Parent's Review of Windhoek International School in Windhoek
What is the name of your child's school? (Please report on one school per survey.)
Windhoek International School
In what town or city is this school located?
Windhoek
How would you describe this school? (i.e. American, British, International, Local, etc.)
International
What grade levels are represented at this school?
pre-primary, K-13 (IB)
How do most children get to school everyday? (bus, train, walk, etc.)
Private car, or private "drivers"
How would you describe the facilities at this school? What extra-curricular activities are available?
For the fees that we are paying, not to mention the $3000 US "enrollment" fee, we were surprised at how poor the facilities are. While the layout is nice, the classrooms themselves are too small, the gym is a joke, and the sports fields were so poor that sports were cancelled for weeks this year because the field was completley flooded. The library is quite good and iss growing with a wonderful librarian.
There are afterschool activities most days, lasting for about an hour. However, for the primary these consist mostly of sports for the boys and crafts for the girls. The girls sports were particulary dismal in primary, without coaches, games, or anything like that. The one highlight for primary activities is the "Namibian dance" class, which is excellent and the only Namibian-related activity at the primary school. In secondary there are more options.
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?
They do an intensive screening of new kids, but then have a policy of placing the kids in their age appropriate classroom without even looking at these screening tools. Two of my primary age children tested well-above their peers in math/English, but were placed in the regular classroom doing the same work as the other kids. WIS is well behind the US in math (at least two years behind by grade 6), and English. It took a lot of complaining to get one of the teachers to give the kids some more interesting/challenging work, and one teacher still refused all year long. There's also a lot of teasing that goes on at the school.
WIS has just hired a new head of primary, and it looks like he might improve things at WIS.
How would you describe the social activities available for parents through this school? Are there parent-teacher organizations?
There are lots of events for parents. Like a "sweetheart dinner dance", with lots of booze. An odd event! The PTO is active.
What advice would you give to someone considering enrolling their child in this school?
WIS is in a turmoil right now. The board brought in a new director with the mandate to bring up the standards at WIS, but then ran him out of the country after a year when he tried to do so. The communication is poor from the school, so we have no idea if they are hiring a new one. There is a new head of primary, so that might improve things, but there is a lot of parental dissatisfaction. There is a strong influence on educating the "whole child" at WIS, which seems to mean a lot of assemblies with countless skits every single week, and parties. There is a lot of resistance to standard academics, and my primary kids never had to do any homework, and I'm not sure if they learned a thing last year. It is absurd the prices that we pay for this school for such little we get back. We are used to city public schools in the USA, and we are shocked at how far advanced in all aspects from WIS our public schools are at home. If we were staying here longer, we would definitely take the kids out and send them to St. George's or the Convent School or Gymnasium or anywhere. And all of these other schools are much, much less expensive. WIS does not have a good reputation in Windhoek.
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