Good Pre-school In Bangkok

[Livinginexile]

My wife and I live in Bkk and we work for the same construction firm.

We have a nearly 4 year old son and at present his grandparents look after him during the day whilst we are at work.

The problem is, he never gets to interact with other kids his own age and allthough his grandparents love him to death, they rarely take him outside.

My son is starting to get cabin crazy so I want him to start pre-school for at least for 2-3 days per week.

I have been looking around and have found nothing suitable!

I think it should be an English speaking school but a Thai one would be cool as long as there are other English speaking kids there.

Does anyone know of a good pre-school in Bkk?

At the moment we live in the Sukumvit area but we will be moving soon, probably to around Silom area.

If i can find a good school for him we will move to wherever it is in Bkk.

I hope someone can help me out here.

[MikeyIdea]

I don't know of the schools around Sukhumvit, Silom so I can't advice there. Another recommendation though: Look for pre-schools that also have elementary school if possible, so that the kid can continue in the same school, saves the hassle of changing school and pre-school will be tuned it to what is required knowledge wise in first grade (that's actually important). Academic knowledge is (unfortunately) important for pre-schoolers, and some schools are pushing their kids way beyond what is reasonable or good for a 4-5 year old.

Find a school decently close to home! Pardon the exclamation mark but the way academic knowledge is pushed in Thailand, 4-5 year old kids have to spend quite some time doing home work every day, an hour per day is not unusual at all, more than an hour is still normal, adding long travelling time to that and there's no time left. Or as you suggest, move close to the school you choose - that's perfect. Knowledge and development is not the same thing and I find that Thai pre-schools teach knowledge but do not teach development (as Thai parents are not interested in development). I have problems finding time to teach problem solving, let's make pancakes, use your brain kind of things, once home work is done, times up and it's time to go to bed. That's not the kind of child hood I want my kid to have.

My experience: Grandparents are somewhat detrimental to the development of young children in Thailand. What they do they do out of love of course but that doesn't change the fact that it deprives the child of an activity-filled day that develop the thinking ability of the kid.

Have a read here, http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/Combine-Scho...ni-t313221.html Don't know what I'm doing wrong, I think the post contains quite a lot of useful info but I didn't get a single response...

I have no idea what your price range is, I have checked numerous schools, BBS is a bilingual school with English teachers, pre-school and elementary school (up to grade 6) that I have heard good things about, price is matching my income. Please see attachements for current price for Kindergarten and grade 1 (moderators, my apologies and please remove if I break forum rules). My kid doesn't go there yet (she goes to a school 300 meters from my home now) but she will start there in Grade 1. I can't offer advice based on first hand experience yet but I've heard enough good to feel that I am confident it's a good choice (for the money - Bangkok Patana is of course best choice, if you can afford half a million bath per year). There should be other good schools closer to Sukhumvit - Silom than BBS Pracha-Uthit, someone please advice

Good luck

BBS_Fees_2009_Kindergarten.pdf

BBS_Fees_2009___Grade_1.pdf

Edited December 8, 2009 by MikeyIdea

[PattayaParent]

Ruam Rudi?

My mates kids went there some 15 years ago and it seemed good.

[tonititan]

Are you referring to Ruamrudee, the international school?

[Livinginexile]

I don't know of the schools around Sukhumvit, Silom so I can't advice there. Another recommendation though: Look for pre-schools that also have elementary school if possible, so that the kid can continue in the same school, saves the hassle of changing school and pre-school will be tuned it to what is required knowledge wise in first grade (that's actually important). Academic knowledge is (unfortunately) important for pre-schoolers, and some schools are pushing their kids way beyond what is reasonable or good for a 4-5 year old.

Find a school decently close to home! Pardon the exclamation mark but the way academic knowledge is pushed in Thailand, 4-5 year old kids have to spend quite some time doing home work every day, an hour per day is not unusual at all, more than an hour is still normal, adding long travelling time to that and there's no time left. Or as you suggest, move close to the school you choose - that's perfect. Knowledge and development is not the same thing and I find that Thai pre-schools teach knowledge but do not teach development (as Thai parents are not interested in development). I have problems finding time to teach problem solving, let's make pancakes, use your brain kind of things, once home work is done, times up and it's time to go to bed. That's not the kind of child hood I want my kid to have.

My experience: Grandparents are somewhat detrimental to the development of young children in Thailand. What they do they do out of love of course but that doesn't change the fact that it deprives the child of an activity-filled day that develop the thinking ability of the kid.

Have a read here, http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/Combine-Scho...ni-t313221.html Don't know what I'm doing wrong, I think the post contains quite a lot of useful info but I didn't get a single response...

I have no idea what your price range is, I have checked numerous schools, BBS is a bilingual school with English teachers, pre-school and elementary school (up to grade 6) that I have heard good things about, price is matching my income. Please see attachements for current price for Kindergarten and grade 1 (moderators, my apologies and please remove if I break forum rules). My kid doesn't go there yet (she goes to a school 300 meters from my home now) but she will start there in Grade 1. I can't offer advice based on first hand experience yet but I've heard enough good to feel that I am confident it's a good choice (for the money - Bangkok Patana is of course best choice, if you can afford half a million bath per year). There should be other good schools closer to Sukhumvit - Silom than BBS Pracha-Uthit, someone please advice

Good luck

Mickey, thank you very much for your detailed and very informative post.

I read your previous post and I too cannot understand why you had so little response. A wealth of information here, does no one care?

BBS is perfect for our son. We are now planning to rent a home close to this school and enrol my son next term. My wife will call them this week and see if he can start mid term.

Once again thank you very much for your insightful post.

Edited December 8, 2009 by Livinginexile

[MikeyIdea]

I have spent a lot of time checking schools within my area and I have heard good things about BBS. I think I also found a post here on Thai Visa that said the same. My daughters American teacher (whom I think is a good serious elderly teacher himself) also recommends them.

I checked elementary school, 50% of the education done in English, teachers are OK. Check that it is the same in Kindergarten. You can and should ask for a tour of the school. You can probably join mid term if you want but I doubt that they will reduce the price… Next term is the summer term and it starts end Feb early March

Good Luck and let me know please

Michael

[MikeyIdea]

Wow, 14 downloads of the Kindergarten doc and 10 of grade 1

Look, I am picky and I am satisfied. IMO (in my opinion) this school is good and sticks out as best value for money in my area, with quite some margin too.

This school isn’t the only good school in Bangkok, I am sure there are more good schools around, I haven’t checked all areas.