Tutor Time in Braemar Hill or Island Children Montessori School in Tin Hau???

Tutor time: I 100% agree that TT is very commercial. But if you don't mind, it is actually a well organise school. The environment is good and the teachers are nice too. My Daughter stayed there for a year from she was 1years old till 2.
Island Montessori: I really suggest you to avoid it. I went to a school visit and they are very rude knowing my daughter's age coz there will be no vacancy for her at all, so they don't even border talking to us.
The environment is also very bad and the classroom is very small and dark. Ventilation is very bad, I think I won't be too happy to let my daughter study there!
 
I think Wegetable has misunderstood. baby09 is talking about Island Montessori, not International Montessori School (IMS), the one in the previous Govt. school is IMS, there is no playgroup in the IMS Tin Hau Campus, IMS is a excellent school with a long waiting list. The one that Baby09 talked about is the small school under the residential building opposite to Art Plus, which as I mentioned above, is terrible!!
 
I have no idea what you are talking about dmk. My daughter has been there for the past six months and they have been great. The staff have been very helpful and flexible on a number of issues. The school, although small, has a great teacher to student ratio so at least the rooms aren't packed full of kids (they only have 10 kids in the precasa class, with 2 teachers, plus at least another teacher's assistant). The classrooms are bright and I've never noticed any problem with the ventilation. It really sounds like you are talking about a completely different place. I've been nothing but happy with ICMS.
 
YOu can PM me if you want to know my personal experience... don't want to disclose too much here. But trust me... my experience was awful!!! And in response to WEGETABLE... haha... yes, this school does try to squeeze in as many people as they want... from my experience, for a classroom w/ an originial max capacity of 12, without any changes/expansion of the classroom, they could keep changing the max. capacity to 14, 16, to 18 gradually. Yes, it's that crazy!!

Another incident... as you may know, many schools would help you ordering Scholastics books, and I see the exchange rate (which includes shipping, handling, etc. etc. fee) for many schools are around $11.xx to $12.xx to US$ 1, but this school charges $14.xx, which is a total reap off!! And many many more... and most importantly, they don't offer the education with a heart... I mean... it's ok for them to be 'expensive' and to be 'commercialized', it's a 'free-trade', but at least they need to offer a proper and responsible service, but they don't... sigh...
 
To: nicolejoy... yes yes yes... I was talking about Tutor Time. Sorry about the confusion... I know nothing about ICMS. :-)
 
Agree with GoogleBaby on the comment about Tutor Times. My daughter spent about 6 months at their playgroup. It was extremely commercial! I felt that her English teacher, in particular, had no heart in teaching babies. Some teachers just followed all the "steps" the school required, such as "pretending" to talk to/ play with the babies and parents. Personally, I did not see the passion through their eyes and expressions.

The school organized a lot of activities to please the parents but some of them did not make sense. E.g. A talent show was organized for babies from Playgroups and other higher classes (participation was voluntarily) and some babies were so young that they couldn't even walk. The parent of a baby needed to pay for $500 for an ticket and a DVD. If you want to bring one more adult, you have to pay another $300. I think the idea of having babies less than 1.5-year-old for a Talent Show is too ridiculous and commercial.

To be fair, their administration is good, and parents get newsletters, emails, reports often. If you like these kind of updates, you may appreciate the school.

I'd like to know other parents' view on Island Children Montessori School (ICMS), Kornhill International and Discover Montessori School (Sheung Wan) as I am considering switching to another Playgroup.
 
Agree with GoogleBaby on the comment about Tutor Times. My daughter spent about 6 months at their playgroup. It was extremely commercial! I felt that her English teacher, in particular, had no heart in teaching babies. Some teachers just followed all the "steps" the school required, such as "pretending" to talk to/ play with the babies and parents. Personally, I did not see the passion through their eyes and expressions.

The school organized a lot of activities to please the parents but some of them did not make sense. E.g. A talent show was organized for babies from Playgroups and other higher classes (participation was voluntarily) and some babies were so young that they couldn't even walk. The parent of a baby needed to pay for $500 for an ticket and a DVD. If you want to bring one more adult, you have to pay another $300. I think the idea of having babies less than 1.5-year-old for a Talent Show is too ridiculous and commercial.

To be fair, their administration is good, and parents get newsletters, emails, reports often. If you like these kind of updates, you may appreciate the school.

I'd like to know other parents' view on Island Children Montessori School (ICMS), Kornhill International and Discover Montessori School (Sheung Wan) as I am considering switching to another Playgroup.
 
I posted 2 years ago about my then limited experience with ICMS. Since then, that daughter has graduated from casa and is off to primary this year. My 2nd daughter has a physical disability and has been with them for about 18 months - she will start Casa in September at the east campus. We've had a very positive experience with them with both of the kids - it's not a perfect school but no school is. Particularly for my 2nd daughter, they have been very understanding and flexible, willing to try to make it work when other schools couldn't be bothered even trying. We get online newsletters each week and the correspondence with the class teacher is pretty good too. The kids were super happy. The main criticism I've heard about the school is that it's not "true Montessori" but honestly I have them in the school because it's a good school, not because I have any allegiance to Montessori method specifically. I'm currently pregnant with my 3rd child and plan to put her through ICMS too if I can!

Can PM me for more specific questions, or I'm happy to answer here as well.
 
Different parents have different experiences at schools depending on the teacher I think. My experience with Tutortime for two kids at two different campuses (Caine Rd. and Braemar Hill) have been different. Is it expensive, yes, is it commercialized - to an extent yes. But all the teacher's that we have had (especially in Nursery and K1 class) have really cared a lot about my kids and totally taught with a heart. The maximum number of kids in a class is 20 to 2 teachers and 1 teaching assistant. The ratio is very good if you compare it to some local schools that have 30 kids in a class. My kids loved their teachers and the teachers were very thoughtful and cared about our kids. The talent show, though maybe not appreciated by playgroup parents as much is a highlight for nursery and K1 children. They practiced for months and my kids were soooo excited to get the chance to perform on stage. It was truly memorably for us even if the tickets were a few hundred each. As for the Scholastic books - yes, probably expensive - but not a requirement to buy. I've not once bought from the program. So for our family, I would say Tutortime really worked and now my son is happily at HKIS!
 
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