I Can Read - Discussion

[KassandraKas]

This is very strange. Before I left, ICR did not have a trial class policy. Not sure when this changed?


Any child must have an assessment done. Assessment forms need to be kept by front desk. There should not have been a trial class before an assessment was done, because how else would they know which level the child is at? The only time I can imagine skipping an assessment is for the Primary Levels bu even then, from what I recall, they still need to do an assessment to keep a record.

I am very sorry about your unpleasant experience. Did the front desk staff explain the course content as well? Or was it all left up to the teachers? I feel that sometimes, some front desk staff leave the \"sales-pitch/marketing\" part up to the teachers, when they should inform parents directly, at least the gist of the course. Then details can be discussed with the teacher if parents wish to know. That would prepare you for what to ask the teacher and if the teacher is in a rush, at least you already got some info. That said, I do think every parent deserves to be informed, especially when they are paying an arm and a leg for such courses.

You could consider other branches or other teachers if this experience has marred your impression.

Yen zi\" post_id=\"2013131\" time=\"1611559308\" user_id=\"191007:[quote=\"Yen zi\" post_id=2013131 time=1611559308 user_id=191007]I have went to ‘I Can Read’ trail lesson at Hillion Mall. Very disappointed with the staff attitude at this center. No registration or assessment was done. My child went straight to join the class without any assessment, registration (no filling up of details as well) and no introductions conducted by the staffs. After the class ended, the teacher in charge of my child class walked out and simply say “oh u can enrol your child if you want”. I was puzzled and ask if she can tell us more about the course or was the class suitable for my child etc. She simply replied “don’t join us if you don’t trust us”. When we ask politely the second time. She didn’t reply our question and She repeated the same thing ‘don’t join if you don’t like it’.
The teacher name ‘Miss Lim’. She refuses to let us know her full name. Parent do take note if your child class was with her. She has no patience with parents not to say kids. Bad attitude.[/quote]

[Sasawan]

Hi, i find this thread suits my situation at the moment. May i have some of your thoughts/input on what should we do?


My child is in k1 this year. She is 4+ turning 5 in a few months. we have been with ICR since beginning of 2020. She started with pre-reading lvl2, pause for 3 months from covid and resume after that. We were told to promote her to pre-reading lvl3. She met the new teacher which is male and she cried every time attending his class. This didnt happen in her pre-reading lvl2 when she was with the female teacher and obviously at younger age. After a few classes in pre-reading lvl3, we decided to request to change class and teacher and we got a female teacher and she has no problem ever since.

Last week, we got feedback from her current female teacher that my child should be promoted to reading level 1. We would prefer to stick to the same teacher if possible. However, we were told that the current female teacher class for reading level 1-6 are full. Unlike the pre-reading course where the child can join in anytime, in reading level 1-6, all students needs to start and finish at the same time meaning in order for my child to start reading level 1, she needs to look for the class that is going to start and end with the other older students.

My worries are if we were to put her in the new class with the new teacher (esp if the teacher is male), the problem will happen again (foreseeable). We were told that the reading level 1-6 are majorily, older students, will my child be able to adapt to this new environment where her classmates are all gor gor/jie jie. Lastly, her current teacher mentioned that the reading course will have totally different structure than pre-reading course. More homework/assignment, class structure and pace etc.,. Will my child be able to cope with that.

Her current teacher promised to discuss with the staff on the best solution but for the time being, here are our possible solutions that i can think of now

1. if the new class that going to start, comes with female teacher, i will straightaway let her attend. Content wise, I think she should be fine with some parents support.
2. If the new class comes with male teacher, shall we let her try? but we were told that we cant do trial class so taking risk if she is able to accept the male teacher.
3. If there is no new class available at the moment, should we pause her class until the current teacher has available time slot for reading course then we resume back? During the break, we may let her explore other fields that she is interested.
4. If there is no new class available at the moment, should we explore other ICR branch or other English center to continue her english class.

Appreciate your thoughts/input on this. Thanks in advance.

[rosm]

rosm\" post_id=\"2013090\" time=\"1611534777\" user_id=\"94141:

Can I check if all I Can Read branches only have one staff at the counter? I went to a branch in the ‘east’ 3 times (2 times last year and 1 time this year), there seems to be only one counter staff there. And obviously this one staff could not handle everything there. Parents going in to enquire, parents going in to register, let students to go in one by one by checking their temperature, dismiss the students one by one to ensure all students go to the their respective parents and not running about. All happening at the same time.

