I too heard some rumours regarding this new principal. I don't understand why the school management still use her??? I heard from my friend that now they even changed the bus operator!!! First all the good teachers left one after another...second the cleaner cum cook left...now the bus operator...and from what i know they had served this kindergarten for more than 15 years!! She told me that the new bus operator is from this principal previous school which is NAFA!! Now all the old blood had changed to new blood...is this a good sign????? My friend told me she might transfer her kid to another school.
privatecadet:This year alone, a handful of old teachers suddenly left the kindy. Ma laoshi, Miaoling laoshi, Mrs Koh, Chen laoshi and soon next year... some teachers are talking about leaving too. 2-3 teachers left within a single term (some within the month, and some within the week!). Chen laoshi is a pastor's wife and cried when she heard the excuse given by the principal for letting her go.
Principal told us parents that all these teachers had issues...e.g. mental problem, quarrelsome, leaving to pursue studies, etc. But the thing is, all of them were teaching in HG before the current principal came in. They were excellent and very dedicated teachers. One or two of them went out of their way to do extra for the kids. One gave DVDs of the kids' class-time at the end of the year free... at their own expense. Parents were pleasantly surprised to find it inside the kids' bags.
When the old staff left, kids were stuck without proper relief teachers. Some days, they had an all-English day... some days an all-Chinese. These comments came fr the children themselves.
I understand from parents that all these teachers left due to bad blood with the current principal. Principal tells us that she is quite happy that these teachers had left so that she can bring in a new batch. Some of the new teachers are very young and inexperienced. 2 of them are pretty nice and seem serious in their jobs. One new laoshi looks exasperated all the time. Rumours had it that the principal was from NAFA and parents from NAFA kindergarten petitioned against her. One parent had her child labelled as autistic by the principal and he is not! The parents hit the roof! This year alone, many parents also took their kids out... which explains why there is no waiting list these days. Years ago, HG had parents queueing up from the night before registration day.
Academics - besides spoken Mandarin throughout the 3-hour, the rest of the subjects need home-support. This kindy is no doubt good for kids who do not speak a word of Mandarin at home.. but be ready to supplement yr kids with extra enrichment outside. Gym lesson within school hrs must be paid separately, or else yr child will 'do PE' with their form teachers. 2 mothers told me that their kids who opted out of gym (by outside vendor BearyFun Gym) were simply sitting around watching 'gym kids' doing their exercise. I do not know how true this is as my child is a gym-kid, but these mothers are appalled. So please please do yr research and compare the work with other schools before deciding.
By the way, K2 kids hv the option to go to China for 1 week for cultural exchange. It started this year. Parents must go. Costs about $3k for parent-child pair. Those who opted to stay back... I do not know what they do for that week.