Parent's Review of RIS Swiss Section in Bangkok
What is the name of your child's school? (Please report on one school per survey.)
RIS Swiss Section
In what town or city is this school located?
Bangkok
How would you describe this school? (i.e. American, British, International, Local, etc.)
Swiss
What grade levels are represented at this school?
Pre-K-Grade 12
How do most children get to school everyday? (bus, train, walk, etc.)
Montri school bus, the school is located extremely far out of town. The Montri bus service charges more than private taxis do.
How would you describe the facilities at this school? What extra-curricular activities are available?
It's a small school, some facilities are charged with the larger RIS (Swimming pool for instance). Sportfields are inadequate, sport hall is extremely small. Library is not stocked well.
What has this school done to help your child transition from the curriculum in your home country into the curriculum in your new country? Are there programs to prepare your child for repatriation?
There are no programs to prepare children for repatriation; our son found it difficult to go to school again in Germany and had to repeat a class. The continuous problems between Swiss management, schoolboard and teaching staff prohibit an effective learning environment for children. Many parents complain that their children are not properly 'eingestuft', that means they have to attend classes at a lower level than parents deem appropriate. German level is extremely poor, approximately 10% of students in lower levels has a German/Swiss/Austrain background, most kids are from mixed marriages and require additional language support.
How would you describe the social activities available for parents through this school? Are there parent-teacher organizations?
PTO is present and meets twice a year. Parents seem to try to affect their children's school results by networking inappropriately with schoolboard members.
What advice would you give to someone considering enrolling their child in this school?
The disadvantages of enrolling children at this school seems larger than the advantages. Bangkok Patana and NIST also offer German classes and IB/IGSCE examinations and both schools have tremendous good facilities when compared to RIS Swiss Section. The best advice would be to talk to parents; we made a mistake and it cost our son one extra year in Germany. he is really glad to be back home again in a decent school.
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Comments about this Report
TellenbachAs the Principal of RIS Swiss Section - Deutschsprachige Schule Bangkok, I would like to take the opportunity to comment on the above article. First of all, I am sorry to hear that you are not satisfied with our school and that your son experienced difficulty when transitioning back into the German system. This is an unpleasant experience for any student and parent and I understand your frustration. However, I would like to point out that we actually do assist returning students to a high degree when given the opportunity. Leaving parents regularly contact us before they return back home or move on, and if this is done early enough, we can look at the differences in the curricula of the future school and RIS Swiss Section - Deutschsprachige Schule Bangkok and work out in what ways we can support the children. The important thing is for parents to get in touch with the school management team and the homeroom teacher at an early stage. We have just conducted a survey of all the families who left RIS Swiss Section - Deutschsprachige Schule in the last school year with children who now attend another school elsewhere. 50% of the parents stated that their children were "coping well", 25% said their children were actually ahead of their class and 25% identified some subjects in which students at the new school were behind. Considering that any change of schools is challenging, even within the same city, these results are really good. There was even one quite prestigious private school in Germany that usually works on an entrance-test-only basis but offered to waive this procedure for one of our students because of the good reputation of RIS Swiss Section – Deutschsprachige Schule Bangkok. Please do not get me wrong: I do not mean to say that school transition is an easy process or to imply that it always works seamlessly, but I find it important to put some of your statements in perspective. The average class size of the schools our ex-students attend today is 20.2 students, ranging from 14 to 29. At RIS Swiss Section - Deutschsprachige Schule Bangkok, one class averages just 10.2 students. Individual support is made much easier under these circumstances. I would appreciate ahving the chance to contact you so that we can discuss this matter. Unfortunately, your name is not shown in the post. My email address is d.tellenbach@ris-swiss-section.org and I would be happy to hear from you. Dominique Tellenbach Principal RIS Swiss Section – Deutschsprachige Schule Bangkok
