My son is 3.5 years old, and we've only attended New World (Red Room) for 1.5 months, half-days. Out of the blue, the director, Ms. May, dropped a bombshell on us and said that my child has not been following directions and cannot communicate well and that she will send someone to monitor my son and assess if this is his personality or if he needs special help. I was in complete shock. None of the teachers have ever mentioned any of these issues to us. Obviously, if these issues were so serious that you need to call in a special helper to "assess the situation" then you would think the teachers would already have let us know by now, right? But every time we go pick him up from school, the teachers have always been pleasant with nothing negative to say. Now all of a sudden, they need to bring someone external to monitor my son?!
First of all, my son doesn't speak Mandarin, hence, we decided to put him in this school to learn some Mandarin. So, if he doesn't respond to the Mandarin teacher (Ms. Cindy), it's completely understandable at this stage because he doesn't understand what you're saying!
Secondly, my son is very strong willed and might not follow orders all the time. He may even throw tantrums! But this is all normal for this age. Even our pediatrician said so! He is completely new to this school environment, not to mention hearing a completely new language, so it is understandable that he might not fall in line every time. But this doesn't mean that he's not learning to -- it just takes time for him to adjust and to learn the school environment. Given the whole new environment, I think my son is adjusting better than expected! In fact, they just had a Halloween performance, and my son was the only boy who dared to dance in the center stage. All of the other boys (including some girls) shied away and did not dance at all. So, how is my son not following directions? Maybe Ms. May should send the "special helper" to work on the other kids who didn't dance/follow directions at all.
Thirdly, my son is the only child who attended half day in that class. All of the other kids attend full days, and most of those kids have been with the school for a long time (since daycare). So, they have been conditioned and have had a lot of practice to follow orders. When we first looked at this school, Ms. May sounded so flexible and said that they have half-day morning or afternoon sessions. Little did we know that the rest of the class were attending full days, which puts our son at a disadvantage. A lot of the morning activities carry over to the afternoon, so if you just attend the morning session, you would definitely miss out on some of the activities. My son has always stayed at home with family, so he has never attended daycare. This is his first experience in a school environment, so compared with the other kids who have been attending daycare all along, of course it will take him longer to adjust. Given this short time, I think my son has been adjusting great! So, I don't know what is wrong with that director and teachers. Have they ever taken any child psychology? Have they consulted any pediatricians?
Lastly, my son threw a terrible tantrum after school very recently. He later reenacted a scene where the teacher yelled "No!" and dragged him. (The two teachers in the Red Room are Ms. Cindy and Ms. Alice. I highly suspect it is Ms. Cindy because I saw her force my son to wash his hands recently even though he was crying not to, and she seems to hold a grudge against my son for not responding to her.) When I brought this up with the director, she tried to brush it off by changing the subject. I was astonished by her reaction and insisted that she follow up with an investigation on the teacher, and that's when she finally said she would investigate the incident. Given her incompetence, I highly doubt she will do anything. So parents, please pay attention to your children when they come home from school because you never know what lurks behind their friendly exterior.
Unless the director, Ms. May, and the teacher, Ms. Cindy, gets replaced, we will not be returning to this school. I hope this review is helpful to potential parents who are thinking of enrolling their kids in this school. I would seriously reconsider if your child doesn't speak any Mandarin (which is ironic because the whole point of a bilingual school is to learn a different language) and/or if you plan to attend only half days. I would also strongly reconsider if your child is strong-willed, less they drop a bombshell on you one day to say that they need to assess your child. read more