School in Prakhon Chai

[RichardH]

My daughter is just starting Kindergarten and I am looking for a school in Prakhon Chai region that she can start learning in Thai and English and I am in search for a quality school if there is such a thing........Unfortunately I have had little luck finding anything comparable to any International schools in Bangkok. Since I had taught English in Thailand for almost 10 years I might be expecting too much by comparing Bangkok quality schools. I am looking for schools that have Native English falang teachers, if thee is such a thing.
RichardH

[davu]

I myself am going for home education, making sure at the same time that she gets enough social skills by mixing with other kids. But there again I am a pensioner so will have time. If I could find other parents nearby that were doing the same thing that would be great..

[RichardH]

Davu
It is not easy to do Home Schooling ...my daughter is half Thai so she will need the Thai portion of her education that I obviously can not offer her.
Sure I can do every thing in English  except what pertains to the Thai side which unfortunately contains so much wasted time on Buddhism and omited subject matter that I wonder if she will ever learn  anything.

Unfortunately, I witnessed first hand the only private school ....not International, just private school that is in Prakhon Chai. Unfortunately, it is not worth the tuition they charge because it is not much better than the public schools although  many of the falangs that send their kids there do not know that. Luckily she is just leaving 2 years of nursery school and headed for kindergarten and I have a couple years to get very serious about what to do.

[davu]

yes indeed, probably my learning curve while doing this will be greater than hers. I have a Thai wife and we plan to speak Thai at home, hopefully with the derisive assistance of my step-granddaughter who is 5 years old. Up to primary school level I don't foresee any big problems. After that she will have problems integrating herself back into the Thai school system as she will be on a different track. I hope.
When I was raising a family in Switzerland we were generally tri-lingual, depending on who was sitting at the table, the kids had absolutely no problem with this, they benefited later as now 'the world is their oyster'. There are organisations that help you with home education and this is the way I want to go. If there were a network of parents ready to help things would be easier, but I have had little response to threads that I have started on various forums in Thailand. 'Bung 'em into a school' seems to be the usual thing to do amongst ex-pats here.
The Thai side..? there are a lot of things about the Thai side of things that I can do without, and I think the Thais would be better off without them too.

[Prakhonchai Nick]

Davu
It is not easy to do Home Schooling ...my daughter is half Thai so she will need the Thai portion of her education that I obviously can not offer her.
Sure I can do every thing in English  except what pertains to the Thai side which unfortunately contains so much wasted time on Buddhism and omited subject matter that I wonder if she will ever learn  anything.

Unfortunately, I witnessed first hand the only private school ....not International, just private school that is in Prakhon Chai. Unfortunately, it is not worth the tuition they charge because it is not much better than the public schools although  many of the falangs that send their kids there do not know that. Luckily she is just leaving 2 years of nursery school and headed for kindergarten and I have a couple years to get very serious about what to do.

I have not entered this thread until now, as basically I had nothing beneficial to say to  Richard H with regard to English teaching.

However. Richard's last post has spurred me on to respond.

Richard - you have a daughter just about to start kindergarten (that would be in May when the new school year starts). She has had 2 years in nursery, as a result of which you seem to know a lot about the school -sufficient to suggest it is  no better than the government schools.. Nursery is effectively only playschool,  not proper school!

I have 2 children at the school - Kanlayaprasit. My son is about to start in Mathayom 1 after having been at the school for 8 years,  He was one of the lucky 25 to be admitted to senior school out of some 90 vying to get in (mostly Thais) whilst my daughter has just completed 5 years there. It is NOT an international school, but does cater for many of the luk krungs in the local area. In the years that I have been associated with the school through my children I have found nothing detrimental about any aspect. The teachers care about the kids. The 2 head teachers seem to like farang  kids more than Thai kids.  My kids have received nothing but kindness from everyone at the school, and are very happy  to attend. A happy child will learn more than an unhappy one.

