Feeling misled...

When we first arrived in Krakow in 2011, my husband and I needed to settle our kids in a school. We only had the options of ISK or BISC. I tried to research some reviews about these 2 schools, but to no avail.

The first time we visited ISK, we loved the open air and spaciousness of the school. We were greeted by the acting-Director and vice-Principle at the time, and they were very helpful, friendly, and assured us that the school was a very close-family unit, with small classes (maximum 16 children), and the children's education and well-being were their top priority! Both have since left the school.

Based on their sales pitch, my husband and I chose ISK for our children, and judging by the school's philosophy below, we had no reason to doubt.

"Instruction is geared to the individual needs of the student.

We set the highest standards for each of our students at his or her stage of development, and foster achievement through a rich variety of teaching styles and methods matched to his or her needs.

We also aim to identify the special talents of each of our students and to provide challenging educational programs to encourage the widest development of these talents.

To enhance this, we encourage continuous dialogue among students, teachers, administration and parents."

Up until the middle of 2012 school year, we were quite happy with the school because our children appeared happy. But when our son started complaining that the class work was boring and too easy, I decided to do my own assessment at home. I was surprise to find that he was highly advanced in Maths and above grade level for Language. We approached the school to see what they thought and was disappointed to hear that there were no adequate assessment tools to test if a student is advanced for their age. Instead, we were recommended to visit a psychologist in Warsaw. We were even more shocked to hear that his previous teacher reported to the Special Needs Coordinator that he was highly advanced, but nothing was done about it. And even worse, we were never informed!

Had one of the teachers followed up on his advanced development, his potential would not have been wasted for 1.5 years. And had I not assessed him at home myself, nothing would have been done to meet his needs at school.

This year, my daughter scored an average of 96% in three of her unit tests and she was surprised that she only received "Meeting Expectations" in her report card. When we asked how the grades were determined, we got some round-about answers that not only didn't make any sense, but contradictory. As part of the explanation we received, we learnt that the Head of Elementary reviews the report cards but only looks for "red flags", which as he explained are children who are graded as "Not Meeting Expectations" or "Approaching". I guess this explained why my son was not identified as a "red flag" because he was graded as "Exceeding Expectations" and therefore, disregarded.

Now, I understand that it could be argued that ISK is a small international school with limited resources and cannot cater for every student individually. However, my point is if ISK publishes a philosophy that states, "We also aim to identify the special talents of each of our students and to provide challenging educational programs to encourage the widest development of these talents", then I expect them to live up to it. Otherwise, don't publish statements that mislead parents into believing that the school is able to provide something that it cannot.

Based on the experiences with my own children and what other parents have told me, I can only conclude that ISK is currently not equipped to handle students that are advanced. This is one of the reasons why we are unhappy and feel that we've been misled.

Your thoughts?

PS. I understand that not everyone has a Google+ account. However, if you want to leave a comment as Anonymous, then I encourage you to sign off with your name so that it's easier to have meaningful discussions.

Missing blog comments

I'm sorry to inform that due to a problem with Google Blogger, the comments that were left on this blog are no longer visible. In my search for answers, I've found several other people reporting this same problem which doesn't have any clear solution right now. I regret that this issue has occurred but will do everything possible to retrieve the old comments.

In the meantime, I have enabled a different commenting option that also allow comments to be left anonymously.

Life is full of ironies

I attended the IWAC Ball last Saturday, and it's amazing the number of people who were interested in talking to me and sharing their experiences about ISK, when they realize that I was the person behind the blog of Parents' Voices at ISK. I never expected that so many people are reading my blog, and discussing some of the issues that I have raised amongst other parents. It's also surprising how quickly the word has spread about my blog considering I've only just started. Thank you everyone for your support and encouragement for me to continue blogging!

Amongst the interesting people that I spoke to at the Ball, were a few ex-ISK parents as well as BISC parents who knew of families that left ISK for BISC. By now I'm sure you are curious to know why some of these families left ISK.

I was told that last year, a middle school student was terribly bullied by her fellow classmates and ISK was unable to deal with the situation so her parents decided to move her to BISC. She is now happily settled in her current environment because BISC has a "bullying policy" for their school (something that ISK is lacking). It was also mentioned to me that many other students moved to BISC because their parents expect a higher standard of education for their children, and so far, these parents were positively impressed by BISC. Another parent mentioned that she's only keeping her child at ISK because they lived near the school and driving into the city center would be too difficult due to the traffic.

Now, I find it a little ironic that despite many families leaving ISK due to what they perceived as low standards of education and educational leadership, in the ISK Annual Report 2012-2013 which was sent to parents last week, the ex-Chairman Jeff Gaskell stated and I quote:

"...parents and students chose to come to and stay at ISK because of our school's reputation for academic excellence." 

A penny for your thoughts anyone?

The plot thickens!

Since my previous blog where I questioned who is responsible for education at ISK? There is no doubt in my mind that the responsibility for education ultimately lies with the School Board.

