I hate giving one star reviews, I really do. I only do when something is really wrong or too bad to not warn others. I tried to remain hopeful that it was just one time off situations but after repeated negative experiences, it's clear that this institution is just not one of integrity. In fact, I want to give it 0. I'm only giving it one star because I actually love ONE of my children's teachers and the IT guy is very helpful, a selected few here and there. But they are just one out of the many under-qualified, uncaring individuals. My children have been to 3 Chinese schools (due to moving a lot for work), including this one, and this is by far the worst by a long shot.
My kindergarten child had a sad excuse they called a teacher, she was the worst person I'd probably ever met (one of several classes, so I don't know what the other teachers were like). She is straight up verbally abusive and the most horrible teacher at any school (Chinese or not that I've seen). Who the heck hired her!? For one of the youngest and most impressionable ages too!? I've walked in on her yelling at kids to the point of tears. She grades so ridiculously, giving some of these 5yos 15% scores aka Fs on tests, that it made the kindergarteners cry and then another one cried so hard she vomited (her mom said she was not sick) prior to the next test. My kid has a B so far in the class so it's not a big deal to us personally, and my kid didn't cry and was happy enough with the grade, but I just can't believe a kindergarten class can be this harsh on kids like this. She also treats a particular child in our class, who has a disability, with clear bias and disrespect and it's disgusting. I've reported all this in feedback to the school. Doesn't look like they're doing anything about it. Probably not since school officials block off some of the handicapped spots so it looks like they don't want too many people with disabilities to park or attend there? This seems like a school-wide problematic attitude. I'm really just appalled all around.
The ping pong teacher is an absolute joke. He was ok to start but by mid-year, he just plays ping pong with the assistant teacher and let kids chit-chat, trade gaming cards, and even beat up (ie. get into physical altercations) each other. He kind of just maybe petered out and didn't care anymore or something. He takes way too many breaks and leaves the class altogether (I see him sitting in the hallway surfing the web on his phone) in the MIDDLE of a short 50min class. Ridiculous. When I complained to the office, they defended him and said, oh no, he's really a really good teacher. What a joke. I watched my daughter in the class every week. You got to be kidding me. I'm just glad the school year is finally over soon.
They give a ton of busy work and my kids learn more from me helping them with homework than in class. You're more effective with the Chinese learning portion of it by paying $50 for some books and doing it yourself. Why pay $750+ a year for your child to be assigned a bunch of busy work (10 pages of tons of writing in only kindergarten), having tests, midterms or finals every month, and be treated like crap or ditched altogether in their classes.
Maybe most other classes are different, maybe not. But I only interacted with 5 staff members (2 teachers, 1 IT, 1 ping pong teacher, 1 school official), and 3 were so unbelievably horrible that it blew the other teacher and IT guy out of the water (sorry guys). Maybe it's ok for a high schooler or a certain age and above that can hold their own and not stand up to abuse or bullying from the teachers, but if your child is under 7yo, I would highly suggest you try somewhere else (Irvine has plenty other Chinese schools) until they're hopefully much much older and able to stand up to this cruel and cold place they call a school. read more
