February 10, 2015

Dear Donna and Suhair,

We would like to wish you all a successful new term. Overall, we are very happy with the care you provide to our children and we sing the praises of Hill House. We are thankful to you and the dedicated staff for all your hard work. However, the parents listed below would like to collectively address some concerns or suggestions. We would like to bring to your attention a few points that we would like you to consider:

1. Extra-curricular activities

They should be extra-curricular, which means they should start when school finishes (1 pm Sunday to Wednesday and 12.30 pm on Thursday). This is not currently the case. As an example: in regards to Taekwando, last term, the class often started too early (even as early as 12 pm). Please can they start when school finishes?

2. School fees

We just received the notice for the new school fees and we are surprised at the new raised fees. Last year’s inflation rate in Jordan was 2.8 % which is much lower than your suggested increase (305 JOD) and we would like the fees to remain unchanged.

In regards to the Medical fees we would like to understand in more detail what the fees stand for and for the school to explore the possibility of making it optional? As many parents have medical insurance that covers any medical and dental issues that may arise.

3. Holidays schedule

Regarding the holiday schedule we believe that one entire month (starting mid-January) is way too long and inconveniently scheduled.

We would suggest either to keep a month holiday which includes Christmas and the New Year period (as many children leave for two weeks for Christmas holidays anyway), or split the month holiday into 2 parts – a Winter and an Easter holiday.

A lot of your children are Expatriate and the families choose to go away for Christmas, it is very frustrating to pay for a few weeks of school to return to a long leave break. It’s also difficult to those who have older siblings in ICS/ACS etc as they go back to school and the sibling is off.

Can we request that Santa visits a week before term time, as mentioned above, most leave Amman around the 18/19th so miss out.

4. Term evaluations

In regards to the evaluations we would like to receive a structured written report every semester so that we can compare our child’s progress from semester to semester and understand areas, which need improvement, and outstanding issues that have not been resolved. This does not have to be extremely long, just a progress report.

5. School timing Extension

Would it be possible to extend the time that school finishes to 4pm for an additional fee? Not necessarily a structured extension but simply outdoor play under the supervision of a few teachers. You have a great outdoor area that the children love and often parents have to spend up to an extra hour outside with the children because they do not want to leave. Why not use it to your advantage - make the parents/ children happy and make some extra money?

Once again this letter is not meant as criticism but simply highlights ways we feel you could improve the overall experience at your school. We hope you take this letter in the vain it is intended, to open a dialogue between the parents and administration on the points above.

Thank you for reading our concerns and suggestions and we would appreciate it if you would reply in writing addressing each point at your earliest convenience.

Many thanks