Chinese International School (CNIS)?

[lance1346]

Wondering if anyone here has experience with the Chinese International School (CNIS) in Bukit Timah at the Primary level- we are thinking about sending our daughter to Primary One there this fall.

It seems to have a good commitment to bilingual education, but because it is new, we're worried about the teacher turnover, etc.

Thanks for any help in advance.

Lance

[PhantomX]

Wondering if anyone here has experience with the Chinese International School at the Primary level- we are thinking about sending our daughter to Primary One there this fall.

It seems to have a good commitment to bilingual education, but because it is new, we're worried about the teacher turnover, etc.

Thanks for any help in advance.

Lance

Dont know much from first hand or second hand experience but do know that it is the first international school with a distinctive focus on the study of Chinese and that in and off itself must be a good thing. Given that the Chinese as a race are ever concerned that education standards are of an internationally accepted and recognised standard, I would venture that both curriculum and faculty would be commensurate with those expectations. Worth venturing a serious investigation.

[gabe_martindale]

Parents sometimes need to trust their gut.

If your gut says you want to know the rate of teacher turnover, that is a fabulous question to ask the administration of any school. Some schools in town have low turnover rates of staff. The reasons for turnover are the same as in many sectors of the business community.

If the turnover is high, ask them why and allow them to account for it. If you can see processes have been put in place to keep their teachers happy, so be it. If not, no thanks.

Happy teachers=happy children

[k1w1]

Dont know much from first hand or second hand experience but do know that it is the first International School with a distinctive focus on the study of Chinese and that in and off itself must be a good thing. Given that the Chinese as a race are ever concerned that education standards are of an internationally accepted and recognised standard, I would venture that both curriculum and faculty would be commensurate with those expectations. Worth venturing a serious investigation.

Phantom X, that is something of a sweeping generalisation, wouldn't you say? A Chinese focus = good, automatically? Purely because the Chinese "as a race" want high standards of education? Good grief. So do many countries.

The school uses the international baccalaureate programme, as do many of the International Schools here. I've recently met three teachers from that school. None of them are Chinese and none of them have anything good to say about the place. Could be teething problems, of course. Totally agree with what the comment made by gabe_martindale: happy teachers means happy kids...

[gabe_martindale]

Just went to their website and read the principal's message.

Robert Powers writes a welcome to his IB school, and his grammar is a little shocking--it's like giving an ape a keyboard (no offence to the ape!). I would think that any parent who reads Powers' message will have second thoughts about sending a child to study there.

Furthermore, I'm not sure that having an MBA run a premier educational programme is the right way to go-- it's obvious Powers had a little help getting through his MBA programme! I hope the school saw his original diplomas

I'm not sure how a principal's message could make its way to a website without having the English teachers correct it first.
http://www.cuis.com.sg/index.php?id=174

[delia2]

CNIS has had some growing pains, especially with the
administration and logistics, but it's got some amazing
teachers, amazing kids, and the bilingual educational
opportunity is out of this world. My child is a primary
school student there, and after 2 years of frequent but
relatively fruitless efforts to learn Mandarin at another
school (which shall remain nameless), my child
has flourished at CNIS and we're staying. Despite the
past problems, we are cautiously optimistic.

I agree the principal is no poet, but it must be hard
to find somebody with good English, good Chinese, and
with managerial skills. CNIS doesn't operate on the kind of
luxury budget that many other IB schools have. There
aren't enough people who can speak both English and
Chinese well, and that's a problem for the school, but
it's also part of why we want our children to have a
bilingual education.

CNIS is doing something utterly unlike any other school
and you have to evaluate all the pros and cons. Maybe
it would help to remove the "IB" label from CNIS and
consider it in its own category.