Like many parents, when it's time to elect a new Board member, I try to choose people that I believe will serve in the school's best interest - education being the number one priority! I also thought it's very democratic of ISK to allow parents to elect members to sit on the Board to represent the parent's interests. However, when I started reading into the ISK Policy Manual and did a little investigation, I found something very unsettling.

For those who are unfamiliar with the School Board structure, here it is in a nut shell:

• There are 9 voting members on the Board
• One (1) Chair person from U.S. Consulate
• One (1) other U.S. Consulate representative
• Two (2) appointed members - nominated by a simple majority of the sitting Board members
• Five (5) elected members
• Board members will be appointed or elected for 3-year terms.
• Board decisions are made by majority vote (ie. 5 votes on a full sitting Board)

Now, here's the interesting part...drum roll...

According to the Policy Manual:

"If a vacancy among elected positions occurs during the school year, the Board may nominate and appoint by majority vote a new member to serve until the next election is held, or longer, until the end of the term of the vacating member, at the discretion of the Board."

Basically, this means that despite giving parents the power to elect five (5) members, if an elected member leaves their position (say) after 6 months, then the Board has the power to appoint who they want to replace that person for the remaining 2.5 years.

By now, my curious mind started to wonder again. Why would the Board appoint someone for the remainder of the term instead of calling for a re-election at the next school year? The plot thickens!

The ISK website unfortunately, doesn't provide any information on how each Board member got on the Board (I'm not surprised). But here's what I managed to dig out:

• Ellen Germain (Chair person from U.S. Consulate)
• Charity Boyette (U.S. Consulate representative)
• Barbara Myrczek (Elected in 2011)
• Waclaw Sierek (Elected in 2012)
• Magdalena Figas (Elected in 2013)
• Edwin Bennaars (Appointed in 2012 to replace Erik van der Steen???)
• Allen Haberberg (Appointed in 2013)
• Kara McDonald (Appointed in 2013 to replace Alex Dudhia for 2 years)
• Jörg von Weiler (Appointed???)

Please feel free to leave a comment and correct anything that's inaccurate. 

I'd really like someone to correct me because if I'm right, we now have a situation where there are only 3 elected Board members instead of 5. This is not only unjust, but unethical because parents' rights to elect are taken away when existing Board members are allowed to appoint another person for replacement.

Thinking about this further, it's entirely possible that one day, the School Board will consist of only appointed Board members who can steer the school in a direction that isn't in the best interest for our children's education or well-being.

Now, I'm not suggesting that the existing Board members are doing anything that would go against the interests of parents - after all, some of them also have children attending ISK. However, I'm really struggling to trust or accept a school policy that supposedly gave parents the power to elect 5 Board members, but we ended up with only 3 elected members.

I would like to see ISK's Governance Committee revise the policy immediately to ensure that appointed replacements stay on the Board only until the next election. This will give parents an opportunity to re-elect who we want on the Board to ensure that they represent the parent's interest.

What do you think?

Take a poll.

online poll by Opinion Stage

Who's the real slim shady?

I often run into school board members at functions or parties, and naturally as a concerned parent (but really I'm just curious), I talk to them about the quality of education, and sometimes lack of it, at ISK. I'm sure some of you have done the same.

To my surprise, I've been told by every school Board members that the School Board is not responsible for "education". Well fancy that, by now I'm wondering who's responsible for education at ISK? Their answers were the same, "The Director". Well fancy that, then who's making sure that the Director is doing a good job? Obviously, not the School Board because they are not responsible for education!

Anyway, to satisfy my curiosity, I visited the ISK website and stumbled upon the ISK Board Policy Manual (surprise, surprise!!), and to my surprise (again), the policy manual states the following:

1.3 School Structure and Organization
1.3.1 The School Board
The Board is the governing body of the School. All matters that pertain to the making of policy for the School will rest with the School Board. The School Board’s primary responsibilities are to provide:

• Education for the Students
• Constructive work environment for the teaching and non-teaching staff
• Facilities for the operation of the School
• Financial leadership in all matters

Hmm, it seems to me (if I can actually interpret this into simple English), that according to the Policy Manual, the School Board is responsible for education and it is their "primary" responsibility. But why do these Board members tell me otherwise?? Are they really that ill-informed?

Seriously, who is responsible for Education at ISK? I quote from Eminem: Will the real slim shady please stand up!

Take a poll.

online poll by Opinion Stage

What? Half day of school!!!

My husband and I were not happy to say the least, when we received an email to inform us that our children will be having half day of school because of a Parent/Teacher conference.

Ok, I have nothing against a Parent/Teacher conference. I think it's commendable that ISK is hosting one. Plus, it's a great way to get a verbal report on how crappy my kids have performed at P.E.

What we are dissatisfied about is that the meeting is taking place during school hours. Isn't that the time that my children are suppose to be learning? What is the point of my children going into school for 3 hours, and then back home again before I can say, "Boo!" How about, who will babysit my children when they arrive home?