The tuition fees are negligible. Once out of nursery and kindergarten (where more than 1 teacher is required to care for the kids) fees are around 3000bt/year/child No requests for 100bt for this and 100bt for that as happens almost weekly at state schools, which more than likely add up to more than the 3000bt I pay per year. Regular school trips are provided, yet amazingly parents are NEVER asked to contribute! That would not happen in a Thai government school.

Many of the children there are the kids of government workers (doctors, nurses, police and above all school teachers. I have spoken to some school teacher parents who have told me that the education at Kanlayaprasit is far superior to that at  the schools where they work. They know!

It is a Thai school with minimal English teaching. This is Prakhonchai not Bangkok or Pattaya where there are sufficient ex-pat kids to warrant an English speaking school.  My elder daughter attended an international school in Pattaya some 15 years ago. What a waste of money- she was not happy, and did not learn much..  I learned a lot -not least how the Thai bosses lined their own pockets with the outrageous fees charged plus all the non refundable extras. Never again! What she did eventually learn was from private tuition, and now she has an excellent job with good remuneration

My 2 kids attend private English lessons at weekends, which is available to kids of 8yrs+. Up till that age, Richard you must do what you can -or do as 1 friend of mine does, and send his kid to a Bangkok school, renting accommodation in term time in Bangkok and returning to his village home in the holidays.

Would be very interested to know what you know about Kanlayaprasit that you suggest most farangs do not know. Maybe I have missed something!

[pablo]

Surely you mean 30K baht per year, rather than 3K baht...don't you Nick?

[Prakhonchai Nick]

No Pablo. 3000bt/year.

 Having just checked the bill,my son is actually  3,400bt/year for senior school, (with air-con classrooms) whilst my daughter is just 2600bt/year.. Amazing value!

[Vombatus]

No Pablo. 3000bt/year.

 Having just checked the bill,my son is actually  3,400bt/year for senior school, (with air-con classrooms) whilst my daughter is just 2600bt/year.. Amazing value!

Blimey, at that price I should think about getting some children !

[Prakhonchai Nick]

Thought you had recently been practicing CoCo -but obviously you need some lessons! 

You don't GET children, you make them!!!   

[Vombatus]

 

Thought you had recently been practicing CoCo -but obviously you need some lessons! 

You don't GET children, you make them!!!   

Oh!     -  best I keep practicing.

[pablo]

No Pablo. 3000bt/year.

 Having just checked the bill,my son is actually  3,400bt/year for senior school, (with air-con classrooms) whilst my daughter is just 2600bt/year.. Amazing value!

Hmmmmm???

Reason I asked is because we have two (Thai) "whelps" in the Kanlayaprasit School in Prakhon Chai.

Daughter will be just starting her Senior year of high school, and the son is just starting his first year of high school.

We've been paying around 10K baht per student per semester, for the past 5 years.  (That includes tuition, new uniforms, and books/supplies...each semester)

In fact, we just paid a couple of weeks ago for the new semester to come.  (I had the little lady check the "papers", and yes...it was just over 21K baht for both kids.)  The tuition portion amounting to around 7K baht per child.

It's a very good school, and still is a great bargain at that...IMO.

[Vombatus]

Dual pricing in Prakhonchai - surely not ?

[pablo]

Dual pricing in Prakhonchai - surely not ?

Yeah!!!

They're probably nailing it to me, 'cause I'm a (seppo).  555

[Prakhonchai Nick]

Dual pricing in Prakhonchai - surely not ?

Yeah!!!

They're probably nailing it to me, 'cause I'm a (seppo).  555

I doubt it since the fees and all add-ons are clearly published in a blue leaflet given to all parents.

[Prakhonchai Nick]

Cannot understand how you paid that much Pablo. I have never paid anything like 10,000bt, and my bill includes approx 5000bt just for transport and lunch per child!

Apart from the basic tuition cost of 1300 or 1700bt in my case, I have add-ons for lunch and transport as we live some 5kms away and they provide minibus each way. I believe there is also a couple of hundred baht added for swimming and computer.

Books come free courtesy of the government, and I set of uniforms (not currently available for next year) also come free.