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msittig

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Joined: Oct 06, 2004
Posts: 733
Location: Zhangjiang High-Tech Park
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Posted: Apr 25, 2008 - 11:49 PM

If YK Pao is close for you then SMIC is definitely too far, especially for younger kids. Good luck at SUIS! They have a very nice website, in English/Japanese/Korean, wow!

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cville

Squeeker

Joined: Feb 23, 2008
Posts: 10

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Posted: Apr 26, 2008 - 06:51 AM

HappyMG,
My two daughters started in 2nd and 5th grade at SUIS in February and we have been quite happy with it. My daughters have virtually no Chinese language skills and we were looking for a school that offered considerable language immersion opportunities. SUIS seemed to be the only school that fit the bill. I am somewhat disappointed that since most of the students are Korean or native Chinese speakers, there seems to be much more emphasis on teaching ESL than Chinese. Even though the school claims to conduct classes in both English and Chinese, we have found that the language of instruction is pretty much English except of course for the Chinese language classes. As a result, my daughters have picked up very little Chinese, although the English spoken in class has definitely made the transition to school here easier for them.

tnmom

LoopKicker

Joined: Mar 04, 2004
Posts: 923
Location: Shanghai
Status: Offline

Posted: Apr 26, 2008 - 09:06 AM

Quote:

I couldnt send my kid to SAS becasue I wouldnt want him studying for SAT exams, which in my opinion are extremely dubious. But if thats what you want, its a perfect fit.

If you are planning to send your child to the US for university they must take the SAT - dubious or not. SAS does not have a course that prepares kids for the test but there are many kids who take SAT prep classses outside of school (and many have tutors for a variety of subjects or keep up their native language with Dutch/Korean school). Most of these with outside tutors are not the westerners!

Academic Profile of SAS including SAT information and universities that the graduates attend: http://www.saschina.org/downloads/files/other/HS-PX-Profile%2007-08.pd f

HappyMG

Lurker

Joined: Apr 06, 2008
Posts: 20
Location: Shanghai
Status: Offline

Posted: Apr 26, 2008 - 09:25 AM

Thanks, Cville!
I really need some encouragement at the moment, as our situation looks pretty bleak. We've been stretching our resources for two years and let our child enjoy the international school, but with a second one on the way we just can't do it anymore. Schools are extremely overpriced here, and even though it's a common knowledge, there just doesn't seem to be anything anybody can do...
For a moment we almost considered moving to Macau, just because the international school there only costs 45000 RMB a year! That's one fourth of what we're paying now! Frustrating...
Anyway, I'm very happy to hear that you are mostly happy with SUIS, even though it's a pity about the Chinese program. At the same time, I am sure there are ways you could help your kids get some extra Chinese immersion by hiring an extra-curricular local teacher (we have one that teaches our daughter to play guitar, for example, and he speaks Chinese to her most of the time). Of course, our situation might be a bit different from yours, as our girl was raised in Shanghai and went to a local kindergarten for 4 years, so she has a pretty good basis in Chinese... It's gone weaker in the last two years, as most of the iternational schools don't offer very strong Mandarin programs.
That's why we're actually hoping for SUIS to fill that little gap and at the same time to provide us with a stable option for international education.
How satisfied are you with their overall curriculum and teaching methods? How is the quality of teachers? Do they seem dedicated to what they do or are they just killing time on the way to a better paid jobs in China? We've seen so much in the last 7 years here, that unwillingly became very sceptical about many things...

Thanks again!

amig

Barker

Joined: Apr 26, 2007
Posts: 125
Location: suburbia
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Posted: Apr 26, 2008 - 09:43 AM

HappyMG...Just pm-ed you.

amig

Barker

Joined: Apr 26, 2007
Posts: 125
Location: suburbia
Status: Offline

Posted: Apr 26, 2008 - 10:15 AM

cville, it takes a while for kids to have confident speaking a language. So give your kids some time. In SUIS, I think you can change the subjects if you want the medium to be in Chinese or Eng, but it will mean changing the form class of your kids, and since you enrolled midway through the semester, some classes may be full, and thus less accomodating to your needs. So it may be better to try next semester to change. Speak to the teachers, quite sure they can help to work things out. Are your kids Art and Music classes in Eng too?

