UNDOMESTICATED WIFE
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Friday, March 15, 2013
MY SCHOOL GIRL
Before I came here I have been reading a lot of blogs/websites regarding life here and one thing I noted is that finding a school can be very challenging for  expatriate parents like us.

Armed with this information, I decided to put "school hunting" on top of our priority list. I intend to start reviewing schools since January, however, I got sidetracked with the Euro tour and business ideas. It was just last week of February that I was able to finalize my school list.

There are a lot of schools to choose from american, canadian, british, filipino and other schools that caters to expatriate and local students. We wanted to enroll our little one to a british school, however, majority of the british schools here holds a very long waiting list, and most of them have to give priorities to british nationals.

I send out 2 applications (since most are not accepting new applications already), to Parkhouse English School and Newton British School. I already knew that Parkhouse is a long shot since one my friends here is waiting for 2 years already to get her daughter into that school. I'm settled on enrolling her to one of the Philippine schools here while we are in the waiting list of british schools. Newton Bristish School scheduled Hermione for an assessment/test after receiving our application, we had to pay Qr 200 fee, there are some schools which also collects application fee from Qr 100 to Qr 500 apart from the assessment/test fee.

Hubby was quite anxious that Hermione might not pass the test since she have not gone any formal schooling yet (oppose to other kids here that are already in school from age 2), I on the other hand is very confident that my little girl would pass it since she is very familiar with all the colors, letters, shapes (even up to octagon level hehe), numbers and she speaks english very fluently since its her first language.

Her Daddy requested to leave the office early during the testing day since I don't  have a license yet and he does not want to miss Hermione's test day. Hermione was able to answer all the questions correctly! However we were not that positive that she will be considered since there are a lot of applicants. So imagine my disbelief upon receiving a call the next morning telling me that my little girl has passed the test and they are giving her a slot. In my excitement I was not able to ask for what level she is being considered haha. I wasn't also expecting the result to be given a day after since we were advised to wait for at least a week.


We had to pay a whooping Qr 3,650 as registration fee the next working day so they can officially reserve the slot for us. That is just registration fee, that's almost Php 42K and a whole year's tuition fee back home in a private school.

If you happen to be wondering how much tuition fees here for pre-schooler, it starts with Qr 25K to Qr 55K on a full year term. Come to think of it, its more than half million in pesos for pre-school alone! That is for american and british schools, philippine and other schools are cheaper.

So if you're thinking of reserving a slot to several schools cause you are not sure  yet where you really want your kiddos to enroll, you have to pay registration fees to each one of the schools so they will hold the slot for you or they will give it to others who passed and interested. We're so thankful that hubby's company pays for our kid/s schooling or I will be dreading every time school opens.

Since getting into a british school is hard enough, we didn't think twice and reserved the slot for Hermione right away. Glad we did, since after a week Parkhouse English School replied to us that they will not be able to invite our child even for assessment since the waiting list is so full already.

By the way Hermione will start as Kindergarden 2 here come September, she skipped Nursery and Kindergarden 1 and we have chosen French lesson as her elective class.
I'm really one proud mommy!

posted by JV @ Friday, March 15, 2013  
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Name: JV
Home: Manila, Philippines
About Me: 30-something. A wife to a wonderful husband. A mother to my little chinita. Career Woman by Choice. A Coffee Drinker.Shopaholic.Book Lover.Blogger.Movie Addict.
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