As I said in my orginal posting, I believe that the opinions of parents about the school their children attend are very important. That is why I drew the attention of Mrs Cross to your posting.
I understand that parents are naturally concerned when their English-speaking child is in a class in which many of the children do not speak English or else they have very limited English. This is why I felt that I should try to explain that Newton International Schol does indeed have teachers' assistants and English As An Additonal Language (EAL) specialist teachers.
My point about school fees is a valid one, but it is not one that most parents want to consider. It simply is not fair to compare private education in the U.K. with private schools in Doha, given that many independent primary schools in the U.K. charge around £6000 per term for a day place (that's £18,000 or 126,000QAR a year). For many international schools, recruiting and retaining teaching staff is more expensive and more difficult than it is in the U.K., especally when the school is also expected to provide accommodation for staff. Like you, I am an enthusiast when it comes to being in the Middle East, but perhaps there are many teachers in the U.K. who are not so keen to be teaching in this part of the world.
Similarly, I was not being awkward, stupid or rude in pointing out that many children at international schools start with limited English. This was certainly my experience when I was teaching in Egypt and in Romania. Effective use of differentiated learning (which is teacherspeak for putting the children into groups and giving them work that is appropriate to their ablities) is not always easy and some inexperienced teachers may find this difficult to operate, but this should mean that your child is being given tasks that are going to develop his or her skills and knowledge.
In your original posting, you express strong dissatisfaction with the facilities at Newton International School. As a professional teacher, I cannot possibly comment on this, except to say that one of the first homeworks I gave to my class was to write a letter to Madam Afaf, the owner of the school, asking for a new swimming pool, some tennis courts and a sports field.
Dear Handbag Shopper,
As I said in my orginal posting, I believe that the opinions of parents about the school their children attend are very important. That is why I drew the attention of Mrs Cross to your posting.
I understand that parents are naturally concerned when their English-speaking child is in a class in which many of the children do not speak English or else they have very limited English. This is why I felt that I should try to explain that Newton International Schol does indeed have teachers' assistants and English As An Additonal Language (EAL) specialist teachers.
My point about school fees is a valid one, but it is not one that most parents want to consider. It simply is not fair to compare private education in the U.K. with private schools in Doha, given that many independent primary schools in the U.K. charge around £6000 per term for a day place (that's £18,000 or 126,000QAR a year). For many international schools, recruiting and retaining teaching staff is more expensive and more difficult than it is in the U.K., especally when the school is also expected to provide accommodation for staff. Like you, I am an enthusiast when it comes to being in the Middle East, but perhaps there are many teachers in the U.K. who are not so keen to be teaching in this part of the world.
Similarly, I was not being awkward, stupid or rude in pointing out that many children at international schools start with limited English. This was certainly my experience when I was teaching in Egypt and in Romania. Effective use of differentiated learning (which is teacherspeak for putting the children into groups and giving them work that is appropriate to their ablities) is not always easy and some inexperienced teachers may find this difficult to operate, but this should mean that your child is being given tasks that are going to develop his or her skills and knowledge.
In your original posting, you express strong dissatisfaction with the facilities at Newton International School. As a professional teacher, I cannot possibly comment on this, except to say that one of the first homeworks I gave to my class was to write a letter to Madam Afaf, the owner of the school, asking for a new swimming pool, some tennis courts and a sports field.