How to choose a school?

[MAYPK]

Hello,

I have made some threads on this forum about searching for a house and which International School to choose but during my search for information I have encountered other questions that needs to be cleared before I can proceed with my quest.

Can anyone tell me what I must take in consideration concering the the english and indonesian language of my kids. Concerning the indonesian language I can be very short. They do not speak the bahasa Indonesia. Maybe a very little bit but I think that that may be an overstatement.
The youngest one is 10 years old and did not have any english lesson on school, so his English is very poor. The oldest is 12 years old and already followed one year of English class.

What options do I have in Jakarta taking their English profiency in consideration?

To tell you where my concern is based on, this is a dump of the procedures of Sinarmas (and I have no experience with this subject):
English Language Expectations
Students should be able to demonstrate achievement to the following levels of proficiency.

Grade	Minimum Proficiency
Pre - K	No English proficiency required
Grade 1	Gaining English fluency (Moderate) *Limited English will be considered if there is a commitment to extra private English studies
Grade 2 - 3	Gaining English fluency (Moderate)
Grade 4 - 5	Almost fluent as a Second Language Speaker of English (High)
Grade 6 - 12

[lone_ranger]

Would this be an option for your son (Lower School), just to "ease" him into a full English curriculum? They have a Dutch stream as well, but it might be worth inquiring to confirm.

http://www.nis.or.id/

With a year of English I think your daughter (Middle School) will cope just fine. Children at such a young age pick up new languages fairly quickly, and I am quite sure he would be able to cope in Sinarmas (or JIS, BIS, etc) after a year of some exposure to the English language.

[doctorinthetardis]

MAYPK, yes there are certain expectations, I think this is standard in every international school that teaches through the medium of the English language; however, don't think your child would be excluded just because they don't have that standard now. Testing is done when applying for admission and some non speakers have been accepted on the grounds of their school reports from previous schools showing they have an ability to adapt and learn quickly; for example children who havemoved countries and schools before and shown that ability although again these are not pre requisites. I think you stand a better chance now applying at the beginning of the year rather than half way through especially with the grades your children would be moving into. As you say your children are ten and twelve, therefore presumably they would be entering grades 4 and 6. Grade 6, being the starting year for middleschool.My best advice to you would be to contact SWA, talk to the heads of elementary and middle school and the admissions office and at least that way you will have far more information to help you make the right choice for your child. I know SWA have an extensive English as a secondary language support team who will support non native speakers in the classroom. Good luck !

[Mina_H]

I can give you information about SIS(Singapore International School). In primary1, if the student has problem in english, school provides English Foundation class for him/her.After the student becomes strong in english, he/she starts functional Bahasa/main stream Bahasa class.Functional Bahasa is designed for expat students and it is what they need for daily life. Mainstream bahasa is for indonesian students and is more difficult than functional bahasa. Teacher also helps the student in english during remedial class which is hold after school normal classes. There will be no problem in english if you send them to SIS.

[Ashtonb1]

HI
I am the Elementary Principal at Sinarmas World Academy and the information that you have listed is not the current practice of our school with regard admissions, student placement or the learning of English and or other languages. I have copied in below a section from our English as an Additional Language (EAL) Handbook for parents - I hope this is helpful to you. Sinarmas World Academy is an IB World School offering all 3 IB Programmes with expatriate homeroom teachers in every class and in specialist positions in Music, PE, Math, Sciences, Art. Let me know if you would like to come check us out some time - I would be happy to speak with you and show you around - Cheers
Bruce Ashton [email protected]
Elementary School Principal

SWA - EAL Mainstream Program Overview
The SWA programme delivers explicit teaching that informs and supports learning across all areas of the school curriculum, promotes greater understanding of the language-related needs of our ELLs and ways of meeting those needs, and offers increased awareness of materials and teaching approaches for all teachers which take into account the diverse cultural backgrounds and experiences of all our students.

In the Elementary School, the EAL Mainstream programme aims to provide every ELL with the three following outcomes:

1. Communicative Competence—Use language appropriately for a variety of communicative purposes in different contexts.
2. Linguistic Competence—Demonstrate control over the age-appropriate linguistic features and structures at the word, sentence and text levels.
3. Strategic Competence—Use a variety of age appropriate learning strategies to support and enhance communication and language development

EAL Mainstream teachers work alongside classroom teachers to support the ELLs in the most language rich areas of the curriculum such as, but not exclusively, the PYP Units of Inquiry (UOIs) and Language Arts. Delivery is student focused, flexible and multi faceted, depending on the needs of the students at their various stages of language development.

The ELLs’ are immersed within the general curriculum and receive instructional services through support in a collaborative classroom where the mainstream teachers EAL teachers share the responsibility of ensuring all ELLs’ reach full educational parity with their native English-speaking peers in a context-rich environment that promotes high expectations for academic achievement.

The mainstream classes provide opportunities for students to learn and use relevant language in authentic contexts. The EAL teachers work alongside the mainstream teachers to make sure that non-native speaking students can understand the English of the classroom and the content of the curriculum, as well as participate in the classroom activities. This enables EAL students greater opportunities to successfully meet the outcomes of the IB PYP.

Within the classroom EAL specialists use a wide range of teaching methods that encourage ELLs to interact actively with their EAL and more linguistically able peers. This makes their learning both meaningful and authentic across the whole range of language skills – speaking, listening reading and writing. Instruction and assessment is based on a variety of specific language functions, text types, content specific and content compatible vocabulary, language features, language learning strategies and cultural understandings integrated and assessed in the IB PYP.

Reading for information and for relaxing plays a very important role in our curriculum and our students are all encouraged to read widely across a range of genres and topics because this will enhance a student’s acquisition of vocabulary and understanding of differing test types and grammar.

Because we work within the mainstream every student’s progress in their academic content and language development is assessed through formative (continual) assessment such as the UOI assessments, Developmental Reading Assessment (DRA), Writing, Reading Speaking and Listening continuums and through summative testing using the Maculaitis MAC II English test (See Assessment section below for more details).

EAL Admission Identification and Placement

The procedure begins with the completion of the Home Language Survey (HLS) within the admissions documentation.

Upon admission to SWA, the school Admissions Department completes a Home Language section within the admissions application (HLS) whenever the parent(s) indicates that an applying student’s mother tongue is a language other than English. The Principal relevant to the admitting student’s grade admission later reviews the educational records of all potential ELL’s identified.

If the Principal feels that the student's academic progress may be significantly influenced by their lack of English they determine the child’s requirement to take a MACII screening test administered by an EAL faculty member. A report with recommendations is then written and delivered to the appropriate Head of School. Using data from this screening testing and taking into account other pertinent information, the Principal determines whether admission to the school is granted. If admission is successful, the grade the student will be placed according to the level of ability determined during the screening. The EAL and homeroom teachers of the class and grade appointed by the head of School are informed accordingly and, in conjunction with the relevant class teacher, provide an appropriate support programme.

If the testee scores at the Beginner or Low Intermediate levels for listening and speaking then the student may be given the British Picture Vocabulary Scale (BPVS) test to confirm the MAC II test results and provide a diagnostic score for receptive language. This score helps us to validate the level of support needed for the students to progress in their English language learning. Additional testing beyond this may be administered at the discretion of the EAL and Learning Support if it is required.