HappyMG

Lurker

Joined: Apr 06, 2008
Posts: 20
Location: Shanghai
Status: Offline

Posted: Apr 29, 2008 - 09:20 PM

To Amig: Thanks a lot for your information and suggestions regarding SUIS. We have already checked it out, and the administration even allowed our daughter to attend the school on a trial basis for one day! Now that's what I call service and interest in a child's education!
Our first impression of the school was that it's a tad too noisy, but with 2500 kids (around 700 are in the Internationa stream, I believe, and the rest are local school students) it's only worth expecting. The admission secretary gave us a tour of the school and facilities, and it all looked quite good. The school principal is an impressive educator who shows genuine interest in what he does and cares about children and their education. After talking to him, we're about 80% convinced now, just have to have a little family meeting and make a final decision.
Just wanted to thank everybody for your kind suggestions and support! I hope that in a few months we can offer our 5 cents worth of opinion regarding the SUIS or whichever school we decide on. Smile

Happy May holiday to all!

rucksack

Barker

Joined: Jan 10, 2005
Posts: 190
Location: the wrong side of the tracks
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Posted: May 01, 2008 - 07:08 AM

As this school year ends and a new one begins there are fractures that start to show even in the most established international schools. Head teachers leave, parents get more or less control, programs are added or changed. There are rumors that SAS is having some serious problems resulting in headmasters leaving and their major financial contributor (the US gov't. thinking of pulling out). Students are jumping ship at schools that are introducing I.B. next year. Tuition is going through the roof due to inflation ( but teachers are getting shafted). The teachers really make a school work, I think. Anyhow, buyer beware.

oldtimer

Newbie

Joined: May 09, 2008
Posts: 1

Status: Offline

Posted: May 09, 2008 - 06:55 PM
Post subject: SUIS

Our kids have been at SUIS since the day it opened 5 years ago and on the whole we've been very pleased with their overall progress. Obviously there have been 'issues' but no more than you would expect at any school. The main problem has been a very bad bus service!! The primary school is a wonderful environment for young kids with some really switched on teachers. In all the years my 2 were at the primary school campus (Hongqiao) each homeroom teacher understood their educational and social needs throught the year (s) And the headmaster is very capable and approachable. The Gubei campus for grade 6-up is also proving to be a worthy school although there do seem to be a few more 'niggles'. I'm going to check out the new Xie He school also, SUBS, which opens in Pudong in September, i'm not sure what the difference is between that one and SUIS high school but its closer to home!

StMichael

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Joined: Feb 19, 2005
Posts: 586
Location: Qibao, Shanghai
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Posted: May 09, 2008 - 08:02 PM

If it may make you any "happier", oldtimer - virtually all the schools here have problems with the bus service.

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hautumncloud
LoopKicker

Joined: Nov 04, 2006
Posts: 912

Posted: May 11, 2008 - 11:13 AM

rucksack wrote:

And to put things into perspective, it is not unusual for int schools to have high turnover of teachers and for the relatively new schools turnover for principals is high as well. Teachers are generally contracted for 2 years.

All the int schools in SH seem to have their yearly increase in tuition but some have gone way up, not just SAS. BTW, SAS's tuition is rather reasonable comparing to some other major int school - so no surprise that their increase is higher this time round.

Just curious, where are the students jumping ship to? IB schools as in WISS who uses PYP as well or is this at the IB diploma level?

Rumour or not, there does not seem to be any relieve on the waiting list at SAS Puxi!

shanghaifrank

Newbie

Joined: May 14, 2008
Posts: 2

Status: Offline

Posted: May 14, 2008 - 04:33 PM

Good Luck with SUIS. Our kids have been there a year and we are taking them out and moving them to a different school next year after a catalogue of errors. On our first visits to the school the management seemed caring, and despite the noise, it appeared to be a friendly atmosphere for the kids. However we have since found the school to be badly organised, and the teaching quality to be dumbed down to cater for the huge numbers of ESL kids per class. The school still does not have qualified IB status- despite telling us it did, and the curriculum is set by each individual teacher, not by year group, so you are really at the mercy of the quality of the teacher your child gets. After an incident where a teacher assaulted a pupil, and then the english lessons starting to be taught in chinese because the chinese speakers could not keep up (not exactly what you would call language immersion) we have decided it is time to move on. We have been disappointed, and I know other parents at school who are also removing their children for similar reasons. Many other parents seem to think it is OK. Make you choice carefully based on what will make your child happy and good luck.

