CNIS (Chinese International School)- Current Parents please!

[Wonderful]

Dear parents at CNIS,

I have 2 kids and are seriously thinking of choosing CNIS. It seems to be perfect for our needs, IB inquiry based with mandarin bilingual teaching. I believe mandarin is really important as China is doing very well and will be for the next few decades.

 I see some very bad comments about this school but they seem to be awhile back and not updated. I am always skeptical to Internet bad-mouthing because usually angry and unhappy people will speak louder and make sure they are heard MORE so than happy parents.

If there are so many problems and that it's so bad as some has described, why are there so many people still enrolled in it or keep enrolling in it? $20k is a lot of money to spend per year per kid and I am sure people who can afford this are not average people and who must be smart and have thought out well for their children.

I hope some parents who have kids studying there can give us some objective comments about the school so us potential parents can have more of an un-biased views.

Thanks a lot!

[CNIS parent]

My son goes there and it is fine. Its small, its personal, the grounds are spacious and they get great exposure to Chinese language if that's one of your primary goals and you are committed to sending them to an international school.

My child is in P1 though, and that's the year that they do Maths in Chinese as well as the language classes plus the art teacher is Chinese and therefore conducts some of the lesson in Chinese. I can't comment on other grades, since everyone's experience of a school is so influenced by their child's class teacher and their child's experience there. My child's teachers are fantastic.

Yes, of course there are things I would change, but I think that, regardless of how much you pay (or don't pay, as the case may be), its human nature to find something you would prefer to change. But as long as they are not impacting on my child in areas that I value personally (academics, friendships, activities after school), then I can live with them - or work to find a work-around.