Did the school ever consider about the parents (their primary customers)? Probably not! Did they think about the students? Probably not! So I wonder who they were thinking about when they made the decision to have a half day? Hmmm....I'll let you figure that out yourself.

Wouldn't it be more considerate of the school to conduct an after school hours Parent/Teacher conference over 2 or 3 days (say from 3.30pm - 5.00pm)? This way -

• The children's learning is not disrupted
• It caters for working parents
• It gives parents choices of which day is more suitable for them
• Teachers only need to answer questions from parents for 1.5 hours instead of 6 hours straight 

Am I alone in thinking that half day is not the best solution to conduct Parent/Teacher conference? Is what I've suggested a better alternative or are there other ways that is more effective, without disrupting the children's schooling?

What are your thoughts?  Take a quick poll below.

online poll by Opinion Stage

Surprise, surprise...

Before going public with this blog, I thought that ISK might want to link this blog to their website to show that the school:

• has a strong connection with parents
• is open to parents' opinions
• listens and responds to parents' collective concerns
• embraces constructive criticism/feedback, and use it as input to initiate further improvements to the school

So I approached one of the Board member. He thought it was a wonderful idea and said that he would ask the School Board for approval.

Well, guess what? A few days later, I received a simple response stating that most of the Board members rejected it because it's just one person's opinion. Surprise, surprise...

This is exactly what happens when parents (that I speak to) bring up concerns to the school - they are treated and dismissed as a single case, which is unimportant to the school.

I'd like to see this blog unite parents in a common interest - our children's education and well-being. Now is a good time as any for us to come together and voice our opinions on how school should help shape our children's future. 

Edward Gardner once said, 

"If we would just support each other - that's ninety percent of the problem". 

Bullying

Bullying is so prevalent in our society today, especially in schools, and my child is no stranger to the endless lists of victims. For the past couple of years, my child has endured bullying in the form of isolation, back stabbing and dirty looks by some classmates. My husband and I know that we cannot protect our children all the time from the ugliness of society, and we often talk to our children about their problems and encourage them to try and deal with the situation themselves.

Late last year my child came home from school one day soaked in tears, because it was too much. It was the first time I ever saw the stress and heartache that my child has hidden all this time. My protectiveness kicked in, and so I emailed my child's teacher explaining the situation, and that I would appreciate it if he could intervene. I had a brief response stating that bullying is not uncommon among young children, but that the matter will be dealt with. My child told me that all this teacher did was make the bullies apologize and that was that.

Unfortunately, making the bullies apologize wasn't enough as my child endured the whole scenario again. It seems to me that there are teachers who will see bullying as a minute problem (I put it down to lack of awareness and understanding of the consequences of bullying), and as such an apology (with or without sincerity), is sufficient.

This year, my child wrote an email to her teacher and told him that making the bullies apologize is really not enough. She proposed a solution to conduct a class project that will educate the students about the effect of bullying. This teacher agreed to conduct a project and in doing so, empowered his students, giving them a voice to express their feelings and thoughts about bullying, educating them about the effects of bullying, and how to deal with the problem. This very same teacher could have stopped at the class level, but instead, he encouraged his students to help educate the whole school through hanging posters around the school and giving presentations. Now that, is a teacher worthy of respect!

I'm not deluded to think that bullying will be stamped out indefinitely at ISK (or any school for that matter), but I liked that a teacher took the initiative to be an advocate for his students by being proactive in trying to change the mentality of the school.

Action speaks louder than words, that's what all teachers should instill in their students!

Has your child experienced bullying at ISK? Take a quick poll.

online poll by Opinion Stage

online poll by Opinion Stage

Why I started this blog...

My children have been attending International School of Krakow (ISK) for the past 3 years. During those years, I've had a glimpse of the good and bad sides of the school. I know no school is perfect, not even an International school where you expect that high fees equals quality education! However, there are certain practices, beliefs and rules at ISK that sometimes makes me wonder if the grass is greener on the other side like British International School of Cracow (BISC)??? But, then again my kids are still at ISK because I see great potential in ISK and I'm always hoping that the school will realize their weaknesses and change for the better!

I'm forever talking (I am a woman after all!) to my husband about the school - the good, the bad and the ugly, and one day I asked him, "Do you think there are other parents out there who feels the same as me about ISK?" With this, he created me a blog so that I can get my thoughts across to a wider audience, and perhaps get some feedback from other parents. I think creating me a blog was a way for my husband to plea to other people to listen to his wife so he can sleep...

Nevertheless, I'm going to use this blog to share some of my experiences, thoughts and reflections about ISK. I hope that I will be able to receive as many responses as possible so that firstly, I don't feel so alone in thinking that I am the only one who thinks this way. And, so that my husband can finally sleep in peace.

I encourage all ISK parents to participate by voting on my blogs and share your thoughts in the comments section. I'm confident that our collective voice will provide ISK with the necessary feedback so that they're able to improve and become the school of choice for Cracovians.