When MC is not a MC

Am I talking about medical certification or commonly known as medical leave? Nope, the MC here refers to MindChamps. This brand has been part of our life since 2013 March. Could the preschool our boys in have been better? Yes and No. How the story unfolds later on is something we have not expected.

Yesterday evening, we sent our boys for a free MindChamps reading and writing assessment. You ask why, since they are already in the MindChamps preschool and this enrichment is already covered. Yes, it is included in their curriculum. But we have never had a clear indication on Jon's progress. Hence, I took advantage of the voucher that was given by MindChamps when I attended at lunch talk conducted by them in my company.

As suspected, Jon is behind his rightful level. There could be 2 reasons to explain that. First, he really doesn't know. Second, he doesn't have the confidence to even attempt the question. So while the assessor - a lady sent from HQ, explained how the assessment works and what the whole reading and writing program was about, we uncovered a mis-alignment here between the Preschool reading/ writing program and the enrichment outside.

I had verified that all reading/ writing (RWP) teacher is a specialist that undergoes the same training at HQ. So I raised 2 issues which cast question on the quality of the RWP specialist assigned to current branch we are in. HQ Lady was appalled to hear about such discrepancies and took it upon herself to investigate the 2 issues. While these 2 issues are being investigated, I shall not comment further until the investigation is completed.

Back to Jon. So how? He is supposed to be at level 4 stage based on N2 standard, but he's only at Level 2. He was assessed to be at that level because he could not sound all the phonemes of the alphabets. So it could be either he really doesn't know which could be partially true or he doesn't have the confidence to attempt it. Some of the tested phonics were what we had practiced at home and he did tried to answer me.

HQ lady also heard about our situation with the impending relocation and suggested we should give Holland Village branch a chance. She proposed to make appointment with HV branch on our behalf and be around so that she could highlight Jon's weakness to the RWP specialist and teachers which she also came to know about Jon's delayed in speech development during our conversation.

During our conversation with HQ lady, we also learnt that school holiday period when the champs are not having their usual lessons, the teachers are supposed to help the weaker students to catch up in their work. I have not heard or seen any activities that suggested Jon was given such additional help. I texted the same colleague which notified me about the news, her 2 boys are in the same branch as mine. She told me her elder boy's teacher would email them during school holiday period, to update them on the activities her son would be involved, including catch-up lessons and such.

I was dismayed. If it is a practice to be adopted by all teachers, given the mandate from HQ, why is it teacher-dependent at current branch? And also, the RWP specialist has never attempted to feedback to us on Jon's progress when clearly he is behind times.

Our way forward? We probably scheduled a visit to HV branch to survey the surrounding since we still have to resolve the inconvenient location issue.

As for Jon, we entertained the thought of sending him to MindChamps RWP as enrichment outside so he could catch up. But it really seemed a little overboard. We have spoken to Jon and got him to commit to buck up just like his Berries. If we could do it together to buck up on Berries, we could do the same, no doubt it takes time.

From today onwards, he is to commit no less than 15 minutes everyday to learn his phonics, practice Berries and practice writing, together with his Heguru worksheets that spilled from earlier days. I do not think that is a tall order for 4 year old and we need to work towards gearing up for Primary 1.



Side Information

MindChamps Preschool is increasing their fees from January 2016 onwards. It would be adjusted to $1680 + GST for N1 upwards. Fee is before government subsidy for working mummy. The last adjustment took place in January 2015 and now, they are increasing their fees again. 

Not only school fees increased, year-end concert tickets and all have increased too. It was $25 per ticket previous round but had increased to $30 per ticket and the management included a $10 snack fee  during rehearsal times. Add on the costume cost, we are looking at $130 per child for a year end concert package. *Do note that different branches have different pricing for their own year-end concert*

The MindChamps RWP conducted outside as enrichment is priced at $830 (excluding GST) for 10 lessons (one term, one level). Registration fee $53.50  and a $150 deposit.