HappyMG

Lurker

Joined: Apr 06, 2008
Posts: 20
Location: Shanghai
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Posted: May 19, 2008 - 07:30 PM

TO Shanghaifrank: thanks for your opinion! Which grades did your kids go to? Who were their teachers? Did you discuss these issues with the school (especially the one about English lessons taught in Chinese??) And by the way, do you mean the English language lessons or some other subjects which were supposed to be taught in English? From what we understood, most of the subjects are supposed to be explained in BOTH English and Chinese, and that is why each class has TWO teachers, and why the school is being labeled as a bilingual one.
So could you please give some more details about the reasons you are moving your kids out of SUIS?
And in response to teaching level being dumbed down in this school, as sad as it may sound, even this so called dumbed down level is still higher than a normal level at some international schools for the same grades! We had a chance to compare...

Anyway, if anybody has any more input about SUIS, please let me know! Thanks!

SH_Dex

Newbie

Joined: May 23, 2008
Posts: 1

Status: Offline

Posted: May 23, 2008 - 04:06 PM

Shanghaifrank - where do you intend to move your kids?

We are looking also for a school for our son. We find the tuition fees really expensive. We want a curriculum with heavy emphasis on BOTH Chinese and English.

Any suggestions which school we should look into? (We have crossed out already the high-end schools like SAS, Rego, etc)

StMichael

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Joined: Feb 19, 2005
Posts: 586
Location: Qibao, Shanghai
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Posted: May 23, 2008 - 09:43 PM

SH_Dex wrote:

We are looking also for a school for our son. We find the tuition fees really expensive. We want a curriculum with heavy emphasis on BOTH Chinese and English.

Any suggestions which school we should look into? (We have crossed out already the high-end schools like SAS, Rego, etc)

With a question like this, how could I resist answering? I am the Head of Primary at the Xuhui campus of the Shanghai Singapore International School. Ever thought of my school? We are still expensive, but more reasonable than SAS and Rego, and we offer a curriculum with an emphasis on bilingualism, offering Chinese from Basic Chinese to the local Chinese curriculum.

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shanghaifrank

Newbie

Joined: May 14, 2008
Posts: 2

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Posted: May 28, 2008 - 05:19 PM

Hi HappyMG, we have one child in the primary section and one in the secondary, and have issues with both. In the primary section, we were told that all classes are bilingual except English (which should be in English), Chinese (in Chinese) and Maths (choose English or Chinese). We have no issue with this and thought it would give our child more exposure to learn chinese- we just don't expect it to be at detriment to their English. We have spoken to the school about why the lower ability kids were not going to ESL (when ours had to do this in Chinese so as not to slow the Chinese class down) and the response was basically tough- there are too many children in class with a very poor level of English to justify this. To the suggestion that our child and their peers attend a special english class at their level the response was also tough! So our child is currently learning English at a level at least three grades below their ability- not what we signed up for.

You mention that you have checked out other schools and find them to be teaching at a dumbed down level too. Well the school our children were at before definitely didn't, and so we are moving them back.

A similar situation exists in the secondary school where too many children moved up from primary with a level of English too low to access the curriculum. This has been dealt with to an extent by streaming the very poor kids out of classes, yet having spoken at length to teachers in the school they are still having to dumb their top stream classes down to make it accessible to all.

I know the fees at school are less, and that makes the school more appealing (it did to us!) but we are now faced with having to accept the big bill to have our children educated at the right level. It is not an ideal situation, but we feel we have no choice.

Good luck with your choices

newbie11

Newbie

Joined: May 30, 2008
Posts: 2

Status: Offline

Posted: May 30, 2008 - 09:06 PM

I would love some information on SCIS and Yew Cheung from families with kids at these schools. Our daughter is going into 5th grade, and we are considering a 1-2 year transfer to Shanghai beginning this summer. I am definitely a city, not suburban, person and am thinking that the French Concession would be our likely home.

