Comparing Chinese Enrichment (Primary/Preschool)

[Canvas]

Thanks stjt Yes, I think I will let DD try out TS first since it is nearer. DD is turning 4 and speaks Mandarin like an angmoh. :lightrod:

[sembgal]

Canvas:

Thanks stjt Yes, I think I will let DD try out TS first since it is nearer. DD is turning 4 and speaks Mandarin like an angmoh. :lightrod:

Don't worry, by the time in K2, your child will be speaking in good Mandarin.

[stjt]

Canvas:

Thanks stjt Yes, I think I will let DD try out TS first since it is nearer. DD is turning 4 and speaks Mandarin like an angmoh. :lightrod:

mine is 4 too..just started TH not long ago only.
hopefully he can cope with the spelling and still likes the sch

[Imami]

sembgal:

stjt:

[quote=\"quirkymum\"]How big is TS's class size?

1:8 for nursery
1:10 for.K1-2

You know what I like about 天下？in a K2 class, 1 teacher will take care of 10 children. But in Berries, there is 1 main teacher and 1 asst teacher to about 16 children (correct me if I'm wrong). So it means 1 Berries teacher is teaching 16 children as compared to 1 天下teacher teaching 10 children.
Assistant teacher is to put for a better teacher student ratio. But in actual fact, 1 teacher to 10 children is better in 天下 than 1 teacher to 16 children in Berries.

Parents, know what you are paying for. Having lesser students in a class allows the teacher to spend more time to focus on each individual child for Oral Component like K2 Picture description in 天下 Oral for Preparatory P1 class.[/quote]Berries' classes are 12 kids per class. This is the same all the way from n1 to pri1. If I remember correctly, an in charge person told me it's 12 per class all the way to secondary level but I only have contacts up to pri 1 to verify this.

As for the two teachers, it is not necessarily a main teacher and an assistant teacher. Berries teachers usually specialise in one or two levels. That is, they don't get teachers to teach all levels. For instance, my kid's teacher only teaches k1 level. Sometimes u will see her in some n2 classes as \"assistant teacher\" and that is becos she would be taking over that particular class the following year. I like this arrangement as the young children (n1 or n2) will have a chance to get use to the teachers and the following year's transition will be smooth.

In this case, the assistant teacher is not a trainee teacher.

If there are three teachers, usually the third teacher IS a trainee teacher. Either doing industrial attachment / internship or new teacher who just joined berries and doing under study with an existing teacher).

[lovinglife]

Imami:

Berries' classes are 12 kids per class. This is the same all the way from n1 to pri1. If I remember correctly, an in charge person told me it's 12 per class all the way to secondary level but I only have contacts up to pri 1 to verify this.

As for the two teachers, it is not necessarily a main teacher and an assistant teacher. Berries teachers usually specialise in one or two levels. That is, they don't get teachers to teach all levels. For instance, my kid's teacher only teaches k1 level. Sometimes u will see her in some n2 classes as \"assistant teacher\" and that is becos she would be taking over that particular class the following year. I like this arrangement as the young children (n1 or n2) will have a chance to get use to the teachers and the following year's transition will be smooth.

In this case, the assistant teacher is not a trainee teacher.

If there are three teachers, usually the third teacher IS a trainee teacher. Either doing industrial attachment / internship or new teacher who just joined berries and doing under study with an existing teacher).

Does this apply to all Berries branch? Hope it is. Thanks for sharing.

[sembgal]

For Tien Hsia, the same teacher can follow the child all the way up, say Nursery to K2. 3 years to get the same teacher is what you can find in Tien Hsia. This stability helps to build trust between the child and teacher.


Only good tuition centres with long term, committed teachers, can do this kind of arrangement.

[sean wife]

Just to share… At berries, we were blessed with having the same teacher from n1 to k2 this year… And the teacher also just won some outstanding teaching award at berries.


Been a long four years and I must say we are really thankful to her and all the other teachers we have encountered at berries so far.

[sembgal]

sean wife:

Just to share... At berries, we were blessed with having the same teacher from n1 to k2 this year... And the teacher also just won some outstanding teaching award at berries.


