Comparing Chinese Enrichment (Primary/Preschool)

[tamarind]

sean wife, jesschan, pokemon,

Please refer to my replies in this thread instead :
Teaching Chinese at home
http://www.kiasuparents.com/kiasu/forum/viewtopic.php?p=129304#129304

[acforfamily]

cafelatte:

I would appreciate feedback from anyone regarding the above programme at Berries (P3-P6). How often and how effective are the oral practices ?

Hi cafelatte,
My ds started in Berries P4 this term. While i think that the notes for zuo wen is good, so far, i have only seen 1 zuo wen done by him.
One thing that i do not like is that they teach ahead of the school textbooks. He is already given a list of words from the schools' text chapters 6 and 7 but in school, they have just finished chapter 5.
Have not even seen the oral, they said that they will focus more of that in term 2, but i am not sure.
His class is very big now as it is on a weekend, and they are crammed in a small room.
Actually, I did not know that they have a special xie zuo and kou shi ban. I thought I did ask them when I signed up and they told me that it is only higher chinese or chinese.
I am thinking of pulling him out after term 1, which is 12 weeks. May consider Tien Hsia as they have special classes for zuo wen and li jie alone.

[Ljas1370]

acforfamily:

cafelatte:

I would appreciate feedback from anyone regarding the above programme at Berries (P3-P6). How often and how effective are the oral practices ?

Hi cafelatte,
My ds started in Berries P4 this term. While i think that the notes for zuo wen is good, so far, i have only seen 1 zuo wen done by him.
One thing that i do not like is that they teach ahead of the school textbooks. He is already given a list of words from the schools' text chapters 6 and 7 but in school, they have just finished chapter 5.
Have not even seen the oral, they said that they will focus more of that in term 2, but i am not sure.
His class is very big now as it is on a weekend, and they are crammed in a small room.
Actually, I did not know that they have a special xie zuo and kou shi ban. I thought I did ask them when I signed up and they told me that it is only higher chinese or chinese.
I am thinking of pulling him out after term 1, which is 12 weeks. May consider Tien Hsia as they have special classes for zuo wen and li jie alone.

Hi Everybody,

My kids are with Berries. My coments on Berries is that their N1 to P1 teaching is good so far. I've a kid in upper primary and also attending their zuo wen and kuo si ban. Overall, I'm happy with the teacher's teaching. Only thing I don't like is that there is no makeup class for lesson falls on holiday starting this year. This is something I cannot except. Parent is paying for the fee and they are not giving makeup classes. Other tuition centres I know if lesson fall on holiday, they either give make up class or don't charge for that lesson. This is something which I think Berries should seriously look into it before students start to withdraw because of the new rule.

[cafelatte]

acforfamily


Your P4 is in the enrichment class then. Not the WOL :
http://www.berriesworld.com/3programmes_primary_oralwriting.php

For enrichment class, typically they'll do oral near end of the term and also include 1 compo per term. It is the same in Tien Hsia's enrichment class.
Yes, Tien Hsia has compo and compre class (call it creative writing class) but no oral component for that class.

May I know the class size ? more than 10 children ?


Ljas1370

Did they charge you by blocks of lessons ? Does it mean if a public holiday falls on your your chosen day of week/class day, the class/children will get 1 lesson LESS than those on another day ? eg. Fri public holidy, Friday class get 1 lesson less; Saturday class as normal but Fri and Sat classes pay same fees ? If true, then it is definitely not right !

[Ljas1370]

cafelatte:

acforfamily


Your P4 is in the enrichment class then. Not the WOL :
http://www.berriesworld.com/3programmes_primary_oralwriting.php

For enrichment class, typically they'll do oral near end of the term and also include 1 compo per term. It is the same in Tien Hsia's enrichment class.
Yes, Tien Hsia has compo and compre class (call it creative writing class) but no oral component for that class.

May I know the class size ? more than 10 children ?


Ljas1370

Did they charge you by blocks of lessons ? Does it mean if a public holiday falls on your your chosen day of week/class day, the class/children will get 1 lesson LESS than those on another day ? eg. Fri public holidy, Friday class get 1 lesson less; Saturday class as normal but Fri and Sat classes pay same fees ? If true, then it is definitely not right !

According to Berries, they will distribute the worksheet for the holiday lesson 1 week before and will hightlight the important thing to note in the worksheet.

[Ljas1370]

cafelatte:

acforfamily


Your P4 is in the enrichment class then. Not the WOL :
http://www.berriesworld.com/3programmes_primary_oralwriting.php

For enrichment class, typically they'll do oral near end of the term and also include 1 compo per term. It is the same in Tien Hsia's enrichment class.
Yes, Tien Hsia has compo and compre class (call it creative writing class) but no oral component for that class.

May I know the class size ? more than 10 children ?


Ljas1370

Did they charge you by blocks of lessons ? Does it mean if a public holiday falls on your your chosen day of week/class day, the class/children will get 1 lesson LESS than those on another day ? eg. Fri public holidy, Friday class get 1 lesson less; Saturday class as normal but Fri and Sat classes pay same fees ? If true, then it is definitely not right !

They charge 12 lessons per term if I'm not wrong got to check. Those whose kid takes the friday tuition will lose out as this year there are quite a no. of holiday falls on Friday. I still think they should do something about it. After all their fee per lesson doesn't come cheap also as compare with other chinese tutition centre.

[cafelatte]

Thanks for the feedback. Agree with you that it is not a good system!

[jedamum]

Ljas1370:

They charge 12 lessons per term if I'm not wrong got to check. Those whose kid takes the friday tuition will lose out as this year there are quite a no. of holiday falls on Friday. I still think they should do something about it. After all their fee per lesson doesn't come cheap also as compare with other chinese tutition centre.

yes. the new system is a pain. considering that i now have 2 kids, one lesson on public holiday is like $60 free for the centre.
for berries bukit batok, i think they gave the friday kids 3 make up lessons out of the 5 holidays due to complaints/feedback from parents.

[titank]

Hi All,


Any idea to get the public holidays of 2011 & 2012? Now Berries come out this type of pattern where lesson fall on public holiday there is no free makeup.

Still deciding whether to signup with Berries as I had took the trail on last weekend. :!:

[jesschan]

Hua Language is also on the same system - there is no makeup lesson when lesson falls on public holiday. I think their class schedules are quite packed and most classes have full enrolment, so it is quite difficult to arrange for makeup lessons.