I have had a few PM's about this so am just going to clarify. I would be the first person share my experiences about a system that is not working - and have 'outed' organisations in the past without hesitation.
As this one is pure rumor and not my personal experience so I am not going to name the school. It was told to me from a teacher who is unhappy with their job at present - that could change; the principle could finely come to their senses and implement a systematic approach to phonics. You just don't know.
That is what I was trying to put across. You need to ask the questions and interview the school yourself and then be better informed to make the right decision for yourself. Don't rely on a league table or comments made by one or two other parents because you can't speak to every single one of the parents in the school in order to receive a balanced view.
Here is my list of questions/things to consider when looking at schools (and yes the school I mentioned before is on my short list):
* Are good values supported, ie honesty, integrity, respect, etc
* What kind of opportunity/support do they have for high achievers to be encouraged?
* Do they have good curriculum on offer? (what is it? for example some use Montessori, Emilia Reggio, IB and so on...)
* What kind of extra-curricular program/s are on offer? (ie, your child is likely to go to the school for 6 years+ so what do they offer 12 year olds?)
* Are they co-ed? Is that what you want?
* What is the bully policy? (Do they have one? How do they deal with the bully? Victim?).
I hope these help.
Finally, once you have seen the school - go with your gut feel as I found that even if the school was scoring high with my criteria (or 'ranked' highly by someone such as SCMP), at the end of the day it also has a lot to do with the teachers (as I said before) I speak to and what they were like. Unfortunately they can change from year to year.  |