My ideal school would be one that is challenging academically and can offer some customized academics (such as providing enrichment to a child that is advanced in a particular subject), yet is a warm and personal place (not overly competitive). I am particularly interested in SCIS based on the website and posts here. Does SCIS sound like a good fit? What is it like academically? And how is the new campus in Hongqiao?

I'd also like to know more about Yew Cheung and how it compares to SCIS academically. Both SCIS and Yew Cheung have space (as does SAS Pudong, though I think I wouldn't feel that I was in China being that far from the city center), and we won't be able to visit ahead of time to evaluate these schools in person.

caramello

Seeker

Joined: Apr 17, 2008
Posts: 72

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Posted: June 02, 2008 - 09:18 AM

My kids don't go there but a couple of friends have kids at BISS Nanxiang campus...it's a great school according to them and they are offering 25% discount at the moment so might bring it into your budget?
It takes them half an hour in the morning from Gubei Carrefour and half hour back...
don't know if this helps.

Expat07

Newbie

Joined: June 03, 2008
Posts: 1

Status: Offline

Posted: June 03, 2008 - 01:42 PM

I have read the posts regarding SUIS (Shanghai United International School) with interest. My child began at SUIS in September at the newly opened GuBei campus. Since September there have been a catalogue of errors that go beyond what can be excused as the glitches of opening a new school. The school advertises itself to be an IB and IGCSE school for which it has no qualified status. Staff at both the Hongqiao and Gubei campus are leaving in large numbers and the management is a joke. My child will be leaving in a few weeks and I urge anyone looking into schools to seriously consider an alternative.

freedelia

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Joined: Nov 27, 2006
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Posted: June 04, 2008 - 09:29 AM

And you joined this forum just to say that??? Isn't this a bit weird?? Don't you think that in order to make this post more credible you should actually name some of the things that are "inexcusable"? ANd where would you be moving your child for the following school year?

I actually have friends whose kids go to this exact campus and they are very happy about it. There is a teacher who works at the British School and her kid goes to SUIS too.

Just wondering...

mommy&kids

Seeker

Joined: June 07, 2007
Posts: 71

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Posted: June 04, 2008 - 01:16 PM

Where is SUIS's Gubei campus? I know they have one in the Minhang District, is that the HongQiao campus?
Expat07, if you don't mind me asking, what are some of the issues you have w/ the school and where are your kids going in the fall?

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amig

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Joined: Apr 26, 2007
Posts: 125
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Posted: June 04, 2008 - 03:40 PM

SUIS is a candidate for IB certification. If they are successful, SUIS will be one of the 3 schools in Shanghai that is certified to do PYP.
SUIS Hongqiao does grade 1 - 5, while grade 6 - 9 is Gubei campus, I think. And there will be a new campus at Pudong soon.
My 2 kids are always excited going to school and doubly excited when informed of a new topic to research on. As a parent....well, it makes my task at home easier knowing that my kids enjoy schooling and learning new things. It is not perfect, but it suits us for now.
Many teachers leave when they finish their contracts. It is a norm. Management probelm?....well, it is a joke in many other international schools which I will not name them here. You will be lucky to have teachers and a principal who cares.
Types of school and their education system are very subjective to every parent and kid. So parents should make informed choices, visit the school, ask for trial days etc before deciding to enrol. Know what you want for your child, and any school that you enrol your child into will not be a temporary solution.

StMichael

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Posts: 586
Location: Qibao, Shanghai
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Posted: June 04, 2008 - 09:19 PM

One of the three? I know WISS, and now SUIS. Which is the other one?

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Michael Chan www.senseimichael.com

amig

Barker

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Posts: 125
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Posted: June 04, 2008 - 09:38 PM

WISS is yet to be certified. The 2 schools with PYP IBO certifications are Shanghai Victoria Kindergarten and World Foreign Language Primary School.

StMichael

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Posts: 586
Location: Qibao, Shanghai
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Posted: June 04, 2008 - 09:39 PM

Yikes - which means none of the ones you mentioned are "true blue" international schools operating on an international school licence? You know what this means - those of us holding the international school licences are in for serious competition man!

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Michael Chan www.senseimichael.com