Kindergarten Maryvit Or Hastin - Which Is Best

[silentnine]

Hi All

time for my little one to start school (after songran) .. 3yr old half farang boy

we've looked at quite a few schools.. prices go from nominal to the extreme

we seem to of narowed it down to a choice of Maryvit in naklua or Hastin on soi siam country club.

both have reasonable fees and seem quite good.

any comments on either or both of these from anyone please ?

[champken]

I have been thinking about Maryvit for my son who is a bit younger than yours and was actually thinking of posting a thread seeking information on the school so hopefully we might get it here, not heard of Hastin, but would like to know, what is the deal there?

[Blueeyes1999uk]

My 4 year old daughter attends Hastin on Soi Siam. PM me if you wish to discuss.

[paul1970]

I've been looking at schools for my 2.5 year old daughter and from what the missus has seen so far Maryvit seems to be the favoured one.

She also looked at Aksorn school on Thepprasit but apparently from what she saw it is a very run down school, so will swerve that one.

Hopefully someone will have more info on Maryvit, fees seem reasonable at least for kindergarten, 7K'ish baht for the first month and 5K'ish each month after.

[jimmybkk]

I send my son (3-yr old) to Hastin. He seems to like it there and I am very happy with the school. It's small and has kind of a family feel to the place. Only about 40 kids there I think. The teachers all seem really nice. This coming term they are switching the school to more of an English Language curriculum and the prices have gone up a bit. We looked at Maryvit which is a lot bigger and we thought it may be a bit more daunting for his first school experience. It is also 20 mins further away by car for us.

There are a couple of advantages to Maryvit - one being that once your child is enrolled there, assuming you are happy with the place, your child can effectively stay there for quite a few years (sorry, I forget what age they leave Maryvit), i.e. no traumatic school changes. I believe they also incentivize this by by offering a discounted rate for entry from kindergarten (or pre-kindergarten) to the main school for those kids that are already enrolled.

In my opinion at my son's age, it's as much about getting into the habit of going to school, mixing with other kids and learning about the social hierarchy (i.e. if the big kid's playing on the swing you gotta wait your turn before you can play on it - that's just the way it is) as it is about "education".

When he outgrows Hastin, or if I ever become unhappy with the place, then he will almost certainly go to Maryvit. At the moment though, I can recommend Hastin for the young'uns.

[silentnine]

hastin is the one we chose . he seems to like it there and 1 of the teachers recognised me from my english kids when they went to REPS

[Thailaw]

I send my son (3-yr old) to Hastin. He seems to like it there and I am very happy with the school. It's small and has kind of a family feel to the place. Only about 40 kids there I think. The teachers all seem really nice. ...

In my opinion at my son's age, it's as much about getting into the habit of going to school, mixing with other kids and learning about the social hierarchy (i.e. if the big kid's playing on the swing you gotta wait your turn before you can play on it - that's just the way it is) as it is about "education". /quote]

I think that Jimmybkk has summed up the issue well for the younger children and schools suited for them rather well. There is a knee-jerk reponse to questions regarding schools in Pattaya to recommend Phoenix, Satit and a few others by parents that I doubt would know a good school or the criteria by which to measure one if they fell over (stepped into) it. Our daughter is 3 and we looked at every school in the Pattaya area carefully before deciding on which school to enroll her. We looked at Phoenix and Satit and dismissed them instantaneously for reasons too numerous to mention here. We narrowed our choice down to Hastin and the Montessouri school, and after visiting the Montessouri school and talking to the head master and one teacher, chose Hastins, and we are very happy with the choice (second choice is still far and away the Montessouri School (but for the distance, we would have seriously considered BEST, and still may for school after Hastin, which ends at 6 yo)). At Hastin, smiles are contageous and run both ways (teacher to student and back). Our daughter is excited to go to school and always comes out of school with a smile on her face (we are always greeted with a smile by the staff also), happy with what she has done that day (ands proud to show her work which she is carrying). To me, the happiness and pleasure in my daughter's face and warmth and concern I see in the staff at Hastin, demonstrates to me every day that I have put her in a place that she really enjoys, and I see from her skills that she is learning a lot (secondary at 3, but still important). I hesitiate to recommend Hastin because it is a small school in a small facility, and it simply cannot handle an on-rush of new students, so please continue with the uncritical, knee-jerk recommendations of the other primary schools in the Pattaya area, I and my daughters will thank you for that. When my daughters have finished at Hastins and are off to Choate or Andover and Vassar or Smith. then (and only then) you might want to consider Hastin, and will have made a good choice if you decide to enroll your child there (notwithstanding that some will poo poo that choice in favour of the more familiar schools mentioned here -- but TIT, so what do/should you expect .....).

Edited May 21, 2011 by Thailaw

[janverbeem]

hastin is the one we chose . he seems to like it there and 1 of the teachers recognised me from my english kids when they went to REPS

Please tell me a bit more about Hastin school.One poster says that the school finish at the age of 6 while another poster says it goes behind kindergarten.

What are the fees?Are there Foreign teachers?Care to post the name of the teacher that was previously at Reps.

[Orac]

Just wanted to bump this thread to see if there is any updated feedback on Hastin. Looking for somewhere for my 2.5 year old daughter and this is probably the closest to us.