Pat's Schoolhouse

[Busymom]

KSS Koh:

That's what I thought initially too until a couple of times when I have to picked up my DD earlier and witnessed what ACTUALLY happened in class. All along, I also thought the way you did till I discovered the truth. I did bring up the topic to the principal and I guess she didn't handle it well and that couple of chinese teachers are acting up. Other than that, I like the rest of the teachers. As for i-maths, yes it had always been taught in chinese hence my reason for sending my DD to enrichment classes for P1 preparation. Lucky you that your DD did not attend the i-maths, a waste of time and money, I agreed:) Basically, not much emphasis on maths. Yes, i much prefer the cookery program too.

Agree with you about complaining to the principal. Not much use. But you know you can speak to Pat herself, right?

[KSS Koh]

Yep, principal are of not much use. Many issues remained unsolved and always siding their own staff, what about us, the parents who are paying their bills?

I already did. Actually I know her personally. So we met up for coffee. She was shocked. Now she said she’s going to investigate to the bottom of the many unresolved issues. Anyway, we’re considering other options or transferring my DD & DS to another campus. It’s only preschool, it shouldn’t be so hard:( I’ve got more things to focus on like next year DD P1 registration.

[VooVoo]

Sigh…shocked to hear this…anyway am worried where the Halifax branch is going to move to after 2012…

[kboon2009]

Make me wonder once again if the exorbitant fees charged by Pat’s is worth it…

[footix]

I just drove past Aroozoo campus over the weekend. It is still under construction. I was just wondering if it will be in time for orientation by end of Dec. :xedfingers:

[ahbombom]

I’m looking for toddler care for my DD. Does anyone have feedback on the toddler care at Baby Haven or some other centres that offer the toddler class, such as Mount Emily, that you can share with me? Thanks.

[KSS Koh]

Hi Ah bombom,


My DS was with baby haven. He loved it. Ms Gwen is a very good principal and the teachers there are very dedicated, from what I saw a year ago. So you might want to call them up for a site visit. However, next year they’re moving, don’t know where yet.

[ahbombom]

Thanks KSS Koh! I’ve called to make an appointment for a visit.

[KSS Koh]

Great! Have fun touring are:)

[2BoysMom]

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.