I rarely write bad review but this is really making me angry because I brought my child in for a trial class. I’ve brought her in last year to try but she was reluctant to go in, so I thought okay I shall wait for her to be a little bit older to bring her in. Fast forward 5 months, she’s now 4 years old, I’m thinking to bring her in to try again. I called in and explain to the staff that my child is difficult to enter the classroom on her own due to separation anxiety, otherwise she’s really keen to join the class. The staff said no problem, they understand some kids are like that, need time to adapt. So I brought my child in on that day and she had a meltdown when we reached there (she was very excited prior to reaching there). And you can imagine this ‘one’ staff would not be able to handle it plus have to do everything other thing at the same time. She refused to help to bring her in, she said she can only allow her to go in if she stops crying. And obviously my child would want to cling to me and cry when nobody else help me to bring her in. So finally the staff reluctantly brought her in after I insisted that she should help, otherwise there’s no way we can help her to settle down into the class. So I left to hide at one corner, my child cried for about 5 mins and stopped. The staff brought her into the classroom. Then I overheard the staff chatting with another teacher outside the classroom (the main door was opened and I was waiting outside the center), the staff actually badmouth about my child and me! She said ‘I’m so tired handling that girl, the parent shouldn’t bring her in when she’s still so young, parents nowadays are so different from my time’. (My girl is 4 years old this year, ICR advertise that they accept children from 2.5 years old, and I did call in a day before to prompt them that my child may have separation anxiety and they assured me over the phone that they know how to handle).

Management of ICR please ensure you have sufficient staff, so that your staff will not give such comments and please remember to close the door if you decided to say something ‘not so nice’ about the child/parent.

Update:
I think I shall provide an update after seeing some helpful replies from parents.

After the awful experiences at tampines mentioned above. I tried another branch at Pasir Ris. I went for an assessment at Pasir Ris because the staff mentioned that she should be re-assessed since the last one was done some time ago. I asked the assessor (teacher from another branch) whether can allow me to go in with my daughter for 10 minutes for the first lesson, so that at least we are able to get her to go in and settle in in the classroom. The teacher said that she needs to ask the teacher because she’s not the one teaching her and will get back to me. I didn’t receive any reply after two weeks, so I called in and enquire. The staff said that will get the assessor to call me back. I waited again for few days. No reply. So I called in again to enquire, the staff told me...‘we’ve asked the assessor, she says her job is done in terms of assessing’. First, the assessor didn’t call back as promised, left me waiting. Second, the staff also didn’t bother to update me after she got this reply from the assessor, left me waiting again. The whole impression that I got from ICR is everybody just do their own thing, no team work. Even the staff hands are full, Teachers don’t bother to help take temperature and bring students in. When there’s enquiry directed to teacher, staff also doesn’t bother to solve it.

I used to think that my child is not ready, this is the reason given by the staff. After all these unpleasant experiences with ICR, I gave up on ICR. I went for a paid trial with Mindchamp. And I couldn’t believe the stark contrast between ICR and Mindchamp. Mindchamp staffs (there’s quite a number of staff) helped me to settle her in, yes she needed to be carried in by the staff on her first lesson. But the subsequent ones she just walked in by herself. And for the first lesson, they allowed my elder daughter to accompany her in for 10 minutes. The willingness of Mindchamp staffs to help is the key to success for me to be able to enrol her. My daughter is very happy and looking forward to go to mindchamp every week. After every lesson, she would tell me.. ‘can I go to mindchamp again next week?’

I cannot comment on the effectiveness of the program yet as she just attended mindchamp for a month. The reason I didn’t choose mindchamp at the beginning was because of its location and price.

So parents, do not let others tell you that your child is not ready, you just have to choose the right one.

[Mummy_East]

My child has been with I Can Read and complete the reading course level 1-6. However, there is no pre primary class for her to progress to as most of the kids in her class are not continuing. The school suggested us to withdraw her and join again in June/July in 2022. And since they only told us 1 lesson before the last lesson, center manager has agreed to refund the deposit but they couldn’t refund registration fees although this is not a voluntary withdrawal. That said, we still have to pay for the registration fees again if we will to join again in June/July next year.


We felt this is very unfair and honestly, an extremely displeasing way to end our relationship with the school.

Anyone with similar experience and what’s the outcome with them?

[bringus2sg]

Need advice - I decided to pull my child out of ICR due to the increasing fees. May I know how other parents are guiding your children without formal phonics classes? Thank you!

[Nana007]

I have a referral code if anyone is keen.

[Iman2611]

Nana007\" post_id=\"2066555\" time=\"1651848648\" user_id=\"197102:

I have a referral code if anyone is keen.

Hi Nana, I'm keen to have the referral code. Thank you in advance. 😊

[Nana007]

Sent you a PM

[xchngsl]

I am keen to enrol my child. Does anyone has a referral code to share? Pls pm me

[Saphire]

Hi all, I’m planning to enroll my boy to ICR tiong bahru plaza, can share with me any experience at this branch? any teachers you recommend? Any referral code to share? Thank you!