Been a long four years and I must say we are really thankful to her and all the other teachers we have encountered at berries so far.

Interesting. Wonder how long has your child's teacher been with Berries ?

[Imami]

lovinglife:

Imami:

Berries' classes are 12 kids per class. This is the same all the way from n1 to pri1. If I remember correctly, an in charge person told me it's 12 per class all the way to secondary level but I only have contacts up to pri 1 to verify this.

As for the two teachers, it is not necessarily a main teacher and an assistant teacher. Berries teachers usually specialise in one or two levels. That is, they don't get teachers to teach all levels. For instance, my kid's teacher only teaches k1 level. Sometimes u will see her in some n2 classes as \"assistant teacher\" and that is becos she would be taking over that particular class the following year. I like this arrangement as the young children (n1 or n2) will have a chance to get use to the teachers and the following year's transition will be smooth.

In this case, the assistant teacher is not a trainee teacher.

If there are three teachers, usually the third teacher IS a trainee teacher. Either doing industrial attachment / internship or new teacher who just joined berries and doing under study with an existing teacher).

Does this apply to all Berries branch? Hope it is. Thanks for sharing.

not sure. Maybe not since some berries branches are franchise branches.

But likely that those under the same management would be operating in the same way.

One thing to add - a new teacher who understudy a main teacher may not necessarily mean she/he is not qualified. One of My kid's childcare teacher left the childcare ctr and joined berries. When she first joined, she was the 3rd teacher (taken to be the understudy/ untrained teacher). In my heart I was thinking-wah, this teacher has a masters in early childhood education from Beijing university leh, join berries only trainee teacher ar?

It was such a happy coincidence that this teacher was attached to my kid's class. So it was sort of a happy reunion for this teacher and my kid.

I checked with the in charge admin person and got to know that all new teachers would have to under study a fellow colleague to learn \"the berries way of conducting lessons\". Not necessarily they are unqualified. True enough, three months later, this understudy teacher was no longer attached to my kid's class and I got to know she now has her own n2 classes to run.

[Imami]

Specializing at a particular level and not following the children up to the next level does not necessarily mean the lack of long term commitment. There are too many factors contributing to staff turn over, management style and philosophy.


At the berries my kid is enrolled in, his n1 and n2 teachers are the same ladies. The main teacher received long service award (10years) and the second teacher had been with the same branch for 7 years (this teacher was the "second teacher" becos she specialized in k1 and k2 and she was attached to n1 and n2 for exposure. Not becos she is unqualified).

I tend to favor having the same teacher following my kid thru. Hence I was disappointed when I realized it would be a brand new teacher teaching my kid’s k1 class. I expressed my thoughts to an admin staff and here’s the gist of what she said- berries teachers are trained for a particular level(s) so that they can also cater to the emotional and mental processing of the kids of that particular age. She added that different age group has different needs and response to different techniques.

Upon hearing what she said, I thought there was some truth in it. Looking at my kid’s growing up, it is indeed that he respond to different techniques at different age.

I sing praises for berries becos i understand their way of doing things better (since my kid is enrolled with them) and I like their way of doing things and the explanation. But I do not think all branches are the same. There must be a reason why certain branches are forever full with wait list spanning three pages while another is never operating on full capacity. No doubt location plays a part but I believe there is more to it.

I have nothing against tx. All I got to know from tx is gathered from my initial recee with them (I was considering tx and berries back then) and what my friends with kids with tx have shared with me.

I think the main and most consistent different between tx and berries is that one is very aligned to moe syllabus/geared towards primary one education while the other is working towards nurturing the love for Chinese language. Between these two, I believe nurturing the love for the language is more important for preschoolers (if it is a secondary three student, then I think align with moe more impt becos by teenage, it is a little too hard to do anything about Chinese. By then u either love it or hate it as a subject). Nd it is this reason that berries won my vote becos I feel that if the love for Chinese language can be nurtured during the preschool years and then sustained through the child’s growing years by reading widely, I believe there is no need to be enriched by a framework which is aligned to moe syllabus.