First PTA Conference at AIS

Last Friday the Expat Daddy and I attended the first ever Parent-Teacher Conference and PTA Assembly at the Asian Integrated School. I have been waiting for this invitation actually from the very first day of school. Earlier, I have posted my comments and some suggestions to improve the school which you can find here. The intent is not to criticize but actually to improve the school as I truly wanted this school to succeed, and I believe the parents are the best people who would be able to give constructive criticisms as what we really want are just the best for our kids. And we want to be convinced that we have made the right choice of entrusting the education of our children to a newly formed school. Frankly speaking, and yes I feel guilty for it, but I do have very high standards when it comes to my children's education. I just felt that it is my duty to give my children a better education that what my own parents have given me. Modesty aside, I am truly proud to be educated from St. Bridget's College in Batangas City for elementary and De La Salle Lipa and De La Salle University for high school and college respectively.

To be quite honest, this is the only reason why I am willing to sacrifice to be away from my girls, so that they could be educated in the best schools in the Philippines, and, the eldest coming from Colegio San Agustin in Makati and the younger one from Integrated Montessori Center in Fort Bonifacio, well... I can say I really know the meaning of QUALITY education :)
I believe it's an advantage for the AIS to have parents like me who have high standards for their children's education, because if the parents and the school will aim together and work together, then there is nothing impossible! Of course, I would be very much willing to work with the school to benefit my kids :)
But then.... oh well, unfortunately there is always a but in this case. lol! Ok, first and foremost they have scheduled the homeroom parent-teacher conference for all levels at the same time. So for us with 3 children, much as we'd like to be able to speak to our children's teacher, we can not do so. It was a good thing that during the event they have decided to merge all pre-school levels into one assembly. The downside there is that you wouldn't have a chance to discuss specific concerns given the very limited time of 1 hour.
So what the Expat Daddy and I decided is that he will go to the pre-school assembly and I will go to the Grade 3 level. It was a good meeting in the Grade 3 level even if the 2 sections have been merged, It was a small gathering and we were able to discuss our concerns in detail. Some things trivial but others a bit more cause of concern. Just like other parents, what we all notice and concerned us the most is the implementation of the Singapore Math and Science subjects. Since the Singaporean curriculum for both these subjects have been gaining much acclaim, in the beginning, that was one of the reasons why we liked the school. But then getting familiar with the curriculum, we find that the topics are delayed compared Philippine curriculum. Like the topics for grade 3 are actually for Grade 2 in the Philippine curriculum. I mean, see Singaporean curriculum follows the international standards which is a total of 12 years from elementary to high school, whereas in the Philippines, we only have 10 years, so logically, the topics in the Philippine curriculum would be more advanced than that of the international standards. Hence, we believe, that Grade 3 students should have been taught with Grade 4 topics on the Singaporean curriculum. The main point there is that the reason we keep our children in Philippine Schools here in Qatar is because we are not sure until when we will be living abroad, and what we want is that in any case that we have to move back, they would be easily able to adjust to the schools we will be transferring them to. Thus, given this situation, we don't know how our children would be able to cope in the instance that they need to move back :(
For the pre-school, it seems that the Expat Daddy did not have the patience to sit through the somewhat chaotic meeting of the first-time moms in pre-school! lol! No, that was a joke, it was actually a relief to see all these young parents to be so involved. I tried to sit in at the later part of the meeting as I have some concerns of my own which I need to be addressed ASAP. Unfortunately, by the time the Grade 3 meeting finished, the topic for pre-school had already moved to the celebration of the nutrition month (But then, one of my main issues have been addressed, I found out just today that they have already been putting rubber mats on the nursery room floors! Yaay! Now I can relax knowing the kids are safe even during rough play :) --- Thank you thank you thank you pre-school parents for raising this!).
The General Assembly was supposed to start by 2pm but then, up until then, the pre-school meeting had not finished yet and there's no room for us to wait. When I checked, the Principal told me that the General Assembly will be in the same room, so I don't know how they will fit the Elementary parents when the room had already been filled by the pre-school parents, who I believe will all stay for the General Assembly. Well, with no lunch, the Expat Daddy and I just decided to leave. Anyway, if I have any concerns, the teachers will definitely hear from me - with our without any conference set. :)
Oh and by the way, I have been elected (actually, appointed is the better word, hehe!) as Grade 3 Vice President --- whatever difference that makes, hehe!