Pat's Schoolhouse
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Yes yes I agreed! There were so many things that happened since the last principal left and I’ve to suffered in silence for almost a year. So finally, my hb said let’s move on and we started looking for another preschool. But I decided to contact Patricia Koh and let her know.
2BoysMom, so where is your son attending now? -
Sorry, I meant complain about the teachers in Halifax.
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2BoysMom:
Your experience has really diminished my confidence in the principal. That is not the right way to teach a child what is right or wrong... Mind if I ask which class your son was in (as my child is also in Nursery)?Hi, I'm new here. Saw this discussion and joined to post my experience. I pulled my boy out of Pat's Halifax at the end of Oct 2011.
My boy was from the Nursery (4yo) class. Had been with Pat's since Baby Haven. I've always had good opinion of Pat's until the new principal this year.
His teacher is very inexperienced and young. She has not even completed her early childhood diploma and had no prior experience as childcare teacher other than teaching kids swimming which is usually just 1 hour per lesson with up to a max of perhaps 8 kids. I have no problems with that as long as she is doing a good job.
My boy is very active, playful and likes to play rough at times. This teacher told my 4yo that if he continues doing what he did, the police will catch him. The 1st she said that was when my boy playfully pat her butt (just like what I always do after I clean up after him and change his pants). So I gather the teacher doesn't like it. But instead of telling my 4yo that it is inappropriate and rude, she said the police will catch him. MInd you that Pat's Halifax is right next to a Police Station. Thus off and on my boy will make comments that police will catch him and he will go to jail. The 2nd time she said that to him was after he pushes his classmates. That was during the period when their Chinese teacher went on 3 weeks leave and this teacher had to handle the class of 16 kids alone. She might have been overwhelmed but this is no way to threaten a 4yo. When she told me these (and yes! she has been the one who told me the 1st time it happened as well), I immediately told her to stop this police threat. She seemed shocked and said she will try to not talk like that to my child anymore.
The next day I went to see the principal. Guess what? The principal's response was \"I don't see anything wrong with that! Sometimes we have to explain the seriousness of the consequence to the child!!!\". When I asked if that means she condones her teachers using police to threaten children in her school, she said she thinks it's fine though they don't say it out openly. Thereafter basically every comment I made about the teacher she had a counter. When I said her teacher was inexperienced and not trained, she said that the teacher is almost graduating from her diploma. When I said the teacher had no prior childcare experienced, she replied that the teacher had taught swimming before.
I just felt that the principal was defending her teachers for the sake of doing it. How is it that it is fine to tell a child that police will catch them if they pushes their classmates? When all early childhood books out there says otherwise! I am not defending my child. What he did was wrong. But he is only 4yo after all.
After discussing with my hb, we decided to withdraw my child from a school where the principal, the head of the school, to believe and support the use of such inappropriate threats to a child. We were paying $1400 a month for a yet to graduate teacher with no prior early childhood experience to teach my child that police will catch him, and a principal who thinks it's acceptable? Well, we find it unacceptable.
We did not bother to escalate to Patricia Koh or the District Manager. We felt that even if we did, the principal will probably just apologized. We didn't want my child to be victimized by his teacher and principals thereafter. And we are not confident what else might have been said to him, especially since my child is not the most articulate and unable to tell us factually what happened in school.
This episode really left a bad aftertaste with us. There were several prior incidents which have already indicated that the principal's management style is questionable. But we thought that since my child has been with Pat's since 6 months old from Baby Haven, we would not want to withdraw my child due to the inadequacies of just a principal's management skills. But this was the last straw. -
VooVoo:
Sigh...shocked to hear this...anyway am worried where the Halifax branch is going to move to after 2012...
Same here. DS will be affected, but since it is going to be his last year, will probably stick to it. -
I wouldn’t. By the time you know when they’re moving to, you may have to find another campus to transfer so I think it’s better to check out which is the next nearest Pats and put your kid in the queue. At least, you’ll have another option if your DS is not due for P1 registration next year. Just my 2 cents worth.
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KSS Koh:
I wouldn't. By the time you know when they're moving to, you may have to find another campus to transfer so I think it's better to check out which is the next nearest Pats and put your kid in the queue. At least, you'll have another option if your DS is not due for P1 registration next year. Just my 2 cents worth.
Recently, I changed his Chinese enrichment class but realised he has become resistant to attending the new class, even when the teacher is the still the same person. He wanted the same teacher plus the same students...
The move would be for 2013, when he is in K2. Wherever they may move to, we can probably bear with it for 1 year since we are living in a quite central area. -
Hmm…then it’s better to stay put then and see what happens next year. My DD is K2 next year and DS is Nursery 2 next year so I just wanted to give him ample time to adjust to his new environment. As doe my DD, she is very adaptable as we used to move are overseas quite a bit when she was younger so she always fit into her new environment easily. But who knows, we may have migrated by then:)
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KSS Koh:
Hmm...then it's better to stay put then and see what happens next year. My DD is K2 next year and DS is Nursery 2 next year so I just wanted to give him ample time to adjust to his new environment. As doe my DD, she is very adaptable as we used to move are overseas quite a bit when she was younger so she always fit into her new environment easily. But who knows, we may have migrated by then:)
If your DS is nursery next year, you still have another 3 years to go, definitely make sense to move now.
I gathered you have moved them to another location. Mind if I ask which one have you gone to?
For us, the nearest one is actually Buckley, but we didn't go there as we started from Baby Haven as well. -
We’re transferring to Tanglin. It’s an open concept so it’s either you like it or not. We love it so it’s more convenient for us as well.
I’ve got a friend who has 2 DD there, seems quite happy there. But the waiting list is long.
But if you just started baby haven, better to hang on there. My DS was from Baby Haven, he loves his teachers there and Ms Gwen is a nice principal:) -
My DS2 will be in K1 Halifax and DD in baby haven in 2013…now am not sure if I should start thinking about alternatives
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