Fortune Kindergarten - International Division

REVIEW 1:

"Quite commercialized. Teacher quality - depending on luck. But at a not too cheap and not too expensive price range, that is about the best choice. At least they really use 'native' English teachers unlike some other schools that engage Caucasian hitchhikers or make their Chinese teachers speak "Chin-Glish!"

REVIEW 2:

"We had a very good impression of this school when we visited it. The teaching materials seemed interesting, curriculum fairly adequate and organization well-run. We also liked the idea of having separate English and Chinese teaching days each week.

Our child's teachers were pretty good.  There was excellent communication with them.  School activities were also great - there were many field trips organized and the Christmas Concert was a success. Parental involvement was encouraged.

BUT things did not work out for us. This was largely due to the class size. They reached into the 20s for 4 to 5 year olds. The teachers whilst doing wonderful jobs simply weren't able to cater to that number of kids. Added to that, most of the kids came from different countries; many kids could not speak either English or Mandarin, which made teaching even harder. For our child who could speak English fluently and basic Mandarin, that meant some degree of boredom in class during lessons. My husband and I noticed that our child tended to daydream at home too.

The commercial aspect of the school was also evident from the first day of school - we were not told that we had to pay separately for the mattress and so our child was refused a mattress by the school administration. Our child was distraught at being treated differently from the other kids (who had all attended Fortune Kindergarten the previous year and had their own mattresses already), having thought it was a punishment of sorts. We were really upset with the management over this. 

We debated for a while but after a couple of months, we finally took our child out of Fortune K."

REVIEW 3:

"The school  has a good international mix of students from the East and West. School also try to maintain boy/girl ratio to give a balance environment with adequate activities for both boys and girls. Most importantly, I want my kid to have a relative feel of permanence in our seemingly rootless expat lifestyle. Fortune is a relatively established school within our budget with low teachers and ayis turnover. I found most of the teachers and ayis in Fortune have stayed with the school for the past few years. The interaction between foreign and local teachers is harmonious. Staffs and kids in general appear happy when I visit. I guess since they have worked together for years, they have sorted out their differences and other administrations issues in any to focus on teaching.  The principal also has been there for years and I found her quite opened and willing to listen (even though sometimes we may disagree with each other).  One small concern I have for my kid is that she seems to speak more Chinese than English, as the class consists of different nationalities, Chinese has become the “lingua franca” in the that class. I hope with the new Phonics program that the school introduced this year, the balance will tip a little and they can be truly bilingual."

REVIEW 4:

"Pros: None. Cons: Very expensive, teacher-student ratio very high. Outdated facilities, boring environment. I would not recommend it"