Somtawin School. 80,000baht year. scabies. no toilets filth.

[PeteC]

A few months back there were postings on here from a person with the handle "school", I think? He was doing a survey of the members on here about what they thought about opening an IS in HH. There were both positive and negative replies. Then, he disappeared. Don't know if same org you are talking about Troopie. Pete

[DawnHRD]

A few months back there were postings on here from a person with the handle "school", I think? He was doing a survey of the members on here about what they thought about opening an IS in HH. There were both positive and negative replies. Then, he disappeared. Don't know if same org you are talking about Troopie. Pete

Think there's at least two being considered, Pete. The one you mentioned & a smaller one up near where I live (Khao Pitak area). I know they're not the same ones as the fees & curriculum mentioned are vastly different. Not sure whether Troopie is talking about one of these, or another one, but as Troopie mentioned, it may be that none of these have gone past the "considering the idea" phase. Meanwhile, all our children are getting older...

[Big Boy]

troopie wrote:

There are some Thai business folk actively investigating the possibility & potential of opening a small international school here but it still hasn't even reached the formal research survey stage yet. Some of the folk involved are known to me & I have told them that I think there is a need & a market, one that is likely to grow.
More if/when I know it.

DawnHHDRC wrote:

Think there's at least two being considered, Pete. The one you mentioned & a smaller one up near where I live (Khao Pitak area). I know they're not the same ones as the fees & curriculum mentioned are vastly different.

Dawn,

I didn't realise that it had got as far as publishing curriculums/fees; and I certainly didn't realise there was a possibility of 2.

If either of you can provide me with any more details, I'd be very interested.

[DawnHRD]

It's all second hand knowledge BB. The first one mentioned the possible fees and stated it would be a UK curriculum, but not which specific one, on the forum. The second I heard about from friends, who said that they had heard the fees would be significantly lower and that there would be an English/International programme, but they couldn't say at this point which countrys' curriculum (US/UK) would be followed. If I hear any more, I'll let you know, but as I said, I don't think it's even gone any further than the "maybe we could do this" stage

[troopie]

Don't know if same org you are talking about Troopie. Pete

I don't know either. However, you're right in that this hasn't even got onto the drawing board yet so don't hold your breath, Mums & Dads. Nonetheless, as foreigners cannot own/run a school in this 'land of the free', we don't have much choice but to wait.
Luckily, my sprog is only 2 so I can wait a bit!

[long-in-thailand]

Hi everybody

Im not happy about the situation in Somthawin school.
I have a chilld who have been in this school more than 2 years and from the beginning mostly was ok and they have a very good teacher let call him Mr B, but after about a year he left the school because of the salary and the way they run the school.NOT FUNNY but we have not so many choice if we dont want to move to Bangkok.......Next good teacher to leave was the hard but populair teacher...let call him Dr A....and this is so sad that they not keep the strong and good ones.
We parents dont have any choice if we dont like to move...CRAZY..we live here because we work here but Hua Hin dont have good enough school to offer...and this is so sad and frstated..We love Hua Hin but we are not satisfieid
with some school.........
My son will left this school next year but why can we not have a good choice today....I hope somebode from this school will take this seriously and make some positive changes but...I dont believe in santa claus either.

Exman

Hi, I know Dr A well and he is now very happy at a school in Bangkok. He would love to move back to Hua Hin if a decent school opened or, just maybe, if Somtawin got its act together and operated as an educational establishment first and not the typical 'money-making' business that it is.

[Terry]

I've resisted posting to this thread for some time, but will now add my fourpennyworth as I have strong feelings on the issue.

Firstly - educating ones children is a matter of choice & needs. Sadly in HH there has been little choice for a long time wrt a basic English school.

Secondly - needs - Are your kids Thai citizens who will be staying here or are they transitory pupils who need to follow international standards due to their parents work / travel committments?

From my own perspective my kids were both born here and are Thai Citizens. My Thai wife Mrs.T and I decided long ago that they would be brought up as bi-lingual and hopefully understand both cultures.

Up until now ther has been little choice if you wanted any thing like a basic English education.

Somtawin has provided it but not without it's problems.

Both my boys have been at Somtawin for the last 3 years and in general their progress has been adequate - however - because they only have one hour a day of Thai lessons (The legal minimum) their reading / writing skills in Thai are to say the least - poor.

This is no good if they are to grow up here and progress within the Thai culture.

Somtawin itself has been beset with many problems.
Lack of space
Constant changing of teaching staff - one of my boys had three home room tachers in one academic year - hardly giving any stability.
When the 'Thai' side is closed, no communal facilities exist for the English Programme kids - even the police on the crossing at the front gate go missing!

Most of the teachers (Those that have stayed) are aware of these shortcomings and have tried their best, but naturally are reluctant to openly critisise their management.

Parents of the English Programme kids have been promised many positive changes from the school management. Sadly these either never materialise or are so far delayed they are a joke.

The new Somtawin School currently under construction on the other side of the byepass was due to open this May. It has been officially delayed now to August - I'm wondering whether that is 2007 or 2008!

If you vist the site there are very few builders there who are either awake or working - not very promising.

There is now a good alternative in Soi 94 - Yam sa-ard School.
They already have three campuses in BKK and a friend of mine there sends both his kids and reports nothing but praise. This new school is targetted to open May 28 and seems to me that it will achieve it - albeit with limited facilities at first.

The difference is that therare abot 200 workers there busting their guts to get it finished!!!!

The staff seem to be professional in their approach but it is distinctly more 'Thai' in its outlook - but then we are in Thailand so why shouldn't it be?

The curriculum will be taught as near to 50 /50 as possible with subjects like English, Maths, Science - being taught in English and the social sciences in Thai.

So -- with a lot of thought and reasoning, I have moved my lads to Yam sa-ard (Along with quite a few other Somtawin parents that I know).


Frankly - it cannot be worse than Somtawin and in my opinion will probably be better.

But then my needs for my kids may be different from others.

[Bamboo Grove]

Terry, do they have a web page? What are the costs there?

[buksida]

All the info is here:

http://www.expathuahin.com/schools-huahin.php

Have emailed them about term costs but .... no response

[Bamboo Grove]

Had the missus call them. 70.000 Baht per year per child.

[Terry]

BG

Seems you now have the info you need

Books & uniform will be approx THB 12 - 13k / year / child depending on grade etc.

All in all this school is almost the same cost as Somtawin - probably a deliberate marketing policy.

However my gut feel is that there will be better value for money and a more stable education.

Call me if you need more info

T