Improve the Hill House experience

Thanks a lot for taking the time to write and organise this petition. We fully support it. Hill House is great; let's have MORE of it :-)

Great initiative. We love the Hill House, and we'd like it to be even better :-)

I also have concerns about the Arabic curriculum. For a child who is a second language learner, it seems too focused on literacy skills (A,B,Cs and basic vocabulary) at the expense of basic conversation. My son can tell me the Arabic alphabet, but doesn't know how to hold a simple conversation. After a year learning Arabic at the school, I would think he should be able to say please and thank you, ask to buy a bottle of water and ask someone their name in Arabic, which unfortunately he cannot. I've raised this concern with the teachers and they were shocked--suggesting the thought of teaching basic conversation hadn't crossed their mind. It suggests to me the curriculum isn't practical. I wonder if some of the native Arabic-speaking parents have the same concerns with how English is being taught--too academic and not practical/functional. I have learned 2 foreign languages in my lifetime and feel that teaching methods focusing on functional language are more effective for long term language acquisition.

I'd suggest changing the first point to read as follows: We value the extra-curricular options provided at Hill House and our children enjoy these activities very much. However, we do not feel they should be offered at the expense of the normal instruction. Therefore, we request that they begin when the school day 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). This means our children and their teachers were losing 30 minutes - 1 hour of class time that could have been used to address core curriculum. Please can they start when school finishes?

In agreement 100%. We sometimes feel the school is more interested in making money than making sure their functioning is indeed convenient. It is truly a pity.

Agree with points 1,2,3,4, 5

I agree with all other than the medical insurance point. I am happy with the screening and making it optional would allow our insurance a 'get-out' of paying for it. Which would mean it would come out of our pocket. I look forward to seeing your response Hill House. Thanks for the hard work!

I agree with points 1,2,3,4,5. Regarding Arabic, I agree to what's been said and I also think the local kids and expatriate kids ought to be in separate groups for Arabic because they have different needs and are at different levels already.

Those are good points regarding the Arabic language curriculum, I agree. Also, regarding evaluations: I understand that they are young and we don't always see results immediately. But the parent-teacher meetings have felt a bit generic and it would be nice to have just a few more specific observations about the student. A more structured progress report (point 4) could perhaps help with this. I support all the suggestions in this petition, but mostly the point about after-school activities. When 1 o' clock rolls around, the children especially from KG 1 and 2 are really excited and don't want to leave the school, an extra hour or two would be a great option for some, especially those with busy schedules! Honestly, I am very happy with our children's experience at Hill House, mainly because they love it so much and I really feel a great quality of teaching, passionate teachers and staff…I hope you are able to consider some of these suggestions.