot of kids forget their Thai. I play at Pattana school for football very week. My missus was with me and wanted to go and play tennis. She spoke to a couple of girls playing who wewre Thai. Shes asked in Thai wher should she pay etc. They then answered in English. I dont know but maybe they were taking the piss.. But i have heard before that alot of International schools forget about the Thai in the sense that they concentrate more on the English. but i might be wrong?

[Neeranam]

Not too sure on this neeranam. But my missus reckons that alot of kids forget their Thai. I play at Pattana school for football very week. My missus was with me and wanted to go and play tennis. She spoke to a couple of girls playing who wewre Thai. Shes asked in Thai wher should she pay etc. They then answered in English. I dont know but maybe they were taking the piss.. But i have heard before that alot of International schools forget about the Thai in the sense that they concentrate more on the English. but i might be wrong?

Jocky

I assume that if they were actually Thai, they were taking the piss. I have known this to happen. If they are Thai and were brought up in Thailand, there is no way they can forget their Thai language. You are right in that some of the international schools don't teach Thai language as much as English. I have known some kids in 10/11th grade who didn't even speak to their Thai family, as they were embarrassed by them. They are brainwashed into thinking Western is better, especially the USA. When asked if they were Thai by me they all said no! even though they had a Thai mother and lived all their life in Thailand. They take the piss out of some of the 100% Thai students, especially the dark ones.

Thai is still their mother tongue.

NN

[Rags]

hello, it's most likely too far for you to travel but ... www.montessoripattaya.com

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Thanks Jennscoot,

I checked out the website and it does look like the sort of thing we are after, but as you mentioned it is unfortunately a little too far away for us.

Neeranam,

It is interesting to hear the views of someone in a similar situation.

Moving slightly off topic I know, but out of interest how do you respond when your child is speaking with you and identifies something correctly in Thai e.g. "Daddy Rott" - do you respond in English saying "Yes it's a car"...? To my way of thinking there is little else you can say, as they are not wrong in their statement, but it does appear to blur the lines a little between Thai and English...

Rags

[Neeranam]

Neeranam,

It is interesting to hear the views of someone in a similar situation.

Moving slightly off topic I know, but out of interest how do you respond when your child is speaking with you and identifies something correctly in Thai e.g. "Daddy Rott" - do you respond in English saying "Yes it's a car"...? To my way of thinking there is little else you can say, as they are not wrong in their statement, but it does appear to blur the lines a little between Thai and English...

Rags

Rags

This does indeed cause me some concern. When they say "Daddy rot" I pretend that I don't understand the Thai words. This will make them learn the English. It is hard though, but persevere. When there is a car coming for example and you don't know what to shout, " rawang rot ma" or " look out there is a car coming", it could be dangerous if they are confused. Stick to speaking your native tongue, IMHO.

I hear some Dads speaking bad Thai to their kids, but in the longrun this is a bad idea, unless you are fluent in Thai.

I would say, " no son, daddy says car".

NN