Is the school ripping us off? (long- sorry)

[april68]

DD's, 11 and 14, attend a local indpendent school. Over recent years there has been an increasing intake of overseas pupils, especially chinese, hong kong etc. That's fine; seems to be a fairly general thing in independent schools these days. Last year a big deal was made about a mandarin teacher starting at the school, about how mandarin was going to be the language of business in the future etc and last sept the mandarin teacher was duly appointed. Well, as far as I can see, its all a load of hype. DD1 (14) gets 3 mandarin lessons a week and DD2 who is in the prep dept gets 1 at the moment. However, when i ask them about the lessons, its clear that although they've learned a few individual words, its no more than that. There seems to be no attempt to teach the pupils to actually speak the language - its more knowing a few words in isolation. The other week when it was chinese new year, they seemed to spend half the week making pretty lanterns and cards etc but again, it was all fairly superficial. TBH my friend's DD who is in a local state primary learned more about chinese new year that week than my DDs. I am particularly concerned that my DDs are missing other lessons to so say 'benefit' from this. I've sounded out a few other parents and i am not alone in feeling this. the mandarin teacher also does some evening sessions for parents, and although i havent attended, I'm getting the same message with those. It all seems to be very overhyped, as if the school wants to look like its ahead of the game without any real substance. The last straw was when i heard that the teacher will be finishing a week early at easter to fly back to China for the vacation. Easter break is 3 weeks long anyway, so this will mean she's away for a month. It just all seems a bit shoddy and lacking in professionalism to me. I wonder whether there are any other parents who have experience of this kind of thing, because I understand its a fairly common initiative to have this in independent schools. I really want to know whether I'm being ripped off or whether this is par for the course. DH is all set to go in all guns blazing and tell the school that he's sick of them being a profit making organisation and about time they started thinking about education . I don't feel as strongly but I wonder whether he has a point. We are paying a LOT of money for this education.

Agree btw about Mandarin. Seems it's utterly impossible to learn without really intensive immersion.
Our local state school offers Spanish, French, german and Latin which seems a perfectly acceptable range. I wonder whether the Mandarin thing will just die a death? Clearly just trying to capitalise on the fact that a lot of schools rely on overseas market these days.

I think the reason that schools are picking up on Mandarin nowadays is because of the growing economy of China and the liklihood that many pupils will end up doing business with China.

The calibre of people in our top professions are some of the best in the world because of the excellent education they have had in our private schools which again are some of the best in the world. We should proud of those people not criticise them.

Oh for crying out loud, Xenia!

I asked our Mandarin teacher about the classes she teaches today. The classes are voluntary from Y7 up, and take place after school. They lead to an 'Asset' qualification, which can start at pre-GCSE level. In our school, all pupils who drop a language at the end of Y9 get the Asset Breakthrough, and the Mandarin folks would be in the same category at a minimum.

What the girls get from these lessons is the ability to share basic courtesies with Chinese people, and do rudimentary ordering of food, shopping, transportation etc.

Our Mandarin teacher is a native of Beijing and we have the capability of extending Mandarin classes into GCSE and A-level should the demand arise.

seeker. i hear you.

PSCMUM - thank you. I was lost for words....

Why are you lost for words, seeker?

It is surely a truth universally acknowledged that that a disproportionate number of top jobs are inhabited by OSTs. Now whether that is important or significant to todays' pupils is another matter, but you can't deny numerical evidence.

There seem to be signs that the balance is being redressed at long last. The private school where DH teaches has only got 2 into Oxbridge this year, whereas the state school he's starting at in Sept has 6 going. (same size 6th form). And our local 6th form college has 9 going this year.